Boren 2021-2022

[AONomad]

Those are some really cool stats, thanks for sharing! I wonder what the acceptance rate by language is... I applied for Mandarin, wonder if that's more competitive and maybe looking at the overall acceptance stat isn't as applicable

[Tomsand]

18 hours ago, AONomad said:

Those are some really cool stats, thanks for sharing! I wonder what the acceptance rate by language is... I applied for Mandarin, wonder if that's more competitive and maybe looking at the overall acceptance stat isn't as applicable

Of course! You bring up a good question. I tried searching for that stat, but the applications by language is not available, just overall. In 2018, Scholars had a 25% Acceptance Rate and Fellows had a 34% Acceptance Rate.

[Definol]

34 minutes ago, Tomsand said:

Of course! You bring up a good question. I tried searching for that stat, but the applications by language is not available, just overall. In 2018, Scholars had a 25% Acceptance Rate and Fellows had a 34% Acceptance Rate.

"In 2020, the national nominating panel selected 119 Boren Fellows from 268 graduate applications and 217 Boren Scholars from 784 undergraduate applications."

So 27.6% for scholarships and 44.4% for fellowships in 2020. Hopefully the upwards trend continues!

 

[Tomsand]

1 hour ago, Msf1997 said:

"In 2020, the national nominating panel selected 119 Boren Fellows from 268 graduate applications and 217 Boren Scholars from 784 undergraduate applications."

So 27.6% for scholarships and 44.4% for fellowships in 2020. Hopefully the upwards trend continues!

 

I believe this trend upwards was due to a lesser amount of applications (1000+ in 2018 compared to only 784 in 2020). I think we will see this continue, due to COVID. While Ivy-league colleges in the US have seem record amounts of applications, that's mainly an isolated incident due to them dropping required test scores... undergraduate enrollment as a whole in 2020 actually fell by a couple percent. I can't imagine many students would be willing to travel right now, let alone live in a foreign country in these uncertain times.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Tomsand

[Definol]

14 hours ago, Tomsand said:

I believe this trend upwards was due to a lesser amount of applications (1000+ in 2018 compared to only 784 in 2020). I think we will see this continue, due to COVID. While Ivy-league colleges in the US have seem record amounts of applications, that's mainly an isolated incident due to them dropping required test scores... undergraduate enrollment as a whole in 2020 actually fell by a couple percent. I can't imagine many students would be willing to travel right now, let alone live in a foreign country in these uncertain times.

Oh that's true. I was just focusing on percentages, but overall numbers is pretty important too. I wonder what caused so manyless people to apply 2019/2020?

[Tomsand]

Just now, Msf1997 said:

Oh that's true. I was just focusing on percentages, but overall numbers is pretty important too. I wonder what caused so manyless people to apply 2019/2020?

I am not really sure. On the global stage, 2019 did have a lot of protests, political turmoil, and Brexit happened. We also did know about COVID in December, but it was "just" in China. Trump was also impeached around that time wasn't he? So there is a chance that dismayed many on applying by Jan/Feb.

[AONomad]

I think a lot of people who would have been applying to Boren (i.e. cared about foreign policy) wouldn't have wanted to work for Trump. So there were probably fewer people thinking about getting onto career tracks Boren has relation to.

Even though Trump had a decent level of support within government, the foreign policy field almost universally condemned him. Especially people abroad who had to deal with the consequences of his heavy-handed rhetoric.

Edited February 5, 2021 by AONomad

[Tomsand]

10 minutes ago, AONomad said:

I think a lot of people who would have been applying to Boren (i.e. cared about foreign policy) wouldn't have wanted to work for Trump. So there were probably fewer people thinking about getting onto career tracks Boren has relation to.

Even though Trump had a decent level of support within government, the foreign policy field almost universally condemned him. Especially people abroad who had to deal with the consequences of his heavy-handed rhetoric.

I'd think this only marginally effected applicants. In 2015, NSEP reported that there were 1,135 applications, and 271 awarded (Scholar/Fellow). That was while Obama was under office, and I am sure many thought Clinton was going to be in office. Compared to 2018, its very similar numbers. Plus, certainly most Boren applicants would have been wise enough to realize that Trump was going to be a one termer (and even if two - still not much time for someone who is looking for a career in public service).

Edited February 5, 2021 by Tomsand

[Furby]

I got the scholarship last year for Uzbek in Tajikistan but seeing that I must use the award before 2022 I decided to apply again this year! I hope all goes smoothly and that I am able to use it for the upcoming academic year. It was a real bummer to delay it a year but I hope it will pay off in the end. 

[Definol]

On 2/16/2021 at 8:12 AM, Furby said:

I got the scholarship last year for Uzbek in Tajikistan but seeing that I must use the award before 2022 I decided to apply again this year! I hope all goes smoothly and that I am able to use it for the upcoming academic year. It was a real bummer to delay it a year but I hope it will pay off in the end. 

Would they seriously just skip awardees if they won it last year and travel bans were still up? That seems a bit cruel?

[Umenohana]

17 hours ago, Msf1997 said:

Would they seriously just skip awardees if they won it last year and travel bans were still up? That seems a bit cruel?

We were postponed until summer or fall 2021 for now, but told that we'd have to be back by the end of 2021 no matter what. So as of right now, none of our awards have actually been rescinded, though many of us are dropping out. Some are reapplying in hopes of being able to do something long term. Doesn't seem like we're getting any sort of priority for this cycle, but there was a question on the application that did identify us as 2020 recipients, so maybe that's something.

[seagull_stan]

Hi everyone! I'm a current Boren Scholar applicant and just wanted to check in and see if anyone else is also a current applicant. And how is everyone feeling about it, especially since results are about a month away... For context, I applied to Japan, a CS major, and am currently a college freshman LOL.

I also wanted to mention that there is a Boren Awards subreddit with 40 members in case anyone was interested in joining that group as well! https://www.reddit.com/r/borenawards/

[AONomad]

1 hour ago, seagull_stan said:

Hi everyone! I'm a current Boren Scholar applicant and just wanted to check in and see if anyone else is also a current applicant. And how is everyone feeling about it, especially since results are about a month away... For context, I applied to Japan, a CS major, and am currently a college freshman LOL.

I also wanted to mention that there is a Boren Awards subreddit with 40 members in case anyone was interested in joining that group as well! https://www.reddit.com/r/borenawards/

Joined the sub, thanks for the link!

I'm a little worried that my country of choice (China) won't pan out even if I receive the award because of the travel advisory currently in place. I heard some students were trying to do China programs virtually from Taiwan to get them to count for Boren but not sure if that was successful or not. In a perfect world, it'd be nice to stay at home in the US and save money while receiving Boren funds to do my China-based program online. Probably not allowed, though.

[envirostudent21]

I applied for this cycle (for S. Korea), and FINGERS CROSSED I get this, because otherwise I will have to start my grad program 2 days after graduating from my undergrad program, and I will be taking on $100k+ in debt because I missed the deadlines for major scholarship opportunities in the fall. The 1-year offset from the Boren is really the only way I can see myself getting out of this mess... but we hear back in April, right?

Edited March 10, 2021 by envirostudent21

[Umenohana]

8 hours ago, envirostudent21 said:

I applied for this cycle (for S. Korea), and FINGERS CROSSED I get this, because otherwise I will have to start my grad program 2 days after graduating from my undergrad program, and I will be taking on $100k+ in debt because I missed the deadlines for major scholarship opportunities in the fall. The 1-year offset from the Boren is really the only way I can see myself getting out of this mess... but we hear back in April, right?

Would you be able to reapply for scholarships or the whole program? Or would you still be stuck paying the full price even after getting back from Boren?

But yeah, we should hear back April 15th or maybe 16th. I'd be very surprised if it falls on any other day.

[seagull_stan]

On 3/9/2021 at 2:45 PM, AONomad said:

Joined the sub, thanks for the link!

