UCLA FLAS: Home

The federally funded and regulated Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship program supports graduate training in modern foreign languages and related area studies. Academic-year awards provide a $15,000 stipend as well as registration fees and tuition. Summer awards provide a stipend up to $2,500 plus tuition and fees to a maximum of $4,000. New and continuing students in all disciplines may apply for academic year and summer awards.

The fellowship requires that students take language and area studies courses for a letter grade during the academic year if in residence at UCLA. Currently approved area programs are East Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Currently approved languages for academic year study include, for East Asia: Chinese, Japanese and Korean; for Latin America: Portuguese, Quechua and Advanced Spanish; for the Middle East: Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish; and for Southeast Asia: Indonesian, Filipino/Tagalog, Khmer, Thai and Vietnamese.

To apply for a FLAS fellowship, students must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Since the purpose of the program is to enrich the nation’s pool of area and international specialists, applicants must be planning to use their training to teach, to serve in government or international agencies or to engage in other work that advances American understanding of other countries. Fellowship recipients must be engaged in full-time study for the duration of their awards and must submit reports on the courses they pursue and the progress they make. Awards may be used for dissertation research, but this must be approved in advance.

Application Procedures
As of 2007–2008, all FLAS applications must be completed online. Required information includes:

• a statement of purpose outlining one’s research and language study plans and explaining how language study will enhance the project
• 2 academic letters of recommendation
• 1 language evaluation or proficiency certification
• Unofficial university transcripts (not URSA)
• endorsement from one’s home department

The deadline for applications is the applicant’s home department deadline for Graduate Student support OR February 15, 2008, whichever comes first. Since FLAS applications must receive endorsement from the home department, it is essential that they be submitted by the departmental deadline for review.