misslane Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 Did anyone apply for the Russian program? I applied for intermediate and I was just wondering what you did on your applications/your background. And for anyone (in the Russian program, not in the Russian program) what would you say the typical age is of accepted applicants? I'm a little worried that might hurt me. I'm 18 and will finish my freshmen year this April, but I keep hearing that everyone is in there twenties or sometimes early thirties. Do you think they discriminate based on that? Thanks for the help :-)
Cicero Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Bad news today for me. I got an email saying that first round decision notifications have been made, and telling me to log into the application site to see if my application has been forwarded to the committee for review. Sadly, it was not. I applied for intermediate Arabic. Has anyone else heard anything?
Anthro14 Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 so sorry to hear that cicero! i got the same email, but fortunetly when i checked my decision status, mine was successfully forwarded on to the next round. i applied for beginning Hindi. best of luck to everyone!
sankd Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I got to the next round. Intermediate Arabic (not advanced, as I said previously).
misslane Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 I made it to the next round in Intermediate Russian...
Nyugradbrooklyn Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 I am!! I applied for intermediate Arabic. How did you like Jordan? hey Murklins did you get an acceptance? Congrats if so... I unfortunately got rejected and am very disapointed to say the least. I applied for intermediate Arabic - I am Arab American and speak well but cannot read and write proficiently. I also am a grad student in international relations with a focus on the Middle East and am working on a peacebuilding grant with Iraqi individuals. I am extremely confused as to why I was not chosen... so if anyone out there who did get accepted to the next round could elaborate on your application I would really appreciate it, especially since they are so vague when it comes to the reasons why. Thanks guys!
sankd Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 hey Murklins did you get an acceptance? Congrats if so... I unfortunately got rejected and am very disapointed to say the least. I applied for intermediate Arabic - I am Arab American and speak well but cannot read and write proficiently. I also am a grad student in international relations with a focus on the Middle East and am working on a peacebuilding grant with Iraqi individuals. I am extremely confused as to why I was not chosen... so if anyone out there who did get accepted to the next round could elaborate on your application I would really appreciate it, especially since they are so vague when it comes to the reasons why. Thanks guys! What kind of comparative info did you want? Let's see.. I also applied for Arabic. I am currently an MA student in history entering my last semester. By the start of CLS I will have two years of Arabic completed. My LORs were from my Arabic III professor and my graduate advisor (who also speaks Arabic, of course). Beyond that there were my essays? I'm not sure which phase this is, to be honest. Is this the "cull for minimum standards" phase or is this the "two academic readers" phase? On the website it says that each application receives two readers, then after that is approved and forwarded to the next phase for approval at State.
Nyugradbrooklyn Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 What kind of comparative info did you want? Let's see.. I also applied for Arabic. I am currently an MA student in history entering my last semester. By the start of CLS I will have two years of Arabic completed. My LORs were from my Arabic III professor and my graduate advisor (who also speaks Arabic, of course). Beyond that there were my essays? I'm not sure which phase this is, to be honest. Is this the "cull for minimum standards" phase or is this the "two academic readers" phase? On the website it says that each application receives two readers, then after that is approved and forwarded to the next phase for approval at State. Hey Thanks for replying. That is the exact kind of information I was looking for. I too am entering my last semester of my masters program. My two recommendation letters were from a professor and another professor who is my boss on this grant project, which I was hired for based on my language skills and area of study. I am usually not one to be certain of anything but I really thought I was at least going to get through the first round of these applications. Ah well... guess I will just have to keep studying on my own dime and ask my parents to stop mixing English and Arabic together when they speak with me. Again, congrats to you! Are you doing Middle Eastern history?
sankd Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 Hey Thanks for replying. That is the exact kind of information I was looking for. I too am entering my last semester of my masters program. My two recommendation letters were from a professor and another professor who is my boss on this grant project, which I was hired for based on my language skills and area of study. I am usually not one to be certain of anything but I really thought I was at least going to get through the first round of these applications. Ah well... guess I will just have to keep studying on my own dime and ask my parents to stop mixing English and Arabic together when they speak with me. Again, congrats to you! Are you doing Middle Eastern history? Yes, I am doing interwar Iraqi history. I have some questions for you, though. You have a background in Arabic, but I am assuming no actual classwork? Have you traveled to the Middle East (or anywhere, really) before? I think my LoR writer choices were a strength. The application made it seem as if they wanted one to attest to your academic skills and one to your language skills, so I had the ideal pair for me. I tried to link the CLS experience to my academic goals as well as laying out a road map for future study. Good luck, though. I'm not counting chickens yet, and preparing applications for all of the other summer Arabic programs that cost a bit more $$.
imnikoolkan Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 I got past the first round for Beginner Korean! Yay I'm surprised because I'm only an undergraduate freshman and I thought the CLS board would choose someone with a greater and more experienced range of stellar accomplishments. I'm wondering, however, if anybody knows what the applicant range is now after being reduced from the initial 5,000-something?
Anthro14 Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 I'm not sure which phase this is, to be honest. Is this the "cull for minimum standards" phase or is this the "two academic readers" phase? On the website it says that each application receives two readers, then after that is approved and forwarded to the next phase for approval at State. I was wondering the same thing! Certain parts of the website are updated (saying that we will find out by mid-Feb), where other sections still say late March. Based off of the wording in the letter they gave us saying that we were passed to the next decision, I'd like to think that we've made it past the first two academic readers, esp since were supposed to hear the final decisions in 4 weeks. But who knows! Good luch everyone, fingers crossed!
sankd Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) I didn't even look at the website. The way it is updated, it seems the first round was the two academic readers. I feel optimistic, but we'll see. Good luck to everyone! From the website: Each complete application is reviewed by two language or area experts. The highest ranking applications (approximately one-third) are then selected for review by a national selection panel convened in Washington, DC, and participants are recommended for approval by the US Department of State. Well, it says we were sent to panel so we're in the top third! Hurrah. Edited January 11, 2011 by sankd
Anthro14 Posted January 12, 2011 Posted January 12, 2011 woohoo. i wish it was mid-feb already, the wait kills me!
Anthro14 Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 T-3 weeks till we find out! ahh, i just want to know!
sankd Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 T-3 weeks till we find out! ahh, i just want to know! Have you looked at any other programs/funding?
Anthro14 Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 In terms of language or summer funding, im applying to the summer FLAS to go to India and year FLAS at my university. I'm still looking around for other departmental/area studies grants for the summer. Most of them are dissertation funding though, so not very helpful. Other than that, I applied for the NSF and Ford for year funding. How about you?
sankd Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 In terms of language or summer funding, im applying to the summer FLAS to go to India and year FLAS at my university. I'm still looking around for other departmental/area studies grants for the summer. Most of them are dissertation funding though, so not very helpful. Other than that, I applied for the NSF and Ford for year funding. How about you? No FLAS at my school, sadly. I applied to "domestic" FLAS opportunities at a couple of places. Going abroad is turning out to be ridiculously expensive, though I am trying to see if I can find a non-credit/tuition option instead. Unlike most people who take these classes, I don't actually need the class credit, but the experience. The tuition portion for most places is the largest chunk of the expense, and I can get free airfare through miles so all I need is living costs (generally under $1000).
Murklins Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 hey Murklins did you get an acceptance? Congrats if so... I unfortunately got rejected and am very disapointed to say the least. I applied for intermediate Arabic - I am Arab American and speak well but cannot read and write proficiently. I also am a grad student in international relations with a focus on the Middle East and am working on a peacebuilding grant with Iraqi individuals. I am extremely confused as to why I was not chosen... so if anyone out there who did get accepted to the next round could elaborate on your application I would really appreciate it, especially since they are so vague when it comes to the reasons why. Thanks guys! I made it past this first round anyway. I'm sorry that you didn't get through and I can certainly understand your confusion... It sounds like we had similar applications. I also applied for intermediate Arabic, and like you, I'm Arab American (well half). I didn't grow up speaking it and only really started learning in college so I'm okay at speaking, writing, etc, but nowhere near fluent. I'm a senior undergrad majoring in English and minoring in Spanish and in my essays I emphasized the way I'd like to intertwine the three languages in the future. I'm getting kind of nervous now.
sankd Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 I made it past this first round anyway. I'm sorry that you didn't get through and I can certainly understand your confusion... It sounds like we had similar applications. I also applied for intermediate Arabic, and like you, I'm Arab American (well half). I didn't grow up speaking it and only really started learning in college so I'm okay at speaking, writing, etc, but nowhere near fluent. I'm a senior undergrad majoring in English and minoring in Spanish and in my essays I emphasized the way I'd like to intertwine the three languages in the future. I'm getting kind of nervous now. I am all kinds of nervous.
Anthro14 Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 id really like to know what the odds are that we get the final YES! I know the website says that the first cut brings it down to the top 1/3. but then out of that 1/3 how many people make it through? is it like a 50/50 split? if you do not get it at this point to you become an alternate, or will some people still be straight up rejected? oy
wannabee Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 Good luck to everyone! I was in Amman for advanced Arabic in 2009 and learned a lot. I was initially put on the waitlist and whisked off of it in mid April, much to my relief. It was a great experience. (Now I am at CASA and sweating out graduate school admissions.)
sankd Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 id really like to know what the odds are that we get the final YES! I know the website says that the first cut brings it down to the top 1/3. but then out of that 1/3 how many people make it through? is it like a 50/50 split? if you do not get it at this point to you become an alternate, or will some people still be straight up rejected? oy Well, based on the numbers it seems to be about 600 out of 2000 now, so 30%. That's after the first round cuts. Not sure about wait list. I am going by anecdotal numbers of total applicants, mind you, and a really rough number of how many they will accept. It might be lower (500) and there may be even more total applicants (6500? 7000?). I think the funny thing about my whole experience with CLS is that on November 4 I had no intention of applying, thinking it was way too late to get recommendations and so on. My advisor yelled at me, told me to just ask her and my Arabic professor to do it, and we could make it happen. I got the recommendations in a week, wrote the essays and put the package together... and now I really hope I get this more than ever.
bombombomshawty Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 (edited) Sup everyone. :3 So glad I just found these forums!! I remember a few months ago, I thought this program looked ridiculously sketchy, but after some googling I decided it was legit, and thus applied for beginning Korean. Made it past the initial review, so now just waiting and hoping!! I have a question, though. Does anyone know when this year program locations will be revealed? I see that last year's Korean program was in Jeonju, and if I get accepted, I can't express how much I hope this year's program will be there, too!!! My university just got 25 Korean exchange students from Jeonju (different university than last year's program, though), and already having friends in the city I'd be studying in would simply be amazing. Edited January 31, 2011 by bombombomshawty
sankd Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 Based on this thread, it looks like they send you the location info after you are accepted. For us Arabic students, I wonder if Cairo is still in the mix!
Murklins Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 Based on this thread, it looks like they send you the location info after you are accepted. For us Arabic students, I wonder if Cairo is still in the mix! I've been wondering about that as well!
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