Critical Language Scholarship 2018

[Mateng]

21 hours ago, chupacabra said:

Turns out it wasn't sent in. I'm incredibly baffled, defeated, and upset, because this professor encouraged me to apply in the first place and I'd been consistent in giving reminders. I got in contact with someone from CLS; they were very helpful and encouraged me to see to it that the LOR gets submitted, but said there are no guarantees the LOR will be read since it is late. CLS reads incomplete applications, which is ostensibly a small ray of hope for me... but I truly don't know what the future holds. We will see! In the meantime, I'm simply going to accept what has happened and try not to feel so down about it.

I really hope they read your application too!! Not saying you should hold it over your recommenders heads or anything BUT maybe let them know the situation and maybe they'll have time to write an even better recommendation? Especially knowing that they might have hurt your chances despite you doing everything right on your end plus reminding them about theirs.

[historicallinguist]

On 11/30/2017 at 2:43 AM, Mateng said:

I really hope they read your application too!! Not saying you should hold it over your recommenders heads or anything BUT maybe let them know the situation and maybe they'll have time to write an even better recommendation? Especially knowing that they might have hurt your chances despite you doing everything right on your end plus reminding them about theirs.

What language are you applying?

[Mateng]

5 hours ago, historicallinguist said:

What language are you applying?

Korean. How about you?

[historicallinguist]

3 hours ago, Mateng said:

Korean. How about you?

me too. 

[hotpot]

Hey everyone! I'm applying for advanced Chinese this year. I'm super excited/nervous for whats to come. Does anyone have any information about how prior language proficiency/heritage weighs into our application? I'm by no means perfect but I am a heritage speaker. I hope that doesn't weaken my chances! Wishing you all the most relaxing and enjoyable holiday season

[Sunflora219]

4 hours ago, hotpot said:

Hey everyone! I'm applying for advanced Chinese this year. I'm super excited/nervous for whats to come. Does anyone have any information about how prior language proficiency/heritage weighs into our application? I'm by no means perfect but I am a heritage speaker. I hope that doesn't weaken my chances! Wishing you all the most relaxing and enjoyable holiday season

Hello Hotpot,

I know a native heritage speaker in Chinese from my institution who was a recipient of the scholarship. If anything, she used it as a way of making her application stronger (she used the idea of getting back to her roots). If anything, I think it helps to be a heritage speaker for this scholarship because it’s shows you aren’t just going to dabble in the language for the sake of it. You have a meaningful reason to learn the specific language— you’ll be more likely to use it to communicate with your family and ethnic community— making the chances of you giving back to this community higher. Also, you won’t disregard everything you’ve learned from the experience abroad as soon as you get back home (CLS wants to avoid this) because you will practice using the language with your kin (constantly, I hope). Additionally, should you be accepted, your familiarity with the language and the culture would be an added bonus for the group dynamic.

In short, being a heritage speaker can only help, not hurt, your chances. I’m a native speaker in Bangla, and I wondered about the same thing!

[nervousgal]

Hi I'm applying for beginning Turkish. I applied last year but didn't get in. My university doesn't have Turkish, but this summer I took a Turkish course while doing an internship in DC so I hope my experience with that helps! When do you all think they will let us know about the first round? 

[Sunflora219]

Hey, nervousgal! Probably by mid January. Last year, they were notified on the 18th, so we have to live with the anxiety for at least another two weeks or so.

[MegatronRyan]

First time applicant here - for Russian. Anyone else happen to be applying for Russian/know statistics on acceptance? Getting pretty nervous as the first round cut approaches since it seems like a lot of people who get them have applied once or twice already. Good luck everyone!

[nervousgal]

I'm curious about what other folks put down for the question about what would be the hardest part of the CLS program.

[busybee]

I'm so freaking nervous! CLS feels like the hardest thing to win--they want remarkable diversity, people who haven't won a lot of things before, and people who don't have many opportunities--and I don't think I fit the bill on any of those! Nevertheless, I want it so bad. It was the spark for my whole academic career in 2014. Has anyone else received a CLS before? 

@nervousgal, I put down finding a personal balance, and wrote an anecdote about getting stranded in India at the airport while simultaneously losing my bag and how I handled it. 

One thing that will surely help is that I'm going to stay off grad cafe forum and focus on my second semester of grad school. :-) Good luck everyone! 

[sleepyficteer]

Made an account just to nervously fret with a group of people -- seems like the earliest applicants have heard back about results is Jan 10 and the latest around Jan 16...hoping it's the former rather than the latter this year! I'm a first time applicant for Japanese and I'm running out of summers to study abroad...

Crossing my fingers for everyone as we approach the acceptance period!

[KaiTaemin]

Made an account to be collaboratively nervous too! hahaha, I really hope the responses from CLS are NOT so drawn out as last year, which was super delayed. The second round wasn't until March like 4/5/6 or something.. I applied for beginner Korean and I am so excited to hear back! This is my first year applying  Crossing fingers!!! I wish the best of luck to everyone

[Sunflora219]

Welcome to the nervous group everyone! I’m thinking— the more people in the group, the more likely a couple of us will make it. To those lucky few, please help me with my application next year.

[Ashton575]

I also just made an account so that I can be nervous with everyone! Second time applying. Two years ago we got first round notifications (negative for me) on roughly Jan. 28

[emari5]

Just out of curiousity, did a lot of you seek help from your advisors/your university’s scholarship office? I think getting help from my school’s Fulbright advisor made a huge difference in my application! I’m a second time applicant for Indonesian. ?

