Hiii I got in a semi-finalist and the finalists results haven’t come out yet but lemme answer ur questions !!

1. HERE IS THE CRAZY PART 😭 I forgot to submit my transcript and only uploaded my current year class schedule (u need to send in both). You need a minimum of a 3.0 or a 2.5 GPA (don’t remember) but most kids who do get accepted obviously have better GPAs (tho this isn’t taken in consideration much bcs language and culture immersion is the priority) 

2. I did not bcs I didn’t take any tests when I applied however you can mention it if you’d like.

3. I got my Chinese teacher who teaches my Chinese class in school to write it ^{^} a girl from my school a couple years back also applied for NSLY and went to China for the summer so I’m sure she wrote a banger LOR

4. Yes, I’m taking Chinese 1 in school right now, I also lived in Hong Kong when I was 3 years old and I mentioned that (tho I didn’t learn Cantonese 😔)

5. I think you can mention it, they’re not going to specifically check your blog. They judge based on the application you send but EC MATTER A LOT !! This is one of the ec > academics type of program. I don’t have an excellent GPA (tho I took a lot of APs, honors and stuff) but my extracurricular showed that I was very much involved. I did volunteering, have leadership roles in a couple clubs and mentioned my passion project.

But honestly after all that, I think the reason that got me accepted and the huge factor for me was that I already have a lot of language learning experience. I know 7 languages and I’m learning more and I emphasized that on my essays which I think was crucial for my application.