The NELP appplication is open! You can click the green button above to access it!
For priority consideration, a complete application is due by 6pm on January 15.
A complete application consists of the following three elements:
- a filled-out and submitted application form, accessed above
- a $35 application fee, payable through this link
- a scheduled interview (scheduled by following the instructions in the application form).
Questions about the application? Feel free to reach out to pinto@umich.edu.
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For ease of reference, and to save you extensive clicking and scrolling, the questions from the Statement of Purpose portion of the application are copied below.
A. What’s something that you’ve recently been curious about (interested in, obsessed with, going way down the rabbit hole on...) and decided to learn more about? You could write about anything—your new knitting hobby, a house of worship you recently walked into, 19th century French poetry, a mysterious stranger, an obscure YouTube channel, tarot cards, astrophysics, sports betting, whatever! What interests you about this thing, and what does this specific interest (and maybe the way you've approached it) potentially reveal about you?
B. For most students, the NELP experience, while rewarding and fun, includes adversity of various kinds—exposure to cold and wet weather, the hard physical work of maintaining camp, strenuous backpacking, occasional interpersonal conflicts, being away from friends and family and separated from technologies like cell phones, the academic rigor of a program that packs nine credits of upper-level work into 45 days, etc. How does challenge, pressure, and discomfort play out in your life? How has it been a part of the way you learn? Please be honest and detailed about this, and give us an example.
C. Tell us about something you’ve read recently that has been meaningful to you—a work of fiction, an article, an essay, a tweet, a psalm, a book of poems…. Why was it important to you?
D. What’s one of the strangest things you believe? Why do you believe it?
E. Tell us something else about yourself, something you haven’t yet touched on, that helps define or describe you and helps bring into focus what you would bring as a member of the NELP community.
