The FLAS Fellowship Program is predicated on the belief that "the well-being of the United States is dependent on the education and training of Americans in international and foreign language studies."

• Eligibility Requirements
  Languages Classified by Area
  Financial Provisions
  Employment
  Applications 

Related Information   

            FLAS Application for Enrolled Students                      

            FLAS Application for Students who are applying to GSAS

Please note that the Fact Sheets and Applications are in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required for viewing PDF format files. You may download Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Web site.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible to apply for a FLAS fellowship, a student must meet the following criteria:

   1. Be a citizen or eligible permanent resident of the United States, or be in the process of becoming a citizen or permanent resident of the United States (in the latter case, immigration documentation is required);

   2. Be enrolled in one graded, FLAS approved language and one graded, area studies course per term; or be engaged in domestic or overseas dissertation research in the international aspects of professional (or other) fields of study. Please be aware that domestic research is of lowest priority.

   3. Be enrolled in a graduate degree program in one of the Harvard graduate schools. All non-GSAS applicants must notify their school's Financial Aid Office that they intend to apply for a FLAS Fellowship to ensure the schools participation.

   4. For use of fellowship overseas: must be enrolled in an advanced language program overseas approved by the Department of Education; or pursue PhD dissertation research, provided there is affiliation with an overseas institution of higher education or appropriate organization in the host country. Students must submit the following information along with the application:

• The name of the institution where the student will be conducting research;
• The name of a contact at that institution
• The dates of travel.

   5. FLAS fellows must complete an electronic Student Performance Report at the end of the fellowship. Failure to submit this report precludes future participation in the program.

Languages Classified by Area

The following languages, classified by World Area, are approved by the US Department of Education for Harvard University to offer FLAS Fellowships:

East Asia
    Mandarin Chinese*, Japanese*, Korean, Tibetan, Vietnamese
East Europe
    Bosnian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian, Uzbek and Yiddish
Latin America
    Portuguese**

Middle East
    Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish

* Applicant must have completed the equivalent of two years of college study in Mandarin Chinese or two years of college study in Japanese.

** Although Portuguese is the only approved language we may in some cases petition for other Latin American languages.

Financial Provisions

Academic year fellowships provide a tuition grant of up to $12,000, plus a $15,000 stipend to be dispersed monthly over a ten-month period. Remaining tuition and health fees, if any, must be covered by the students' school of enrollment within Harvard University (i.e. GSAS, GSE, Divinity School). All Non-GSAS applicants must notify their school's Financial Aid Office that they have applied for a FLAS.

Applicants who plan to study abroad are expected to apply for other appropriate sources of funding (Japan Foundation, ACCELS, etc.) for their World Area.

 Employment

Employment during the fellowship period is very limited. FLAS recipients must obtain approval from the FLAS Coordinator for any TF or other work opportunities before accepting them, to ensure compliance with federal regulations and continuation of thier grant. Employment may not exceed the value of one-fifth of teaching per term. 

Applications

A complete FLAS application consists of the following: fellowship application, letter(s) of recommendation, an official transcript, and a statement of purpose. Additionally, students applying for the dissertation research FLAS must have their project descriptions signed by their advisor, and should include the following information: the name of the institution, the name of a contact at the institution, and the dates of travel abroad.

Applicants must note on their FLAS application other fellowship programs to which they have applied and, if possible, the results of the applications. Please include this list at the end of the Statement of Purpose.

A letter of recommendation is required of all applicants; applicants to the Middle East World Area are required to submit two letters of recommendation, one from a language and one from an area studies instructor. While it is valuable to have letters from language teachers, students are encouraged to include letters from their advisors in disciplines other than language instruction.

For further information please contact:

    FLAS Coordinator

    Holyoke Center, 3rd Floor

    1350 Massachusetts Ave

    Cambridge, MA 02138

    Phone: 617-495-5396

    Fax: 617-496-5333

    E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it