Rangel & Pickering Fellowship

[mrs12]

@awayfromhere I also haven't taken economics properly! We'll see how that pans out I guess!

[Yanders]

There are a lot of fellows that hadn't taken econ when they were accepted, so you're fine lol

[mrs12]

Is anyone else having trouble with the Washington Center website for the Pickering? Whenever I fill out sections that require written input it never gets saved between individual visits. I think when I submit later this week I'll just put everything in right then and there, because it keeps losing details on me.

[mrs12]

@kbui@awayfromhere

Did you both send in your applications on time? I just got an official email saying everything was received from the Pickering.

[kbui]

@mrs12 I did! I'm so excited and nervous at the same time. Now everything is just beyond our control and we will just have to wait.

In the meantime, I am intensely concentrating on advancing myself at work and will go to a conference in Chicago this week. And I also have an interview for another program in February and I'm studying for the FSOT, so lots of things that will keep me busy until we hear back in February/March. I hope we get interviews!

[kbui]

What types of things are you doing to prepare for the interview, by the way?

[mrs12]

@kbui

To be honest, nothing! I'm not holding out hope that I have any real chance at the Pickering, and my semester is so stuffed that I'm just focusing on getting good grades and preparing for my final year at school. When I get the chance I try to read the Foreign Policy magazines because I think the writing exam would be the hardest for me, if the subject was something I didn't know anything about. If I hear back in March that I've been invited to the interviews, then I'll freak out and try to study harder. (That might be the downside of applying while still as an undergraduate.)

How about you? 

Did you end up applying to both the Rangel and the Pickering? Don't they have different deadlines for when they announce things?

[mrs12]

Oh, by not holding out hope, mostly I realized that if I thought I had a chance I would just stress and focus on nothing else these next two months. So it's easier for me to just set it aside, tell myself there's no way, and get on with my life and school. This way I can actually get things done, and if I do get to the interview it will be an amazing surprise, and if I don't I won't have built myself up to expect it.

[kbui]

@mrs12, I can totally understand. It's difficult to study for something that may not happen. However, I don't think you should sell yourself short. I don't fully know about your background and credentials, but I'm sure that you have a good shot if you finished your application and it's of quality. For me, I signed up for the FSOT because I wanted to force myself to study more on U.S. History, Government, and other topics like World History and Geography. We'll have to see how things go.

I hope that we get good news these upcoming months. You're correct in saying that they have different timelines. Pickering had an earlier deadline but later interview notification date. Rangel had a later deadline but an earlier notification date. Rangel would notify both interviews and results before Pickering even sends out interview notifications. I am really hoping to get a Rangel because I've heard such amazing things from current fellows and alumni. Rangel is really quick and the summer internship starts this year. In contrast, the Pickering starts everything this fall, so I will have the summer to continue working with my non-profit, continue work in my community before I have to leave from home (almost permanently), and to just enjoy it with my childhood friends.

I would be so blessed to receive either one, though.

[mrs12]

I can't help thinking about how much I want this. I'm still in contact with the lovely people I did my state internship with and they are so supportive of my desire to join them.

These next few months are going to go by so slowly! 

You're right in that I think I had a solid application. I managed to get a letter of recommendation from the section head at the embassy where I interned, and apparently everyone in the office collaborated on the letter so I think it will speak to my experiences there. But I truly believe everyone applying to this has amazing applications, it sort of self-selecting in a way. 

So I've heard that the Rangel written essay can be a lot more broad and random, and that the Pickering is usually about a foreign policy issue. Are you preparing by getting ready for the FSOT? I'd imagine that preparing for that would be equivalent. I'm not even sure what I would do to prepare really, other than practice writing timed essays and read more broadly on topics I don't know much about. 

[kbui]

@mrs12 Wow, that recommendation letter sound amazing! I have almost no contact with FSOs or any Embassy folks, though I have very strong relationships with my previous physician and student advisor in university, so they were my writers. I have confidence that they wrote great things on my behalf though I really hope that Rangel really sees my passion in my previous work and personal statement.

I also have some work experience (around 2-4 years, depending on how people are defining it) in public service using foreign languages, so I hope that will also help increase my chances. I need to forget about it for a while because thinking about it makes me too excited and I start day-dreaming, haha.

[kbui]

@mrs12 My heart is pumping so fast right now! I just got an email from Rangel, and I saw the words, "We are pleased by your interest in the program and in a career with the State Department Foreign Service," and I was so disappointed I didn't want to continue reading. But then I saw that the Program Assistant just wanted to let us know about the timeline of their selection panel meetings.

Lord!

[mrs12]

Oh my goshhhh. What is the timeline? Does that mean they tell you right after the selection panel meets? I wish the Pickering would give us more concrete information instead of just "sometime in March".

[kbui]

This is most of the information from the email.

"Our Fellowship Selection Panel is scheduled to meet on February 17 to discuss the applications and to select finalists.  We will advise those finalists by email soon thereafter. We will also advise those not selected at this time. If you are selected as a finalist, the interview/writing exercise will take place in a State Department annex in Washington, D.C. March 9-10. We hope to make final decisions on fellowship recipients on March 11 and will advise finalists of decisions soon thereafter."

[kbui]

Also, did you get a call from the Washington Center asking you for your feedback on the application? I also almost died when they called me because I thought there was something incredibly wrong with my application.

These fellowship administrators are going to make me have a heart attack, lol.

[mrs12]

Huhhh, well then I won't expect news from the Pickering until after March 11th I suppose. Wow, that is a really quick turnaround for the Rangel though!

And no! I didn't get a call. That's so terrifying! What sort of feedback did they want?

I really really hope you are a finalist for the Rangel, but part of me really wants to worry over and get into the Pickering with you together. Haha! Either way, kudos for not having a heart attack yet with all these surprises. 

[kbui]

The Washington Center just asked some basic questions on the application process and if I had any questions about it, which I didn't, and then asked if I have any comments on it. I told them about my experience and several suggestions on what they could do to improve it. We talked for almost 10 minutes, I believe. They called me in the middle of work, so I couldn't really talk longer than that.

Also, I watched the webinar for Rangel, Pickering, and have read a lot of posts from theGradCafe, and what it sounds like is that even though the two are separate entities, they still communicate with each other in terms of their scholar selections. That means that once Rangel is finished interviewing and selecting, they give the list to Pickering so that they don't end up interviewing the same folks.

From previous forums, I saw that people were quoting around a 7%-12% acceptance rate for both fellowships. After doing some basic research, (from participating in the webinars and looking at previous scholar numbers) I've concluded that around 250 apply each year--for the Rangel, anyway--and in recent years, 30 are selected from each fellowship. However, I wonder how much overlap they experience. Is it a 90% overlap where the same 225 students are applying to both? Or is it much less like 30% (75 students)?

In either case, I really hope I get an interview. *fingers crossed in a church on Easter morning*

[mrs12]

I've watched some of the webinars too. It does sound like Rangel sends out their finalist announcements, you have a short time to say yes or no, and then they tell Pickering about the people who accepted and if Pickering was considering those people they no longer do so and THEN Pickering sends out their interview list. I just wish Pickering was first, haha!

I did some math as well, I think it's around the same percentage rate, but with this sort of application, I bet it's so based off of the essay that it's really hard to look at statistics like that and know anything. At least from the little I've researched it seems like a lot of people apply to both. I know you can only apply to the Pickering as a 3rd-year undergraduate, not to the Rangel, so that doesn't help me. But in your case, I think a lot of people apply to both though they might have a program favorite. I know it's somewhat common for someone to get denied the Rangel and then have a good chance at the Pickering. That's just anecdotal though, from people's comments I've seen on different sites.

[kbui]

Are you talking about the Undergraduate Fellowship for the Pickering? I thought you were doing the graduate school one, though now looking through your history of posts it looks like you're also applying for the CLS and Boren, so that makes sense that you're applying for the undergraduate fellowship. I wish I knew about the Pickering/Rangel when I was in undergrad because I would've taken economics to strengthen my application.

And have you heard back from Boren? I saw that you got into the semi-finals for CLS (congratulations!). I applied for CLS and did not go further than the submit button, haha. I thought my application was really good, too! But I think I wrote it too much like an English creative essay than something CLS wanted to see. My Boren essay was much better... thank God.

[mrs12]

Yes, I'm not yet a senior in college so this year I'm eligible to apply to the Pickering, whereas as a senior I can apply to both the Rangel and Pickering for their grad programs. 

The deadline to submit the Boren hasn't passed yet, actually. But in the end, I decided not to complete my application because the dream program I wanted to apply to isn't running in the Fall and I got some interesting offers for this summer that I would have had to ignore if I had gotten the Boren. If you did the Boren before, don't you have an easier in into the Foreign Service? 

I am a semi-finalist for the CLS for Turkish! I'm super excited. I don't know what my chances are at this stage, but one of my Turkish classmates is also a semi-finalist for Advanced Turkish so we're really hoping we will both get picked and get to spend the summer together in Turkey! 

Only being in the undergraduate program for the Pickering has some drawbacks. For instance, they choose just ten people out of the 30 total for both the graduate and undergraduate program combined. But I figured I couldn't hurt my chances by applying, and if I don't get through I'll have more experience for applying next year. 

[kbui]

Wait, so they choose 30 scholars: 10 undergraduates and 20 graduates?!

Edit: You're right. I just looked at one of the old websites, and that indeed is true. Wow, that's so competitive.

Edited February 4, 2016 by kbui

[mrs12]

Yeah. It's odd. It used to be 40, so it was 20/20. But now it's Rangel with 30 and Pickering with 10/20. 

[kbui]

We hear back next week. I am not feeling nervous just yet, but once it gets to two days or the day before, I will have heart palpitations every time I look at my email. For sure.

[kbui]

I also just took my FSOT, and I think I did well. But there were definitely a lot of questions that I had to do the process of elimination instead of knowing what the answer was. However, after going back home and looking them up, a lot of them were correct!

[jrdnmadrid]

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know I also applied to the graduate program for Pickering/Rangel. This forum has been REALLY helpful. I didn't participate in the webinars, kbui, but wish I would have.

kbui, fingers crossed I get to meet you in DC. Best of luck to both of you. 

Cheers,

Jordan