The implementing organization for the Korean AY program next year is iEARN. I would be interested in hearing feedback from anyone who has had any experience with this organization or knows about someone else’s experience with iEARN.
Do emails for Korean AY continue to be sent out tomorrow or have they possibly already sent out all their finalist and alternates?
Because AY programs are small, it is unlikely that they would pulse the finalist and alternate notifications out over a few days. They have likely all been released already.
FINALLY! 
Happy dance! My son just accepted to China AY in Bejing with American Councils! Yippee! Good luck to anyone else!
@kevbostic Was he just accepted? or did he just accept? Congratulations!
just received the notification within the last hour. he has until 4/27 to decide, but we know the answer will be YES!
I have been told by those accepted already that one can see if they are accepted or not before the emails come out by logging into the original application portal and looking under “available forms”. If a finalist notification accept/decline form and a passport submission form appear in this area, then they have been accepted and an email is on the way. If it does not show up, then they may be an alternate, but were likely not chosen. I checked here and it looks like my daughter was not chosen. No emails yet either. Hoping a definitive rejection letter will at least come out quickly to verify this so that we know for sure and can move on to making other plans.
Check here:
https://ais.americancouncils.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AIR.woa/wa/login?brand=nsliy
It sounds like lots of Mandarin finalist emails have gone out already in the last two hours.
Yay! Exciting. DD just committed to YES Morocco today. Gonna have a hard time not seeing her for 9 months.
NSLIY toldd DD that they dont send rejection letters yet because they wait for all the acceptances to happen first-acceptances by the students.
We just got an official rejection email 5 minutes ago, so they are out. I guess they send them right after the final notifications. So, That’s that-- my DD is headed to Bosnia with YES, so now we know! Best of luck to all in their journeys!
@Wanderlustwander I cant believe that (I mean, I do, of course, but…); they just told my daughter today that they wont be sending rejections until later. Hmmm. Wonder who answered the phone when she called? Ah, well. Good luck with Bosnia!
For those that are doing a year program, either NSLI-Y, YES or CBYX…are you doing the Program after you graduate? Or taking a year off of HS? If you are going your senior year, is your HS’s still allowing you to graduate with your class? Or will you return to HS and graduate a year later? Are you applying for colleges while away? Or, deferring your college acceptances? DS is doing a summer NSLI-Y Program and thinking about applying for a year program.
@curiousmom5 I’ll be doing the program after graduation, and applying for colleges while away.
@curiousmom5 DD will be doing the full year after she graduates from HS. She has already gone through the college application process and will be deferring matriculation for a year.
My daughter, who had two summers ago participated in a summer NSLI-Y program, applied for a NSLI-Y AY program as a gap year between high school and college as her high school does not permit taking a year off during high school. She applied for college during her senior year of high school so that she would not be trying to apply from overseas during her AY year and could simply focus (time-wise and psychologically) on the AY experience, knowing that the college decision was settled. Also, if she was not accepted into an AY program (she is currently an alternate), she could go directly to college the autumn after high school (although she is still praying that her alternate status transforms into finalist!). Most private colleges are very willing to let accepted students defer entry by one year. I have heard that state schools are often not as flexible in allowing a gap year once a student has been accepted.
My DD did also for Morocco. It is gonna be so great for them!
My dd applied during her junior year and will be away her senior year with NSLI-Y. She lacks one English credit and her current private school nor will our public school graduate her even if she gets that credit. So we have decided that she will do dual enrollment with the local community college for the English credit and take an extra math class and we will graduate her from home school. She has more than enough credits. She will apply for college before leaving and go to college upon her return. We did a lot of research on the best way to do this and this seems like it will work for the best. We spoke with a college on her list of places of interest and the admissions office seems fine with this arrangement.
@haylier, @dowzerw, @baykayaker, @Pkljgj34 thank you all! I am trying to sort it all out. For those applying to college while away, did you have current teachers write a recommendation and upload to Common App? Is your Common App and recommendations still valid if you delay applying for college?
My D is currently doing a gap year with CBYX. She applied to colleges during her senior year and once she was accepted to CBYX she deferred her admission to her chosen college. There are at least 15 students in her CBYX group from the northeast that are doing gap years. You do have to be 18 1/2 years old or under to be able to do CBYX as a gap year. She has no stress worrying about grades/credits. Highly recommend doing these programs as gap years if you are young enough.
@curiousmom5 To be honest, especially depending on your child’s school, applications and recommendations can be complicated to do from away, in a nontraditional setting. I’m not sure you can have teacher recs uploaded that far in advance and I don’t know how fresh or committed a rec can be if you ask a teacher to write it a year later. Maybe you have them write it and keep it in their own digital library until you need it.