Language Evaluations and Recommendations for Scholarships and Fellowships
Important! Plan Ahead!
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies is happy to support scholarship and fellowship applicants and recipients. If you need a language evaluation or recommendation for a scholarship application or award, such as Fulbright or FLAS, you should request the evaluation no later than the end of spring quarter. Spanish and Portuguese faculty members do not work for the Department during quarter breaks, and most do not work for the Department during summer quarter. In addition, instructors are often off campus during finals week. If you make your request for a language evaluation or recommendation after the end of spring quarter, you may find that no one is available to help you, and you could miss out on your scholarship/fellowship opportunity.
Contact Dalia Correa, Academic Advisor at spsadv@uw.edu, with your request for an appointment at least two weeks in advance of when you hope to meet with an instructor. Language evaluations, or language recommendations, take 30-45 minutes and require an appointment. Evaluations and recommendations cannot be done on a drop-in basis, so please do not stop by an instructor’s office, expecting that an evaluation or recommendation to be completed on-site.
If summer quarter is currently in session, there are likely only a few language instructors on campus. For the best chance of finding an available faculty member, contact the Academic Advisor no later than the end of July. Note that most instructors do not teach during summer quarter, and the ones who do, usually teach during A term. Between July 1st and August 5th, there are typically two or three language instructors teaching on campus during this period, the chances of finding an available faculty member decreases significantly.
During the month of August, we do not schedule language evaluation or recommendation appointments. They will start up again the beginning of autumn quarter which begins in late September. If you find yourself in this situation:
- Contact the appropriate scholarship representative regarding next steps. For FLAS, see Robyn Davis ( rldavis@uw.edu). For Fulbright, undergraduate students and alumni should contact the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships, and Awards (scholarq@uw.edu). Graduate and professional students, and alumni, should contact the Office of Fellowships and Awards in the Graduate School (gradappt@uw.edu).
- Contact a university that is on a semester system, such as the University of Puget Sound, or Seattle University. Given that in a semester system, autumn classes typically start in August, you may be able to find an available language instructor at another university to conduct your language evaluation or recommendation.
Staff members do not have access to faculty members’ schedules, nor can they contact instructors on your behalf during periods when they are not contracted to work for the Department.