Benefits of your kid doing NSLI-Y programs from one parent’s perspective.
Improved in the language even though our kid started as a total beginner.
Matured and became more independent and learned to adapt. It's a great opportunity to learn how non-Americans view Americans and how some countries have good points and/or find out some points about America you don't like. Often, it's hard to have a perspective on America or Americans without having another experience to compare. Help prepare you for college adjustment because you went through another experience of having to adapt to a new surroundings and people.
Have a more productive summer. Your kid will get on your nerve less often during summer -- because they are not living with you. lol And vice-versa. You don't have to cook for that kid who's away. The kid may end up spending less money since your kid is living at a "cheaper" country and most foods are paid for. Parents might be able to go on a trip without having to take the kid -- we did. lol
Help clarify what our kid wants to study at college.
Interact with high schoolers from other parts of the United States and may stay connected.
Go through some hardships such as getting bitten by mosquitos -- a lot.
Going through a weird sensation of having to "re-adjust" to U.S. way of life.
I read that doing a summer program gives you a "competitive" advantage if you plan on doing an academic year program in future. Don't know if this is true or not.
Sometimes your kid may return to USA with a greater appreciation for home, USA or his parents.
In short, whether you love, like or don’t like the experience, you will have learned some things about yourself and the world. Our kid found his summer experience valuable enough to apply for an academic year program and will take a gap year if he gets into the academic year program and defer his enrollment.
Just received an email about redoing my interview due to the fact that my letter of rec came from the same person who ended up interviewing me during semi finals. Should I take this as a good sign that they are contacting me so close to when finalists are announced? I have a hunch that if I wasn’t in the finalist pool they would have just thrown out my application when they discovered this, and my interview now may just be a formality so they can make sure my original interviewer had no conflict of interest… but I don’t want to get my hopes up since this is the last year I can apply and I was already rejected once when I applied two years ago.
and they are just figuring this out now? Oh this does not bode well for early announcements! Please tell me that this was for the year program and not summer!
@bebe17 This may or may not be a good sign. Your reasoning makes but they may just be trying to give you equal consideration since having the same person recommend and interview is a pretty big conflict of interest. There’s no way to know for sure.
@zoompython The email said that this “in no way affects [my] application”. I agree with your opinion on this. I’m hoping this is just a verification of everything I said in my original interview to make sure my interviewer didn’t embellish anything so they can give me fair consideration
@saxophonewizard Thanks for being so reassuring! And no, I have not scheduled the interview yet. I got around to checking my email too late in the evening, so the NSLI-Y staff were probably off work by the time I replied. I want to get everything sorted out tomorrow morning and have my interview this week if possible. I hope I’m not holding up finalist notifs for any of my fellow summer program applicants.
@zoompython I know they say it’s rolling but on the forums from the last few years, more often than not, all notifs have come out at once and very few get notified of finalist status later, and only late rejections are sent out. I hope you all get notified on time though and I’ll suffer until I find out if I’m one of those rare finalist stragglers or not. Good luck everyone!!
I think they may have been doing a final review of applicants and only just noticed their error in my interview. I really do think the notifs will be sent out by the end of next week for all of you error-free applicants, maybe just not mine
If anyone wants to dm me to discuss how this wait is killing them, I’d be up for that! I’m just trying to make the wait go by a little bit faster. I’m waiting for Korean year notifications, which are usually the last
Okay, I have accepted my option to be an alternative for the Russian Summer Program and recently reconfirmed that NSLI-Y has all of my medical paperwork completed on their side. Is there anyone else who is waiting for someone to drop out of their respective scholarship? I would like to know what you are thinking… Thanks
