So I just realized that I haven't actually explained what CBYX is or about the application process behind it. The Congress- Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (a.k.a CBYX) is a program jointly funded by the US Congress and the German Bundestag. The program was founded in 1983 in celebration of 300th year anniversary of the first German immigration to the United States. It was created to strengthen ties between the United States and Germany through citizen diplomacy. Every year, CBYX sends 250 American high school students to Germany on a full scholarship for approximately 10 months. The German equivalent of CBYX, Parlamentarisches Patenschafts Programm (a.k.a PPP) sends a similar number of German high school students to the US on a full scholarship for approximately 10 months. In the US, CBYX is broken up into five different regions, each region being run by a separate exchange organization. The Northeast is run by AFS, the Southeast, my region, is run by CIEE, the Midwest is run by FLAG, the Northwest is run by ASSE, and the North-central region is run by YFU. Each region has a different application and selection process, but they all send 50 students. Each exchange organization has a partnership with an organization in Germany that helps with the selection and placement process.
Since I am with CIEE, I do not know the specifics of the other organization's application and selection process but I have heard that they are similar. CIEE, along with the other organizations, releases their application in late summer. It is a very long and daunting application but is well worth it in the end. For the CIEE application, we had to write 250 word or less responses to six different short answer questions. These questions were things like why do you want to be an exchange student, describe your family life, discuss your relationship with a close friend, describe your participation in an activity, describe a non-academic situation where you have faced defeat and how did you deal with it, etc. Along with the short essays, we had to write a letter to our future host family, get two teacher recommendations, get your school transcript, and put information about us, such as hobbies and extracurricular activities. The whole point of the initial application is for the organization to get an idea of your personality and to decide who they would like to offer interviews to. My biggest advice for the application is to just be yourself and to let your personality shine through but also take it seriously and don't procrastinate on it because the application is a huge part of the selection because this is where they make the most cuts and you don't want to just throw together your application last minute. From the applications, the organization chooses semi-finalists that they would like to give in person interviews. CIEE chooses around 100 semi-finalists, but other organizations pick different amounts. To get an interview is a huge accomplishment because this is the stage where the most cuts are made. This year CIEE had about 1,000 applicants and they only offered 100 interviews, this is why you want to make sure you do the best on your application that you possibly can. I have a whole post dedicated to the interview so I'm not going to put a lot about it in this post but it's really fun to get to meet the other semi's in your area. My biggest advice for the interview is to be yourself and to prepare for the individual interview ahead of time. I did a mock interview with my Dad ahead of time and had my parents drill me on questions that might be asked to help me prepare. In the end you never know what they're going to ask but it helps you relax a little more to go into it knowing you are as prepared as you possibly can be. Also, dress nicely for the interview, it never hurts to overdress and make a good impression. Even though they say it is casual, most of the kids wear dress pants and a nice dress shirt/ blouse/ blazer. After the interview there is a few weeks until they announce finalists. The wait during this time is killer but it's best to try and relax and take your mind off it. It will not help you to obsess over your interview answers and how you think you did because that will stress you out and by this point there is nothing else you can do. After the finalist and alternate notifications come out there is a lot of preparing to do for Germany. I am currently in the middle of this process and it can be very stressful at times but it is all so worth it. I would also like to say, if you are not accepted don't put yourself down, you are not a failure! It is amazing that you want to go out and explore the world at such a young age. There are not many high school students that would even think about leaving their family and friends for a year to study abroad and you should be very proud of yourself for wanting to experience that. If you are not accepted, take that extra year in America to prepare to apply again and use it as a year of growth. If this is something you really want and are really passionate about you will find a way to make it happen.
I'm sorry this post is so long, but I really hope that it helps future CBYX applicants! Good luck to the 2014-2015 applicants!!!
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