CIEE Application Process

I started preparing for this program in Sept. 2016, before it even became visible on the CIEE website.
Dec. 5th I started my application.
Jan. 11th it was submitted.
Jan. 18th it was declined due to full capacity.

The program filled up before my professor turned in my letter of recommendation. Extremely disappointed, I almost didn't even consider transferring my application to the fall. I kept thinking to myself maybe it wasn't really meant to be... 

Having already missed the graduate school application deadline, I figured, eh, what the heck. Fall it is.

Jan. 24th I was accepted into the fall program. This same day, I was told that I would receive my placement in August.

Seeing as I still had 7 months until that time and another 2 until the program would even begin, I continued working my two jobs as a bartender, picked up a side job transcribing Spanish interviews for a university PhD student and tried to save as much money as I could before this new journey.

As August finally approached, I was getting a little anxious to hear about my placement.

Aug. 16th we were finally given our "placements"

I was a little disappointed when it turned out that my "placement" didn't actually mean the location within Portugal in which I was going to be placed. It was just another email letting me know I was accepted into the program and that I was going to be in Portugal. Well... yeah. Wasn't that the program I signed up for?

In this same email, we were told to wait until the end of Aug./beginning of Sept. before receiving any information on our school placements.

Sept. 6th we were given our arrival date. That day would be Oct. 12th. Exactly 36 days notice for securing our flights to Lisbon - where orientation would be held - and finalizing any last minute preparations for our new life abroad. (Technically only 35 days, because you have to take into consideration that you typically have to leave a day earlier to arrive by the requested date.)

Sept. 26th we were finally given our school placements.

It seemed like I had waited an entire year for this piece of information... because, well, I basically did. So now that I had a location of where I would be staying, I could finally satisfy the curiosity and even hush the doubtful of all those interested who would, week by week, ask for updates.  

Now, I'm not trying to bore you with all the details of my application process. It was longer than what most will actually have to go through. I only hope that some of you interested in being future language assistants will see this timeline and it will help you keep your composure during this process (because it's a long one).

And for those of you, like me, living in a college town, your lease was probably over sometime in June-Aug. Meaning you're probably unfortunate enough, like me, to be stuck subletting an apartment temporarily because you weren't sure of the exact departure date. And because your sublet couldn't be renewed for another month without paying for the entire month, you probably had to make, yet, another move. This time into your mom's house or a hotel, like I did (because your moms house was under renovation). And maybe you've been stressed because you were studying for the GRE, like I was, so that you could take the test before leaving the country; otherwise deadlines would pass while you would be away. Or maybe you are also working 3 jobs, like I did, trying to pay for the high cost of living in your town AND save for your dream travels come time to leave. All the while having your bosses and friends and family and even patrons of work hound you week after week to know more information. When are you going to put your two weeks in? When are you leaving? Do you have a date yet? Are you even going? How do you still not have a departure date? Yet, you still can't answer these questions because you still don't know when you'll be leaving...

What I want to say to you is, stay calm and keep your composure. Complaining won't help because the coordinators only know the information that they've given you. (Trust me on this one.) It's okay to ask questions ahead of time like, what will the attire be? What are the holidays celebrated there? (i.e. what will your days off from school be?) How many hours will you work a week? They may tell you that "oh, you'll find this information out during the webinar," but let me tell you, the webinar won't be until about a week before you leave. So, if you're, like me, and have no attire for teaching and you have a million other things to worry about come closer to your time to leave the country, you need to know these things so you can request off from work to go buy correct attire. Or so that you have dates to tell your parents when they can come visit. They will have this type of information, so don't be afraid to ask. 

And remember, no matter what pressures you're feeling now, soon enough, you'll be doing exactly what you signed up to do. So until then, try to keep your composure.