[nervousgal]

@emari5 I did, and I think it made a huge difference as well. My advisor was especially amazing and sat and brainstormed with me for some of the essays, and asked a ton questions about what I wanted to accomplish in my career that I think made it easier for me to reflect on my career goals and express them more clearly in my CLS essays. Even if I don't get the scholarship I still feel like having gone through this process will make it easier for me to write essays for other awards or research grants I may want to apply to.

[mrs12]

On 1/6/2018 at 1:44 PM, busybee said:

I'm so freaking nervous! CLS feels like the hardest thing to win--they want remarkable diversity, people who haven't won a lot of things before, and people who don't have many opportunities--and I don't think I fit the bill on any of those! Nevertheless, I want it so bad. It was the spark for my whole academic career in 2014. Has anyone else received a CLS before? 

I just wanted to pop in and comment on this! I was a recipient last year and a finalist the year before, and I have to say that the mix of people on my program, at least, came from all walks of life. There were plenty of students who had "done it all" so to speak, as well as students who had no real background in the language on paper. Obviously they put a lot of thought into having well-rounded cohorts, but the panel is looking way more at your demonstrable dedication to the language than whether or not you've ever/never studied abroad before or if you've had a lot of other opportunities in the past.

I also wanted to just reach out and say that I know how stressful this month can be, and to caution you all to try to be kind to yourselves as you wait this out. It can seem like such a vital thing, like your whole year or degree or future hinges on this chance, but remember that you are way more than these odds and no matter what the results you will move forward with trying to learn these important languages. I'm not really sure how to phrase the sentiment, exactly, except that I really wish someone had told me all those times I was applying that it's okay to look beyond CLS, and important to think of yourself holistically at times like this when we're so narrowly focused on pass/fail systems. 

If you have any particular questions, please feel free to throw them at me. Good luck to all of you! 

[sleepyficteer]

@mrs12 just wanted to say thanks for all your great posting! i've been lurking on past years' threads and i found your insights really helpful (even though i've already finished applying haha)

[busybee]

On 1/10/2018 at 11:00 PM, mrs12 said:

I just wanted to pop in and comment on this! I was a recipient last year and a finalist the year before, and I have to say that the mix of people on my program, at least, came from all walks of life. There were plenty of students who had "done it all" so to speak, as well as students who had no real background in the language on paper. Obviously they put a lot of thought into having well-rounded cohorts, but the panel is looking way more at your demonstrable dedication to the language than whether or not you've ever/never studied abroad before or if you've had a lot of other opportunities in the past.

Thanks for the insight, @mrs12! Congrats on winning last year--CLS is amazing and it helped me so much with language and everything else. I hope you're right! My CLS cohort from 2014 had only a couple of graduate students, and many more students who were like me at the time (few awards and opportunities; CLS was actually my first time abroad, ever, and I went to a public university.) My graduate school CLS advisor (a former CLS Persian application reader) told me that diversity and lack of opportunity is prioritized over dedication to language and prior successes. Of course, maybe not as many graduate students apply as undergraduate, which I've heard from other past CLS'ers as well. But to be honest, if someone who's never been abroad before is chosen over me, I'm sincerely happy for them! I do have other opportunities for which I can apply. Many CLS'ers I've met over the years got such a boost up from winning the award (like I did originally). For me, it's about a dire need for more language practice, period, and I can likely get that from other scholarships (FLAS, for example). 

Anyway, good luck to everyone!

[mrs12]

@busybee That's so interesting! I've had an adviser who said the exact opposite, and she also was an application reader in the past. Who knows, then, maybe it's something that changes based on languages or years? I was always told to prioritize that aspect when critiquing essays or advising students about applying to the CLS, but there are many layers to the process for sure. It gives some food for thought. Good luck with everything, I certainly know the struggle of needing the language exposure/practice and not having many places to get it. Hopefully either CLS or FLAS will work out for you! I think we're often told it's hard to get CLS more than once, but at the same time I feel like you know so much having gone through the process... Again, anecdotally, I know at least four graduate students who did CLS so it's certainly not impossible! I feel like, too, that an application out of grad school would just carry so many more of the intangibles. I really hope it pans out for you! 

@sleepyficteer Thank you for your kind words. It's nice to know my perpetual lurking has had some positive effect! I feel very lucky to have received CLS twice, even if once I was unable to participate, and it's certainly a community that I want to give back to. I'm glad to hear that some of my thoughts were interesting for you.  

 

[dragon_seed]

I really hope they seriously take dedication to a language in consideration. I've been studying Chinese for 10 years and will continue to for the rest of my life. Most people take it and give up after a few years – even those who did a semester or two abroad. It's really a life commitment and even heritage speakers my age tell me how they couldn't keep up with it. I definitely think everybody should get a chance to study abroad, but I hope they don't count my past experience abroad against me, because I really need this program to get to the level I need to be at for my job, and I made that clear in my application. I'm out of school after this year, so it's my last chance to win this. Wishing you all best of luck, I'm definitely on pins and needles myself.  

[mirzadeh]

So where is everyone? Where’s the hype haha. I feel like we’ll get the semifinalist notification tomorrow or Wednesday. 

[mirzadeh]

By the way, did anyone here apply for Persian by any chance? 

It requires prior study. I’m not sure how competitive it will be. 

[KaiTaemin]

i hope it is this week! i'm anxious