FLAS Fellowships support undergraduate, graduate and professional students in acquiring modern foreign languages and area or international studies competencies.   Students from all departments and professional schools are encouraged to apply. FLAS Fellowships are available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.  

FLAS Fellows receive:

• Academic Year Graduate: $18,000 tuition, $15,000 living stipend
• Academic Year Undergraduate: $10,000 tuition,$5,000 living stipend
• Summer Graduate/Undergraduate: $5,000 tuition,$2500 living stipend

Contingent on funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the eight National Resource Centers of the University of Washington will offer Academic Year and Summer FLAS Fellowships in the following languages:

Arabic –Bangla –Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian -Burmese –Chinese –Hebrew –Hindi –Indigenous languages spoken in Canada –Indonesian –Inuktitut –Japanese –Kazakh –Khmer –Korean –Persian –Portuguese –Russian – Swahili –Tagalog –Thai –Turkish –Urdu -Uyghur –Vietnamese    

Graduate Students Only: French (intermediate or advanced only)

Undergraduate applicants should note that they must be studying a language other than French, German or Spanish and are ineligible for FLAS awards to fund beginning level language study.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Summer Award Details

• Applicants must propose intensive summer language programs that are a minimum of six consecutive weeks and 140 classroom hours for beginning/intermediate level or 120 classroom hours for advanced level
• Award may be used at UW, another U.S. institution, or at an overseas institution
• Students should apply to their summer programs as soon as possible.  Many programs have deadlines that are earlier than the FLAS application deadline. 
• To study abroad students must be at the intermediate or advanced level unless an appropriate beginning language program is not available in the U.S.  Study abroad must be undertaken in an established program, institute or university.
  The UW Study Abroad Office is available to help applicants find summer programs abroad.  FLAS applicants seeking to transfer summer program credits from overseas institutions to UW must apply through the Study Abroad Office, and deadlines for application are between February 15 and March 15
• All applicants should carefully read the guidelines specific to the Center to which they are applying     

Academic Year Award Details

• Awardees must be enrolled full-time for the duration of their award (Graduate 10 credits per quarter, Undergraduate 12 credits per quarter)
• Applicants must propose a program of study that includes at least 3 credits per quarter in the language of their award and 3 credits per quarter in either area or international studies or the area or international aspects of professional or other fields of study.  The area studied must match the Center applied to--i.e. a student applying for Spanish through the Center for West Europe must be studying Europe, not Latin America.
• PhD candidates may propose dissertation research abroad. See FAQs for more details.
• All applicants should carefully read the guidelines specific to the Center to which they are applying.

Priorities

• Priority will be given to applicants with a high level of academic ability and with previous language training.
• Priority will be given to applicants who are most likely to pursue government service or enter a professional field.
• Priority will be given to applicants who show potential in meeting critical national security needs.
• Low priority is given to applicants who have achieved language fluency equivalent to educated native speakers in the language for which the award is sought.
• Low priority is given to applicants proposing dissertation research or writing.

Additional Information

FLAS Undergraduate Fellowships are administered by the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies National Resource Centers under a grant from the United States Department of Education.

Applicants should carefully read all FLAS guidelines, including Center-specific guidelines, before applying.

Understanding the focus of each center and the relevance of the languages offered to that focus is important to developing a strong application. For example, the Center for West European Studies offers support for the study of Turkish, but its focus would be on Turkish as it is used within Western Europe, not Turkey. The Middle East Center offers Turkish, and its focus would be the use of Turkish in Turkey, not Western Europe. So choosing which center to apply to is driven by your language and the focus for your studies.

Applicants may apply for both summer and academic year awards, may apply for FLAS funding for more than one language, or for a language offered by more than one center. In all cases, applicants must submit a separate and complete application for each term, language or center. (NOTE: Only one complete set of three recommendation letters, test scores, and transcripts is required. See FAQs for further details about multiple applications.)

• freshman
• sophomore
• junior
• senior
• graduate

• US Citizen
• Permanent Resident

Please see https://jsis.washington.edu/advise/funding/flas/flas-application/ for application information and additional details.

What materials do I need to apply for a FLAS fellowship?

1. A written proposal, in essay format, of approximately two single-spaced pages detailing your academic plan and how the FLAS fits in with your education and/or career plans.  The proposal should answer the following questions: (1) How will receipt of the fellowship contribute to your academic and career goals? ; (2) What is your planned course of study pertaining to the region for which you are applying? ; (3) What is your proposed language training? ; (4) How will your proposed language and area studies training contribute to your academic and career goals?
2. Official or unofficial transcripts from all colleges or universities attended (in electronic format; no hard copies accepted)
3. Letters of recommendation; applicants for graduate FLAS fellowships must submit 2 general and 1 language recommendation. Applicants for undergraduate FLAS fellowships must submit 1 general and 1 language recommendation. Each recommendation must be from a different person (one person cannot complete both your general and your language recommendation).  Note that each recommendation submitted will be attached to each application submitted. Additional recommendations can be added if you feel it will strengthen your application, including additional language recommendations if applicable.  The application system will ask if you want to waive your right to see the letters of recommendation.  While it is not required, note that most applicants choose to waive the right to view the letter of recommendation because confidentiality strengthens letters of recommendation.
4. Federal student aid report (SAR) or UW Office of Financial Aid award letter