I can tell you that there are several locations for summer and AY for China, but can change every year. They divide kids into advanced or fast track and normal track. Strangely, my kid got placed into advanced track for summer even though he had almost no exposure to the language. For my kid, his participation in summer and AY programs placed him into 5th year level at his college. Even 5th year proved to be somewhat easy. The improvement in the language for him was just incredible. But he was a pretty motivated learner.
Also, it seemed to me that kids who did summer programs have a better chance to get AY programs.
In my opinion, for purely Mandarin or Korean language perspective, Beijing and Seoul are the best because people who live there speak standard version of the language. If you go to a country area, you won’t be able to practice what you learn in the class room that much.
@medusozoa Hey! I am an alumni and I would would recommend working on your essays and having friends, family, and alumni read over your essays. Make sure that you are not repetitive and try to show and not tell. Do not be discouraged and apply next year, I was rejected the first time and I am happy about it since I am glad that I had an extra year before nsliy to grow and mature
@neurochic interviews will be between now and the end of January and you will schedule it yourself after an AFS volunteer contacts you. If for some reason they can’t schedule you then you will just have a phone or Skype interview
@addygefre just comment on the post in Ask NSLIY Alumni and someone will add you
@allla15 It changes it changes every year and is based on years of studying Chinese. Some locations have multiple language levels
Does NSLI-Y summer prefer older kids or do they just want to see maturity?
From what I have read they definitely accept younger kids but they seem to prefer older ones. My son made semif last year in 9th but did not get to finalist. He made sf again this year and he is hoping he can get to finalist this year!!
Good luck!!
Hey guys I’m a junior and made in to the semi finals, what advice do you all have for the interviews?
My D did NSLI-Y both for summer after 11th grade and for gap year. Her interviewer let us know that they are looking for resilient, go with the flow, emotionally stable kids who can deal with minor setbacks and unpredictable circumstances. Two kids were sent home during their stay - one for staying out all night, and the other for too many health issues. Hope this helps.
The other comment we got from the interviewer is that they want to see that the applicant has taken a genuine interest in the country they have applied to. This can mean learning the language or taking an an interest in the culture - if outside of the HS classroom, all the better.
Happy New Year! I’m a Semi-Finalist for Chinese Summer. Any advice or tips on the Interview?
Hey everyone! Chinese summer alumni (Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2018) and current academic year semifinalist here. My best advice for the interview is be yourself (good advice in general tbh), and don’t over-plan your answers going into the interview so you don’t sound like a robot 
hey i’m planning on applying next year, and I was just curious if it is even worth it if I only took language (Spanish) for 2 years? I want to do Korea Summer because I want to learn Korean but I can’t because it isn’t offered in my school. I’ve been self-studying on my own, though.
@Anonymousia Like you, my daughter took Spanish in HS but taught herself Korean with an online program as it was not offered at the HS. She did the NSLI-Y summer program in Korea as well as for gap year. Sounds like you’re on the right track.
Don’t know if anyone can answer this, but I thought I would give it a try. My daughter is a semi-finalist but applied to almost all her colleges through QuestBridge and finished her application before the end of October. Should she send in an update to partner schools that she is a semi-finalist or is this not significant enough? She is planning on studying two languages at university and wrote about applying to NSLI-Y in one of her essays.
Hello! For academic year alums: how rare is it to be accepted into the academic year program with no previous study abroad experience/ NSLI-Y summer participation?
@RightTwix Have you asked this question on the Facebook group Ask NSLI-Y Alumni? There are more than 3,000 members and you should get some quick, informed responses. If you don’t have previous study abroad experience, find out what kinds of experiences you can draw on to demonstrate that you will thrive in your chosen country.
DS recently received an email telling him to disregard a previous email that was sent to him from NSLIY re them not yet receiving a form. In fact, he did not receive the previous email they indicated was sent inadvertently. Did anyone else receive either of these emails?
Interesting if there turns out to be any connection between those ultimately accepted and the recipients of either email. Did anyone else receive either of these emails and if so, which one? Acceptances should be out soon, although perhaps they will be delayed slightly due to the shutdown in January.
It’s a fluke thing that happened this year… has NO correlation to acceptance/denial AT ALL. And NSLI-Y is still on schedule, because application reading isn’t affected by the shutdown because it’s run by a separate organization
@bethackeray Thanks for the response. Do you work with NSLI-Y?