If anyone is contacted for an interview, let us know! I’m sure we would all love to hear about the experience. I read somewhere that semi-finalists in the New York area get contacted first.
We are tremendously disappointed that my son did not make it to the semifinals in Arabic. It was a bit of a mystery as he had a very strong demonstrated interest (doing the FSLA in Arabic at University of North Georgia this past summer after being rejected by NSLI last year), mentioned that he would like to study Arabic in college, and I felt his essays were strong (he is a Scholastic Writing national award recipient, so he writes well, and spoke among other things about the Palestinian students who were studying English at UNG and the impact they had on him). He has also never traveled to the Middle East so prior travel there wasn’t a consideration. The suggestions made in the rejection email were not terribly helpful either as you either must be a college student or live in a STAR state to participate in any of their suggested programs. Am trying to get him something else but the deadlines have all passed…
@Samsmom2019 I’m sorry your son did not make it to semifinals. A program I would highly recommend is the Middlebury Monterey Language Academy (MMLA). I have done this program three times (twice for Spanish and once for French) and can only sing its praises. The program provides an immersive experience in the US and students will make great language acquisition strides. Admission is rolling until late May. Another good option is the Concordia Language Villages. It’s like MMLA but has the more traditional sleep away camp feel. My brother did it and learned a lot. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!
@Samsmom2019 Not necessarily specific to Arabic, but if your son is still interested in an amazing travel abroad experience I would recommend CBYX (deadline 12/12/17) or YES Abroad (Deadline 12/5/17, tomorrow!). Best of luck to Sam!
@lacolibri Thanks for your suggestions! I’d heard a bit about the MMLA but didn’t know too much about it. We are currently looking into a possibility in Morocco but if that doesn’t work out I would definitely consider MMLA since it is so close. I think they work around the varying high school schedules too which is nice. The colleges like Columbia and Georgetown that offer summer Arabic for HS students start at the beginning of June which won’t work for us as he’s still in the middle of finals and Regents. Thanks again!
@ruzzen Thank you for the links! I will definitely keep an eye on YES abroad if he decided to do a gap year. I would be open to a senior year abroad but since he’s been in the same school district since kindergarten I think going away for his senior year would be too tough of a sell.
I am a semi-finalist and chose China summer as my first option, and Russia summer as my second. I’ve been taking Mandarin in school for a while now, but don’t know how that will affect my chances of becoming a finalist.
Was anyone notified of the time and location of their interview? I was told I would receive an email later about scheduling it.
so happy to be a semifinalist for korean summer!! i’m sure all of us are scouring the internet for any and all information, but there’s just a lot of stuff out there. which blogs/websites/threads/videos/people/forums were the most helpful to you?? mostly looking for advice for the interview and maybe reflections on experience.
@randomstudent789 Yes, you will receive an email from one of the implementing organizations (e.g., iEARN, AFS, American Councils) asking you to accept an interview request on x date by picking a time for the interview. Once you do that, they will send you an email confirming your time on the date of the interview. Interviews appear to be starting this weekend, and should conclude by January 20th (based on past years). Good luck all!
Hi Lacolibri
I’m brand new to college confidential. Was wondering if I could message you with some questions about what to expect in the interview? I’m a semi finalist for India.
Thanks so much!
@izzalu sure!
My daughter got rejected as well. Do you guys think her age might have been a factor - she will turn 15 only late May. She skipped a grade and is a sophomore, so still has a couple tries left. Does anyone know if NSLI reads previous years’ essays for repeat applicants? In other words, is it better to write new essays if prompts are similar or re-use old ones? Is it ok to re-use parent recommendations? Thanks in advance!
Hello! @typiCAmom
I’m sorry your daughter was rejected this cycle, but at least she has two more years to apply! I think a lot of people think that age is a factor, but I think generally applicants who are older have had more opportunities to showcase their maturity and responsibility - two factors nsliy considers a lot. I know people who have gotten into nsliy when they applied as freshman, it’s not that common, but it’s typically because that younger student has already demonstrated their maturity and ability to cope with being away in a foreign country. I don’t know if nsliy reads previous essays, but I would highly recommend writing everything from scratch for next year’s application because a lot can change within the span of a year, and your daughter will be a different person. The prompts typically remain the same. It’s up to you if you want to re-use your parent recommendation, but I think it would be best to rewrite it. You can always pull elements from your previous rec for next year’s.
If you have any more questions, let me know 
Lacolibri, thanks for your insight. There were other things that might have pulled down her application - she already visited the country once for a family event, and of course that won’t change next year’s application. But maybe she just gets lucky…
I just received an email to schedule my interview! It seems so sudden because last year there was about a month of time elapsed between my semi-finalist notification and my interview day.
Our kid did not put down 2nd language choice for both summer and academic because he really was interested in learning and improving one specific language (and he was already fluent in another language). I don’t know if it worked but he got selected as Finalists for both Summer and Academic Year (he’s abroad now taking a gap year). He was actually happier about getting into the Academic Year Program than getting into a college of his choice.
@zancarelipy what region are you in? My D seems to think interviews are given by/in region and not by specific language program?
@SilvMm yes, interviews are conducted regionally. NSLIY employs AFS to do the interviews, and depending on where you live, you will be invited at an interview event, where AFS interviews multiple applicants in one day in a particular region.
@typiCAmom I’m actually in the same situation as your daughter (skipped a grade, currently a sophomore, turning fifteen tomorrow!) and what I think helped me make it to the next round was demonstrating maturity through polished essays (like what lacolibri said). I wouldn’t re-use essays because they want to see growth- though I’m sure your daughter might find that she will be using similar reasons for wanting the scholarship in her new essays. What I did that really worked for me was have literally everyone that I knew (from my current English teacher to my English teacher from a previous school that I left three years ago) look at and critique my essays. I also had my guidance counselor look at them. All of the people I asked had experience editing/critiquing other student’s college app essays, which helped a ton because they knew what mistakes/things to look out for. I also had a gem of an NSLIY alumnus look it over for me, and that definitely made a difference (helped me know what NSLIY personally was looking for). For parent recs- I’m obviously not a parent, but teenagers change so much over the course of a year, especially when we’re still so young and figuring things out. So it might help to completely rewrite, and perhaps reflect on the changes that your daughter has gone through over the period of time before the next app cycle.