APPLICATION

APPLYING FOR NSLI-Y

Interview

Semi-Finalist Stage

*image taken from Google Images

I’ll start this by saying there isn’t a set way to prepare for your interview because every interviewer is different. That being said, I can say don’t worry about it too much, just be honest with your answers and you should be fine.

My interview was on January 18, the place I went to was about a 30 minute drive away from my house. I was really surprised because the interview occurred in a house-- I was actually interviewed in the living room. Interestingly enough, I learned that my interviewer was just a volunteer who had hosted students in her home many different times. She didn’t know much about the NSLIY program, and couldn’t answer specific questions about how much the interview counted to the selection process. If you have any questions it would probably be best to contact NSLIY through email.

I, of course, arrived there early. We had to fill out a form about my household (which I think helped the host family selection process, but I’m not completely sure), after I was led to the living room to start the interview. She started by explaining how the interview would go, she would ask me a question and I could use as much time as I need to formulate a response. My interviewer even had a notebook to write what I said down which gave me even more time to add things in. The very last thing she asked me was if I had anything I wanted to say, which is your chance to say something the interview questions didn’t address.

Here are a few sample questions:

-If you can’t communicate well with your host family, what would you do?

- How did you get interested in your target language?

- Describe your strengths and weaknesses

As for what you should wear to the interview, definitely think Business casual. You don’t need to get super fancy, but still need to look nice. Finally, I just want to say, again, be honest with your answers and your passion for the program will easily be displayed to your interviewer.

I'll be posting a vlog from the day of my interwiew on Youtube soon.

Parent Recommendation/ Teacher Recommendation

Applicant Stage

*image taken from Google Images

Here I will give a few tips for the recommendation forms for the NSLI-Y application.

With the NSLIY application, even after the application deadline, you’re not done. Why? Because you still have to complete a parent recommendation form and a teacher recommendation form.

Many people do not know where to start for the parent recommendation; I looked on forums and other NSLI-Y blogs to find out what kind of things my mom should address. I think the easiest way to get the parent recommendation form done is to have your parent and siblings list all the words that come to mind when they think of you (both good and bad). This way it will be easier to write a paragraph that summarizes you with the best qualities of you and some of your weaknesses.

Whenever choosing a recommendation from a teacher, I think it’s best to choose someone who you have a friendly relationship with. For mine, I asked my Math II teacher, who taught me my sophomore year and she also happens to be my bowling “coach” at school. Immediately after I asked her to write my recommendation, she said, “of course”. The next day, I handed her the printed information sheet about NSLIY, and that was it. I would definitely advise you to ask your teacher in advance so that they have time to write about a glowing review about you. (I’m pretty sure I asked my math teacher before I even completed the initial application). It would probably be really annoying to get asked to write a recommendation with only a week’s time to complete it.

Once these two things are out of the way, (the due date for 2014 year was November 19), you have a few weeks of waiting until you hear back. The best way to get through the waiting period for me was obsessing over all the NSLI-Y blogs and YouTube videos, it was a great way to past time and educate myself on things that I could potentially do if I continued.