@HereIcomeWorld I’m not sure, but I think the difference is for the program choice you’re saying why you want the duration (summer vs academic year) and why you want the specific country. For the essay, you’re giving 3 reasons why you want to do the NSLI-Y program in general (regardless of country or duration).
TL;DR: explanation is why you chose the country and duration, essay is why you want to do NSLI-Y.
Not so sure of my explanation though…
I need advice. I asked one of my favorite teachers to write me the teacher rec at the end of September. She got the email, but based on the “status” on the application, she hadn’t opened it yet. So today, I decided to remind her of the deadline, and say that NSLIY wants answers to specific questions, in case she was confused. I was really polite, and she seemed really friendly. So later today, I log in and check the “status” again. She opened it at around 3pm, saved at 3:30pm, and submitted at 3:50pm. This is such a short time! Did she take the time to write a thoughtful rec? Does anyone know the format/questions they ask?
@languagewitch I think that my teachers have almost always taken about 20 minutes to write the recommendations for me.
Junior here! Reapplying to China Summer/Korea Summer after being selected as a Chinese Summer alternate last year~ Good luck to you all as the deadline quickly approaches!
I am applying Arabic academic year as my first choice and Arabic Summer as my second, and my application doesn’t give the option for a third choice! am I doing something wrong, or are they just not offering 3 choices this year?
Also is anyone else applying/has already attended a full year program? I’m excited but honestly kind of worried about actually being away from home for an entire year; what do you guys think?
Mine also only gave me two choices! I am extremely worried because I selected Russian and Korean which seem to be popular in this spread especially making it competitive. I would have liked a third choice. I know they ask about choices in the interview so maybe then we can state what our third choice would be.
Just submitted my application! How is everyone else doing?
@itstricky Oh, ok. Thank you. Good luck to you on your app!
Hi All!
I’m a homeschooled senior. I applied for both the Korean (1st choice) and Russian academic year. Ahhh, I just turned in my app. yesterday. I’m on the west coast, Southern CA specifically. I’m hopeful on winning a scholarship. Looking forward to sharing this journey with you all! (-:
Just submitted my app last night! Russian summer was my first choice and Korean summer was my second.
Hi guys! I’m pretty new to nsliy and this forum, but I just submitted my app last night. I applied to Russian year and Arabic year. Does anyone know of the ~3,300 applicants how many are summer vs year? Also what languages are most popular? How many people will be alternates? Sorry, I have a lot of questions. 
I sent my application a few days ago and I hope everyone is wrapping theirs up with no regrets!! it made me so anxious rereading my essays before finally pressing submit. I heard that the main thing they look at first are your essays (correct me if I’m wrong) so I really wanted to make them strong. I started my app in September and finally finished it up this week, so time really flies! which means waiting for semifinalist notification won’t be that grueling!! wishing you all the best of luck! -jia >:D<
@ictoaunrn I read past applications and they did have 3 choices, but they cut it down to 2 this year. I don’t know why, but I’m assuming it’s because the number of applicants is increasing heavily and it’s easier to have only two possibilities to possibly sort you in (minus the possibilty that you aren’t chosen at all, which I doubt !!)
So anxious about my application!
I applied last year and made it to semis, this year my goal is to go all the way!~
semifinalist notifications come out sometime in december, right?
@yujifuji yep!! according to the website and other peoples’ posts on facebook and the forums. they might be scattered due to location but it should be within the first and second week , i’m pretty sure. after that (if you become a semifinalist) there comes interviews within the next month or so, and then everything is finalized by mid to late april! good luck :>
This is my third time applying, and i’ve never made it past that first stage, so who knows I guess. Hopefully this will work out, i’m a Senior this year.
I imagine that they took away the third option thing because everyone almost always gets their first choice. Apparently the only time you might get your second choice is if your second choice was Persian summer, since they get so few applicants for that. I’m positive that no one ever really ends up getting their third choice so nsli-y decided to eliminate that option completely.
@yujifuji Yeah, notifications come out early December, last year i think everyone was notified by the second. The time line changes from year to year and the supplemental documents were due a bit earlier this year so notifications might come out sooner.
Hey! I’m a sophomore applying for Russia summer and China summer this year. Does anyone know the estimated dates for the programs? I have something that I can’t miss in late June, so I’m scared I won’t be able to go even if I do get picked :-S
Right! c: