Monday, November 5, 2012

2013 PMF Program Application: Open Thread

The 2013 PMF program is officially accepting applications as of today.  Let us know if you are/have submitted your assessment, but please don't discuss the contents of the assessment.  Fair warning: I will delete any comments that include substantive information about the assessment.  There will be a separate open thread after the application deadline for you to discuss that portion.

Application and on-line assessment are in the same step this year, so keep that in mind as you submit your materials.  The PMF Program Office has also released an updated preparation guide to get you started.  The deadline for application submission is 19 November.  Good luck, everyone!

14 comments:

  1. A bit of a unique case: I'm currently abroad through May 2013 wrapping up some thesis research for my master's degree, but my permanent address and home university are both in Washington, DC. I would be happy to travel home for the in-person assessment if I'm lucky enough to make it past the semi-finalist screening. Which address should I use for the application? Or rather, is there any disadvantage to using my current address in Norway?

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  2. I would suggest using your U.S. permanent address for your application submission especially, if you're selected as a semi-finalist considering your in person assessment preference would most likely be DC.

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  3. I officially submitted my PMF application today, including my online assessment after revising my essay answers to comply with the expected word count. I wish all PMF candidates success as we all go forward in this process.

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  4. @pbostro: As long as the PMF Program Office can get in touch with you, I see no reason to preference one address over the other. If you are selected to participate in the in-person assessment, you will be able register for the location that suits you best.

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  5. Does your school need to nominate you, or can you apply year after year (for three years) without your school nominating you? I remember something about school's nomination for 2012 but I don't see anything about that this year.

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  6. @KK-school nominations are no longer necessary as a part of the process.

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  7. My academic advisor told me to apply for PMF the day the applications opened. I had never heard of it before. I went and looked at the application, and in my ignorance, clicked ahead to see the essay questions. Apparently this disqualifies me. (Although I was not notified of being disqualified or anything like that when I clicked the next button.) Is there any way to redeem my application or do I give up now?

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  8. @Kate: I've not looked at the actual instructions, so I couldn't say what the ramifications are for that. Have you tried contacting the PMF Program Office?

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  9. @Kate: How do you know that looking at the essay questions will disqualify you? Several sources have actually suggested that one look at the essay questions, work on them for several days and paste them into your application later.

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  10. Hey all,
    I actually submitted this very question to OPM earlier today since the most recent video suggested previewing the essay questions before the completing the first was grounds for disqualification. Their response reassured me that you COULD click through the first assessment to preview the essay questions and that they are actively working to correct the conflicting information.

    Here's their response:
    "Thank you for contacting us about the tutorial video; we will take action to address the items you raised in your email.

    You may skip the on-line assessment by clicking “Next” on the “Take On-line Assessment” screen, and then coming back later to complete the on-line assessment. We recommend that you complete the essays in a word processing system and copy and paste your responses in the system. You need to complete all 3 essays before proceeding to the next screen in order to save them. Essays should contain a minimum of 2,000 to a maximum of 3,000 characters. The most current information regarding the on-line assessment is contained in the “2013 PMF Assessment Preparation Guide” (found under the “Become a PMF\Assessment Process” section at http://www.pmf.gov/become-a-pmf/assessment-process.aspx)."

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  11. @pbostro: Thanks for checking on this. I'm sure others will be relieved to know this information.

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  12. @pbostro: Thank you so much!
    I'm still a little confused why they would even say that...I guess they just meant htat you can't submit the essays first. At any rate, it's a big relief! :)

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  13. I recently took the Foreign Service exam and thus wasn't too surprised by the type of Agree/Disagree questions posed. But I was surprised by how easily one could repeat one's answers on all three questions.

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  14. I'm not shocked to see the Agree/Disagree questions in there...they're just not my favorite. It's hard to believe that they could get you disqualified from a fellowship, but they must know what they're doing. Good luck to everyone this year!

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