I'm a little worried that my country of choice (China) won't pan out even if I receive the award because of the travel advisory currently in place. I heard some students were trying to do China programs virtually from Taiwan to get them to count for Boren but not sure if that was successful or not. In a perfect world, it'd be nice to stay at home in the US and save money while receiving Boren funds to do my China-based program online. Probably not allowed, though.

Ohhh I see. I can understand how that can be very stressful to think about, especially since nothing is set in stone. Really hoping that the COVID situation will only get better from here and that in the summer, things will be significantly better. Is your program a bit flexible? Could be delayed to begin a bit later?

[seagull_stan]

19 hours ago, envirostudent21 said:

I applied for this cycle (for S. Korea), and FINGERS CROSSED I get this, because otherwise I will have to start my grad program 2 days after graduating from my undergrad program, and I will be taking on $100k+ in debt because I missed the deadlines for major scholarship opportunities in the fall. The 1-year offset from the Boren is really the only way I can see myself getting out of this mess... but we hear back in April, right?

Wow, really sorry to hear about that. I'm rooting for you and hope you only hear good news from Boren in April!

[AONomad]

1 hour ago, seagull_stan said:

Ohhh I see. I can understand how that can be very stressful to think about, especially since nothing is set in stone. Really hoping that the COVID situation will only get better from here and that in the summer, things will be significantly better. Is your program a bit flexible? Could be delayed to begin a bit later?

I already deferred a year, I was supposed to start Fall 2020, but yeah otherwise that would probably be the way forward. We'll see! No use stressing about future things yet haha

[envirostudent21]

On 3/10/2021 at 10:30 AM, Umenohana said:

Would you be able to reapply for scholarships or the whole program? Or would you still be stuck paying the full price even after getting back from Boren?

But yeah, we should hear back April 15th or maybe 16th. I'd be very surprised if it falls on any other day.

I would be able to apply for scholarships, but I'd be pretty much roped into the program offer as it stands with $0 financial aid. I would essentially just have more time to hit those external fall scholarship deadlines that I missed this year. Thanks for the reply, btw ? I will just need to find a way to hypnotize myself into forgetting what date it is so that April comes quicker! Hehe

[slcjar1106]

Anyone know if there's a general orientation for Boren winners and if so, where and when it usually is?

[Umenohana]

28 minutes ago, slcjar1106 said:

Anyone know if there's a general orientation for Boren winners and if so, where and when it usually is?

Yes, there's usually one in DC, which lasts a couple days. It's not totally mandatory, if your program dates conflict or something. I think it's generally in early June. Last year they postponed it to end of August. But later postponed it indefinitely, since Covid didn't get any better by that time.

I really doubt there'd be one in person in June this year. Boren hasn't even decided on sending people abroad at all, it seems. The current cohort was told we'll hear country-by-country decisions by April 16th. As for the orientation, I would guess it will be virtual and probably still postponed until later in the summer, if not later.

[Xinan]

Notifications should be coming out next week, I'm thinking the 15th?

How are we all feeling! I can hardly wait to hear back  .

[lexiree123]

Hi everyone! Nice meeting you all! I'm applying for the scholarship to study Mandarin in China. I initially started looking at these Boren forums to get an idea about when this year's notifications would be released. Glad to see that I'm not the only anxious person! ? 

[slcjar1106]

5 hours ago, Xinan said:

Notifications should be coming out next week, I'm thinking the 15th?

How are we all feeling! I can hardly wait to hear back  .

Also very anxious to hear back! Fingers crossed for the 15th or 16th. I was hoping to go to Oman in June, but even if I'm selected I don't know if that will happen because of COVID. I'm wondering what Boren will tell us about that, especially for people with program dates that are earlier like mine. 

[Umenohana]

1 hour ago, slcjar1106 said:

Also very anxious to hear back! Fingers crossed for the 15th or 16th. I was hoping to go to Oman in June, but even if I'm selected I don't know if that will happen because of COVID. I'm wondering what Boren will tell us about that, especially for people with program dates that are earlier like mine. 

I'm really doubting that June would be ok for travel. I'm even worried about August/September. Boren will almost definitely release country-by-country travel decisions. For now, all we can do is keep an eye on Department of State's travel advisories.