WISLI 2024 Funding Opportunities for Language Study-Updated Details and Deadlines to be Announced in Fall 2023

Funding Opportunities for Study at WISLI

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WISLI Tuition Scholarship

The Summer 2025 WISLI Tuition Scholarship

Deadline: Mid/Late February 2025 — exact date TBD

The WISLI Tuition Scholarship covers 50% of the tuition for summer language study at one of the WISLI summer language institutes. See Tuition and Fees for information about estimated costs.

The WISLI Tuition Scholarship does not cover expenses such as segregated fees, textbooks, living expenses, housing, incidentals, travel or other costs.  International students are required to have UW–Madison approved health insurance coverage, and may need to enroll in the UW Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) if not able to get a waiver. Students who have not previously attended UW–Madison will be charged a one-time official document fee of $130.00.

For more information and to apply, go to: https://wisli.wisc.edu/wisli-tuition-scholarship/.

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships

WISLI students may be eligible for a Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship. Disclaimer: the Multilanguage Seminar is not eligible for FLAS. Visit flas.wisc.edu or your home institute FLAS office regarding FLAS summer fellowships.

The deadline for the FLAS fellowship application for Summer 2025 is TBD. Be sure to attend FLAS Information Sessions to find out more!

**Below graphic is from 2024 and will be updated once info session and deadline dates are established.**

Boren Awards Regional Flagship Language Initiatives

Boren Awards Regional Flagship Language Initiatives offer undergraduate Boren Scholars and graduate Boren Fellows carefully-selected, credit-bearing language courses during the summer (domestic) and fall (overseas), with the option to continue overseas study into the spring.

In 2020, University of Wisconsin Madison was awarded the Indonesian Flagship Language Initiative (IFLI) for the study of Indonesian, the South Asian Flagship Languages Initiative (SAFLI) for the study of Hindi or Urdu, and the Turkish Flagship Language Initiative (TURFLI). IFLI has now expanded to become the Southeast Asian Flagship Initiative (SEAFLI) and includes Vietnamese and Thai as well. These programs bring students to UW-Madison for a fully funded intensive language study at the Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes (WISLI). Students will then continue their studies overseas in India (SAFLI), Southeast Asia (SEAFLI), or Azerbaijan (TURFLI) during the fall semester.

Applications for summer 2025 are now open.

  • Boren Fellowship deadline: January 22, 2025, 5 P.M. EST
  • Boren Scholarships: January 29, 2025, 5 P.M. EST

Beginner language students typically meet the ILR 1+/2 level of proficiency (Intermediate High to Advanced Low) by the end of their program.

Summer Language Institutes Funding Pages

Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute (CESSI)

Middle Eastern & Mediterranean Language Institute (MEDLI)

Intensive Summer Multilanguage Seminar (MULTI)

Scandinavian Summer Language Institute (NORD)

South Asia Summer Language Institute (SASLI)

Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI)

Summer Intensive Portuguese Institute (SIPI)

UW-Madison Summer Term

Visit the UW-Madison Summer Term website for information on scholarship opportunities, including:

Scholarships for Nontraditional Students

Visit the Scholarships for Nontraditional Students website for more information on scholarships for admitted UW-Madison nontraditional and returning adult students.

Third Party and Institutional Payments

If someone will be sponsoring you to attend a WISLI institute (i.e. paying your tuition), please review the following procedures:

In order to create a third party payment, the UW-Madison Bursar’s office needs a letter of authorization from the sponsoring organization. You will need to have your sponsor send the following information on department or university letterhead:

  • Your Name
  • Your University of Wisconsin-Madison Student ID number
  • The Duration of Sponsorship (For 2025 the dates are June 16 – August 8, 2025)
  • Amount to be invoiced
  • Your Sponsor’s Contact Name and Address
  • How payment will be made (Check or wire transfer)
  • *Special Invoice Instructions (Where and who the invoice must be addressed to)

The letter of authorization should be forwarded immediately to thirdparty@bussvc.wisc.edu. If the sponsor’s letter of authorization is received before the tuition and fee bill is generated, the amount of charges deferred to a third party sponsor is indicated on the bill.

*If possible, please have your sponsor copy your institution’s email when sending the letter

Once your sponsor has completed these steps, you can log on to your MyUW account (opens in new tab) and select the Financial tab to view your Tuition and Fee Student Account activity; you should be able to determine that your charges have been deferred to a third party sponsor for payment. Please allow a minimum of 5 business days for processing.

If the sponsor is not paying the entire tuition and fee cost, you must pay the remaining balance before the tuition due date in order to avoid a late payment fee.

PLEASE NOTE: If the sponsor’s authorization is not received prior to the tuition due date, you will be held responsible for payment of the late payment fee.

Once the authorization letter has been received a third party deferral is applied to the student’s account. The third party invoice will be issued by approximately mid-July for the Summer semester. The sponsor needs to notify the University in writing should a student be removed from sponsorship.

Other Resources for Funding

Below is a list of databases that students can search on an individual basis in order to find funding opportunities that would best fit their situation.

  • Pivot: Offers several databases for approximately 25,000 private and federal funding sources. Grants in the non-science areas are included. (Note: You must set up a personal login account using a wisc.edu email – free to UW-Madison clientele – through the COS Workbench feature for some of the COS Pivot services, however, a login is not necessary to use the database.)

The following Research Guides provide information on potential funding opportunities for

Students are also encouraged to check with their home departments and their campus financial aid office for help in identifying other funding opportunities.