Anyone else have a kiddo apply for CLS this year? My DS is applying for China. I missread the web page and thought we’d know if he made it in January but that’s only the first pass, turns out he won’t know if he really made it until March Unfortunately because of other future internships this may be the only summer he can do this so I really hope it works out for him.
https://clscholarship.org/index.html
My daughter did it this last summer for Indonesia. It is absolutely a great, amazing experience. She already did her study abroad there last fall but then an instructor told her to apply for cls. She took off spring and back packed through South East Asia… Then came home for 2 months then did CLS. What a year for her! But now back in school.
So what we really didn’t know going into this was how selective the program really is. They only take like 10% of the applicants or 500 out of 5,000 applicants. Her program had only 28 students with some being masters and PhD students with the rest undergraduate. Many did not get accepted the first time they applied but did this round.
I would have a back up plan just in case and stay in contact with his current school person for advice. But this can be a life changing experience and as a bonus gives them some insight and ability to working with the state department in the future.
Hope this was helpful.
Thanks @Knowsstuff I knew it was competitive but I didn’t know how competitive it was. DS did NSLI-Y in high school so I don’t know if that will help at all. His back up plan is to go on his school’s honors program trip to China. It’s only a few weeks and more touristy than language immersion.
My concern is that it might be too late to sign up for the honors trip in March. Do you have any idea how many students make it past the first cut in January and then are cut or listed as alternates in March?
@3scoutsmom I would call the program. Push the idea that he needs to sign up for the other program but really wants this one. They should be able to give you the stats. It’s an amazing program and totally immersive. She had like two different tutors on her like at all times. She lived with a family and became part of the culture /life of the Indonesian people. It’s pretty intense but she came away with being pretty fluent and appreciations for how others live and sacrifice for their families. She is talking now about looking into the Fulbright scholarship at one point.
We honestly had no clue about how selective they were till after the fact and probably for the better. We didn’t even realize the rounds. She just said, “I made it to the next phase of selectionn” not really registering what that meant. We just had my son into college and think we were numb after that… Lol…
Please reach out if you have further questions
https://www.borenawards.org/scholarships/how-apply/boren-scholarship-how-apply
How about the Boren Scholarship?
Thanks @mommdc he did think about the Boren Scholarship but that requires working for the government for at least a year graduation and he’s not sure if he wants to do that or not. At this point he’d like to keep all of his options open.
DS made it to semi finalist! Now more waiting, he said he’d hear more in March.
@3scoutsmom Good luck to your DS! My D gave it a try freshman year despite the odds for freshman and did not advance. It’s an amazing program. But for needing internships for the next 2 summers, she would try again.
(But don’t feel sorry for her. She did 7 months abroad through other immersive programs instead).
Congrats. Hopefully it works out.
DS made it to “Alternate” pretty impressive for a freshman first time applicant! So yet more waiting at least he still has a chance.
^ that is impressive. Congrats and good luck to him! If he doesn’t get off the waitlist, he should try again next year.