Why bother Historically, participation in Slavic classes has lead to an exceptionally high success rate in competing for national fellowships, graduate programs, corporate and government employment. I am always more than willing to help with the letters of recommendation and securing contacts in the former Eastern Europe, government services, and other US universities. With such smaller languages in the areas with strategic interests of the US government, one stands much higher chances than with larger European languages.

What to do a. Take a combination of Slavic language courses. Click here for their descriptions and here for their line numbers b. Work with the instructor Danko.Sipka@asu.edu, www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka, on applying for an appropriate national fellowship c. Submit your application in December and wait until April hoping for success. If it is close but no cigar, try again next year. There is never a guarantee of success, yet with these courses you stand a realistic chance.

Timetable You can aim for either 2008 or 2009 application cycle. Please take a look at the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Polish Courses which and choose the right combination of these and other Slavic courses.

A case in point Robert Niebuhr (niebuhro@bc.edu, www2.bc.edu/~niebuhro, a doctoral candidate at Boston College is one of many people who utilized his knowledge of a Slavic language to secure several fellowships and spend extensive periods of time in the Balkans, and to secure a place in a doctoral program. See his travel photos and more travel photos. You can write him to niebuhro@bc.edu and ask about his experiences and effective strategies of competing for fellowships. If you need to talk to more people about their experiences, write to Danko.Sipka@asu.edu, and you will get more e-mail addresses.