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Boren 2012-2013


DanielJones

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Hi, I am a Fellowship applicant to Jordan and Tunisia, for roughly 10 months. My budget was very detailed, line-item description and citations of how I determined the cost estimate.

I suspect just the Fellowship notifications have gone out, and so I'm crossing my fingers that the Scholarship emails will come out soon.

ebuckner, are you a scholarship or fellowship applicant then?

I am personally a fellowship applicant. Any other fellowship applicants receive an email?

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marci,

It is not absolutely certain that the receiving of the budget update request indicates that you will receive a Boren scholarship; nor does not receiving one surely indicate you won't. It's not definitive because Boren/IIE hasn't stated it outright. However, it was a theory we had last year and according to the results (see the link in riverguide's post) the facts indicate the following:

- All but 1 person who was awarded a Boren Award received the budget update request (and that person received alternate status).

- Besides that 1 person, all of those who DIDN'T receive the budget update request did not receive a Boren Award or alternate status.

Once again, we can't say what the email indicates definitively, but there's not a doubt in my mind given the information we gathered. I know it's stressful waiting, but since we're from the same school (go Devils!), let me leave you with this: ASU has lead the nation in Boren Awards for like the past 5 years. If you've put forth the effort, Dr. Burke will get you that Boren Award.

As an ASU student who applied for the Boren Scholarship, I can wholeheartedly agree with what element said in the post. From what others have told me about Dr. Burke, her agreement to work with students almost always means that the applicant has a great chance at success. As for the budget requests, I am pretty anxious like everyone else here and if I don't receive the scholarship this year, I will definitely apply next year and just delay my graduation. Hey elmentwil and marci, what languages are you planning on studying and where are your proposed countries?

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Hope the scholarship emails go out soon - good luck everyone!

1) Fellowship

2) China, Mandarin

3) My budget was fairly detailed as well since I will be there for 12 months and I needed to cover some research expenses. I had a good idea of living expenses while on site since I've spent some time at the host location previously. I also mentioned in my initial budget that pending other funding, my Boren budget could be reduced.

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I got an email too!

1) Fellowship

2) Philippines, Tagalog

3) Very detailed budget - line by line description of 5 categories: foreign travel (not just flight, but visa etc), materials and supplies, consultant services (e.g. transcription of interviews and tutoring), other (compensation of meals for interviewees), and books

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I applied for India and Hindi. My budget was pretty detailed. I put a lot of work into it, and even if I don't get the Boren, it was a good exercise to get an idea of what my costs will be.

It's encouraging to hear from other ASU students. Unfortunately I didn't work with Dr. Burke because you don't have to go through the university as a fellowship applicant, and also I was pretty late in getting my application together, but I did work with my other professors at ASU.

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As an ASU student who applied for the Boren Scholarship, I can wholeheartedly agree with what element said in the post. From what others have told me about Dr. Burke, her agreement to work with students almost always means that the applicant has a great chance at success. As for the budget requests, I am pretty anxious like everyone else here and if I don't receive the scholarship this year, I will definitely apply next year and just delay my graduation. Hey elmentwil and marci, what languages are you planning on studying and where are your proposed countries?

I received a Boren Scholarship for this year - I'm currently in Jordan (originally supposed to be in Egypt) studying Arabic.

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Fellowship applicants: Can I ask what time of the day you all got your budget emails? I'm just wondering if they're sending them in waves or if I got passed over....or if any lurkers applied for a fellowship in Tajikistan, let me know!

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Fellowship applicants: Can I ask what time of the day you all got your budget emails? I'm just wondering if they're sending them in waves or if I got passed over....or if any lurkers applied for a fellowship in Tajikistan, let me know!

I got my at 12:17pm.

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So far Fellowship budget emails are in from China, Philippines, India and Tunisia. The nominating panels meet on the basis of global regions, so it may so far be limited to S & SE Asia, MENA, etc.

EBuckner, mlg, and snowblossom2 (per our PM) also all got their emails at 9:17 PST, and Marci is an Arizona State student. So, only applicants from Arizona and further west have confirmed receiving a budget email so far. It is very possible that fellowship budget emails are rolling out in bulk by U.S. region, state, etc. Given the number of people viewing this thread, it seems unlikely that the east coast has received budget emails. If you are in ET or CT and received a budget email, please pipe up!

Can you tell I don't have much to do tonight...

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So far Fellowship budget emails are in from China, Philippines, India and Tunisia. The nominating panels meet on the basis of global regions, so it may so far be limited to S & SE Asia, MENA, etc.

