Dear , 

On behalf of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, we are pleased to inform you that finalists have been notified for the 2025 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program, pending availability of funding.

Please remember: 

• Students who appear as “Finalist” were selected to receive the award. Congratulations! 
• Students who appear as “Alternate” will be considered in the alternate promotion process. Alternates are eligible to be selected for the award if there are finalists who do not accept their award. Alternate promotion takes place on a rolling basis up until the start of the program with most promotions taking place before June 1. 
• Students who appear as “Non-selected” were not selected and will not be considered in the promotion process.

You can now log in to see the selection status for applicants at your institution in the Application Information System (AIS) located at: https://ais.americancouncils.org/start

If you need to reset your password, please use the email address that this email was sent to. After you have reset your password, you will log in with your AIS username and updated password. If you need help identifying your username, please email us at clsadvisors@americancouncils.org. 

As a reminder, notifications were sent to the primary email address listed on each student’s application. If you have students who are waiting to hear back, please encourage them to check their spam filters and to wait 24 hours before reaching out to us with questions. If they still do not see a notification from us, they should email cls@americancouncils.org to confirm their email address for the message.

Finalists at your institution will receive a detailed email from their designated CLS Program Officer outlining next steps in accepting their award. Finalists have until Friday, March 21 at 5 PM Eastern to complete the required paperwork and formally accept their award through their AIS applicant portal. 

We recommend setting up an advising appointment with your finalist(s) and also encouraging them to attend the Say Yes to CLS Webinar which will be hosted on March 19 at 8 PM Eastern for CLS Spark finalists and on March 20 at 8 PM Eastern for CLS Program finalists. During the webinar, finalists will have an opportunity to hear from alumni across a variety of languages on their experiences with CLS. Finalists will be emailed the link for the Say Yes to CLS Webinar directly. 

Thank you for the work you do year-round to support students in applying for the CLS Program. Please be in touch if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Caitlin Ting 
Assistant Manager for Outreach and Selection
Critical Language Scholarship Program