Hello! This is an open discussion for anyone who is willing to share their experiences with the program, and for any questions to be asked and answered. I am a first-time applicant for Korea Summer and am looking for more insight into the program. Thank you and have a lovely day!
My daughter applied unsuccessfully for the Russia summer program last year, and this year plans to try for China summer. She has started Chinese in school and now has overseas experience (she was a foreign exchange student to Europe this past year), so we are hoping her chances will be better this time around.
I think we also made a mistake in asking a STEM teacher for a letter of recommendation. This year she will ask her French teacher to demonstrate her facility with languages.
Good luck to you.
Hello! I’m a Seoul Summer 2018 alum, and can offer any advice about my experience if anyone wants it. NSLI-Y was honestly life changing for me and solidified my love for Korea and language. I would absolutely recommend nsli-y to anyone who loves language
Thanks. What are your recommendations for the interview?
Hi guys ! I’m a freshman who applied for korean summer for 2019 and I’m getting worried just thinking about the cuts. Anybody know what’s they base their selection off of?
Hi everyone 
I’m a junior who applied last year but was rejected after semis. I’m applying for Korean Summer (again) and hope that I’ll get to know some of you better through this process!
hi! i’m applying for arabic ay and i’m really stressed about the letter to host family. any advice?
Hi there! Honestly, I don’t think that anybody actually knows how the Host Family Letters are graded, but I do know that many implementing organizations that do not give these letters to host families. As such, I regard it as an extention of the other essays rather than a literal letter.
Although I do not know the grading rubric, I know that last year, (when I got into Arabic Summer) my essay aimed to present my personality and give an image of how I interact. I painted a picture of my ersonality traits and family life and connected these to how I expected to behave and cope with difficulties in Morocco. I believe that they want to see that you are pleasant to be around and emotionally ready for NSLI-Y, so just show your best self. I know that the prompt is really difficult due to the word limitand enormous number of topics to cover, but if you are being genuine, (and using proper grammar, of course) then you are on the right track! Best to you and good luck!
I am currently a junior and am a Bahasa Indonesia alumni '18. I am happy to answer any questions about the Indonesian program and NSLIY in general. This year I am applying to Hindi AY.
@Dancingmom518 Good luck to your daughter, i hope she becomes a finalist! I was debating on whether i should ask my Spanish teacher or my Engineering/Robotics Coach. I have recieved advice from alumni that the best teacher recommendatins are the teachers who know you best! My respects go to your daughter in applying to the Chinese program; it’s definately a challenging language. The Russia Summer program was my second preference, after much debating and a last minute change. What program did your daughter travel through for the exchange program?
Once again, best of luck to your daughter; I hope she makes it this year!
@shakuton Thank you! I decided I wanted to choose Korean Summer as my first preference because my school environment comepletely changed from a primarily hispaic student body in middle school to a cultural melting pot with a lot of the studenst in my high school being Korean- I wanted to learn more about the culture, which is why I applied to NSLI-Y, since it is a language AND culture immersement program.
What was your host city? And how do recommmend self-studying the language?
So far I can read Hangul, introduce myself and am currently working on sentence structure, grammar, and vocabulary.
Do you guys think notifs are coming out tomorrow or Monday? also good luck to everyone!
@duniiela Thank you! I hope you receive good news as well. It’s such a competitive program, but sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime for those who get in. The exchange program she did was a special program between my daughter’s school and a university in Northern Ireland. It was brief, but a fantastic experience and was the first time she was out of the country without me, so hopefully that experience will play in her favor, but who knows. I’m rooting for everyone on this thread!
@Sonomom Hello! I cannot give any advice from personal experience, but this blog has a compiled list of other blogs from NSLI-Y alumni that might help!
Adventures of a Sinophile (also known as Adventures of a Laowai)
I also recommend Nha Dang’s Youtube channel- she has vlogs and application and interview tips posted there!
@Dancingmom518 and same goes for your daughter! Good luck to everyone!
@paintoncanvas Hi Nguenar, it’s Dani from the KakaoChat! I think they will come out on Monday because the website says they will come out in early December. But it doesn’t hurt to check your inbox tomorrow as well, since the deadline for the application was earlier this year. It might be that the semi-finalist notifications come out earlier this year!
hello! a facebook post said that decisions will be out by December 7th!
actually that post was referencing alumni representative’s notification, not the semi finalist notif!
does anyone know what time of day the decisions usually come out?
@jm0916 someone commented on another thread that last year they came out at 4:30! but last year chinese AY came out the 2nd week of december… all we can do is wait:)