I am a Freshman in high school who is interested in International Relations and Diplomacy. I have found the CIEE Diplomacy in Practice: Problem-solving with Russian students, which is at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. It is a prestigious university, and this is the first year of the program. The program is three weeks. I do not speak Russian, but we would not focus too much on that. I am only allowed to study abroad or do a summer program like this once in high school due to financial strain. I am trying to choose between this and studying Chinese in Nanjing for a month with CIEE. If I study in China, I can do the Georgetown or USC or NCLS programs in international relations. Are there any other programs in International Relations that are interesting and beneficial, and look good on college applications? They have to be affordable. Please give me some advice on what to do. Thanks!
Do what you enjoy and can afford. None of the fee based programs will matter much for college admission
My recommendation for this summer would be to enroll in an intensive, selective summer language program such as Middlebury’s, then next year apply to an NSLY-I program. The NSLI-Y programs are free but highly selective so you want to show that you’re a “good investment” for the government. Russian, Chinese, Arabic… Are possible.
A fee charging program wouldn’t matter for colleges and summer after freshman year is too early to do anything of significance wrt college. Summer after Sophomore and Junior years are the most important.
Another option is to spend junior year abroad. Again, you need a high level of linguistic fluency.
Btw, try to find the thread here “should 4 brother’s apply to the same university” .
I also recommend nsliy for the summer, in the future. There is also the Youth Ambassadors program which is free and you would go down to Latin America or the carribien and be able to live with a host family. Additionally STARTALK which is intensive language school is free and some even provide help with transportation cost. Concordia language village also has some great scholarships. Let me know if you have any questions!
Okay, thank you. I decided to do the Chinese Language and Culture program with CIEE because they give my school an automatic 30% off scholarship. Do you think that was a good option? I plan on doing the International Relations program at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the future, but it is only for three weeks. Do you think that’s a good choice? I do not know about NSLY, they seem extremely competitive…
Like others have said: NSLI-Y, YES abroad, and CBYX (all run the US State Dept, all are full scholarship, although the latter two are only for full academic year I believe)
If you’re interested in East Asia: Stanford has a really cool online class for high schoolers run through Stanford SPICE, there’s one for Japan, China, Korea, and I believe there’s another one for Russia but I’m not sure. google it!
Also, High School diplomats (full scholarship) at Princeton, great for intl relations (very specifically Japan)
Yale young global scholars is a great program (I hear) but it is a bit $$ (from what I’ve heard yet again)!
Good luck!