EBuckner, mlg, and snowblossom2 (per our PM) also all got their emails at 9:17 PST, and Marci is an Arizona State student. So, only applicants from Arizona and further west have confirmed receiving a budget email so far. It is very possible that fellowship budget emails are rolling out in bulk by U.S. region, state, etc. Given the number of people viewing this thread, it seems unlikely that the east coast has received budget emails. If you are in ET or CT and received a budget email, please pipe up!

Can you tell I don't have much to do tonight...

One more addition, two friends of mine on the east coast got a budget letter today. One applied for a Fellowship with the African Language Initiative in Mali, the other was a Fellowship in Brazil. Not sure what time, but this might blow holes in my theory. Time will tell, I guess.

Edited by blingem
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So far Fellowship budget emails are in from China, Philippines, India and Tunisia. The nominating panels meet on the basis of global regions, so it may so far be limited to S & SE Asia, MENA, etc.

EBuckner, mlg, and snowblossom2 (per our PM) also all got their emails at 9:17 PST, and Marci is an Arizona State student. So, only applicants from Arizona and further west have confirmed receiving a budget email so far. It is very possible that fellowship budget emails are rolling out in bulk by U.S. region, state, etc. Given the number of people viewing this thread, it seems unlikely that the east coast has received budget emails. If you are in ET or CT and received a budget email, please pipe up!

Can you tell I don't have much to do tonight...

Sorry, I am on the East coast. 9:17am PST, 12:17pmEST

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From the anecdotal stories we heard last year, there are multiple regional panels that pick the first tier of candidates. There are several panels across the country with a certain number of slots allotted to each. Those candidates are then forwarded to a national panel which gives the ultimate thumbs up or thumbs down. Many of the candidates come from schools that have a laissez-faire approach to supporting and screening their nominees/applicants. Despite that, I have met many Boren scholars and chatted with others who did it on their own without the strong support that Will refers to at his school; so keep the faith, don't lose hope and remember that you are all committed players in an honorable quest. I have the utmost respect for everyone of you who threw your hat in this tough competition and if you don't get it this year, don't give up and try again. There is also the CLS and many of you can apply to and ask for financial aid to attend the Middlebury Language Schools at Mills or in Vermont. We are all a work in progress and there will be many obstacles confronting you in your quest to improve your language skills and (IMHO) perseverance is the most important skill to have!

Edited by riverguide
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I got the budget email at the same time (9:17 AM PST). I am a fellowship applicant and applied to study Khmer/Cambodian in Cambodia. My budget was pretty detailed...I have been once before for a few weeks and have an NGO partner, both of which helped in the budgeting process.

Good luck everyone!

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When posting whether or not you got the budget email request, can everyone please post the country to which they intend to travel so we can keep a record of whether or not it is regional, and if so which regions might be receiving emails at certain points? Thank you!!!

Edited by wannabeanexpat
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One more addition, two friends of mine on the east coast got a budget letter today. One applied for a Fellowship with the African Language Initiative in Mali, the other was a Fellowship in Brazil. Not sure what time, but this might blow holes in my theory. Time will tell, I guess.

So I've done some math:

We now know that (at least) the following Fellowship applicants have received budget updates:

Brazil - 2

China

Mali

Philippines

Cambodia

India

Tunisia

That's 8 out of 170 (the approx. number of fellows and alternates from last year.) If you assume that a) everyone who gets the budget email is a fellow or an alternate, and B) this sample of 8 can serve as a "random" sample, then statistically, it is extremely likely that all fellows/alternates have received the budget email.

There is reason to hold out hope, I suppose:

We've only heard from a handful of the "global regions", around which the regional nominating panels are organized. Looking at the NSEP annual report found at http://www.nsep.gov/about/support/2010%20NSEP%20Annual%20Report.pdf we can see that we've heard from applicants for:

East Asia/Pacific

Latin America/Caribbean

Near East (Tunisia)

South Asia

African Language Initiative (Mali)

We have not heard from:

Africa (excluding Tunisia & Mali)

East Europe/Eurasia

Eurasia awarded 36 fellowships in 2010 and about 20 in 2011. So here's hoping myself and all the Eurasia/Africa people hear something soon, because between 30 and 50 people from that region should have gotten budget emails. If you're a fellowship applicant for the East Europe/Eurasia region and you got a budget email, please make yourself known and I'll stop posting :)

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I've been a long-time lurker of this thread, but I also just received an email requesting I update my information for the Boren Scholarship. My country for study is South Korea, and I'm in the midwest.

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For consideration on what's just been said, I'm a Scholarship applicant for Tajikistan and haven't received a budget email (California).

Edited by denadryne
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