No. No student can be confirmed until we are sure he/she attended their local seminar and applied/paid while spaces were still available.
Within two (2) weeks of his/her seminar’s conclusion. If you have not heard from us two weeks later, please send an e-mail to elkoussyn@hoby.org.
Because some students may not attend their local seminars due to illness, emergency, or other reasons, HOBY must confirm the student indeed attended before making any official announcement. HOBY will not refund any plane tickets purchased in advance of such verification, thus if you choose to purchase a plane ticket anyway, please note, you do so at your own risk.
HOBY can only allocate approximately 370 seats to US students hailing from 71 seminars, thus each site is given the same percentage based on the size of their local program.
On March 28, HOBY sent every single student selected to attend a state seminar (approximately 9,000 students) as well as the parents and school counselors an e-mail informing them of the opportunity to apply for the WLC. Due to the popularity of HOBY’s programs, many people apply immediately when the announcement is made and others elect to wait and see if they liked their local seminar first. Unfortunately, those that wait run the risk of being unable to attend.
Yes, each site has its own wait list for the WLC. The wait list can be accessed on the first page of the online application. If the wait list for your site is full, you can send an e-mail with the student’s name, seminar site, and contact info to Noora Elkoussy. HOBY will not know if it can take anyone from the wait list until after June 25th. No phone calls please.
As this is a competitive application process, HOBY cannot provide you with this information.
That is hard to say. Not every site will use up all of their spaces while others will use every space and have a long wait list. After June 25th, HOBY will count all the available spaces for each site, and allocate them first to people on the wait list for that site. If there are still available spaces, we will look at all of those on the wait lists and consider a variety of factors before making final decisions.
Unfortunately, WLC protocol has always been that US students must be sophomores who have just completed a HOBY program in their respective state. International students must be between the ages of 15 and 17.
Each student who attends the WLC from a country other than the United States is responsible for coordinating his/her own travel arrangements and obtaining all necessary travel documents. Depending on the country of origin, this may include obtaining a passport and nonimmigrant visa. HOBY will do its best to assist by contacting the US embassy with an official letter that validates your trip. Once you have applied we will provide you with this letter if necessary. See www.unitedstatesvisas.gov for more information.
This answer is provided in your confirmation packet as your place must be confirmed before buying tickets. Knowing that HOBY cannot reimburse airfare for tickets purchased, here are the details.
Yes. HOBY staff will pick up students and escort them back to campus at all points of entry. They will wear HOBY T-shirts and/or have signs that make it easy to find them.
HOBY cannot give this information out without a parent’s consent. If you permit us to give your contact info to other parents/students that would be best.
The $1500 registration fee covers all food, room and board, and program expenses. It does not cover airfare, shuttle fair to/from the airport, or spending money.
For the HOBY shuttle rides, HOBY suggests $70 (max) for a roundtrip ride, assuming you have selected the furthest airport. For spending money, HOBY will be selling merchandise from its HOBY store, at which a student can buy HOBY clothing, messenger bags, books, etc. None of these items are necessary to purchase, thus the amount is at your discretion. We will also have a little free time, possibly at some of the museums and the student may want to purchase items from the gift shops.
At this time, HOBY does not have funds to provide scholarships, grants, or loans. Many of the local HOBY seminars in the US provide scholarships of varying amounts, to two students that they select to attend the WLC, but others are not eligible. Please ask your local Leadership Seminar Chairperson about how to qualify.
Online payment steps: