Dear AFS Volunteers,  

With the exciting launch of 2025’s study abroad programs, we are pleased to announce an early application deadline for applicants interested in being considered for our Global Citizenship Scholarship Fund (GCSA). You can learn more about GCSA here. 

We encourage applicants seeking financial aid to complete their application by Monday, November 25th to maximize their chances of qualifying for the maximum amount of available funds and securing their top choice of program.  

As a reminder our programs are filled on a rolling basis, and both program spots and funding are limited. 

AFS-USA aims to provide $1 million of scholarship funding each fiscal year across each program cycle-summer, semester, and year. By introducing an early application deadline, we want to ensure that those in need of financial assistance have the best opportunity to receive scholarships and reserve their place before programs begin to close. Additionally, this early deadline will help us fill the programs and send applications to the hosting partners sooner, resulting in faster acceptance of eligible applicants.  

In summary, AFS-USA will award available scholarship funds throughout the program application cycle. However, to help students obtain the maximum benefit, we’re instituting this deadline in order to create a level of urgency. During the previous cycle, students who applied late in the process were often disappointed to learn that their destination(s) of choice were no longer available and/or the scholarship funds had been depleted. By establishing this early deadline, we’ll be able to collect a majority of the applications by that date which, in turn, will afford us the opportunity to take a more holistic and equitable approach to all applicants. 

We anticipate announcing an additional GCSA deadline in the new year, which will extend the opportunity to those not being able to meet the early deadline and allow us to award any remaining scholarship funds.   

If you have any questions, contact Caitlin Schneider at cschneider@afsusa.org and Adriana Miladinovic at amiladinovic@afsusa.org and please make sure to mention the November 25th deadline to any interested applicants you may speak with.  

We look forward to the wonderful experiences of our future AFSers! 

Sending our thanks, 

Caitlin and Adriana