USA Scholarships
YES Scholarship 2028 - Kennedy-Lugar High School Exchange
The YES Scholarship is the popular name for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program, a fully funded US Department of State exchange that places high school students from Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kosovo, Malaysia, North Macedonia and Pakistan with American host families for a semester at a US high school. The State Department pays for round-trip airfare, a pre-departure orientation, the host family placement, a monthly stipend, health insurance and program activities. The current round is for the spring 2027 semester (January to June 2027) and closes on 15 September 2026 in Pakistan and 23 September 2026 in Bangladesh, with each country's YES office setting its own date. If you are reading this after those dates, you are applying for the next intake. Its exact dates have not been announced, but they are expected to follow the 2026 pattern: applications through your national YES office around August and September 2027, selection over the autumn, and arrival in the US in early 2028, provided Congress and the State Department fund another cohort.
What is the YES Scholarship?
The YES Scholarship is the name most students use for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program, a US government exchange that brings teenagers from a small group of partner countries to live in an ordinary American town for a semester. You stay with a volunteer host family, go to the local public or private high school, and take part in community service and leadership activities alongside your classes. Congress created YES in October 2002, after the September 11 attacks, to build ties between young people in the US and in countries with significant Muslim populations. The name honours the two senators behind it, Edward Kennedy and Richard Lugar.
The program has changed shape recently, and you should know how before you apply. For most of its history YES was a full academic year for students from well over thirty countries. Recruitment for the 2026-2027 academic year was paused, and the program came back as a single spring semester, January to June 2027, for up to 270 students from nine countries. The State Department funds it through a cooperative agreement with American Councils for International Education, which works with AFS, iEARN and other local partners that do the actual recruiting in each country.
Timing is the part most applicants get wrong. Every country runs its own recruitment with its own deadline, birth date window and grade rules, so a date you read on a news site or a friend's post from another country may not apply to you. For the spring 2027 round, Pakistan closed on 15 September 2026 and Bangladesh at 4 PM on 23 September 2026. If you have missed your country's date, the realistic target is the next intake. Nothing official has been posted for it yet, but if the pattern holds, recruitment reopens around August 2027 and the next group flies out in early 2028. Bookmark your country page on yesprograms.org and check it from midsummer.
The selection process rewards preparation more than polish. Nobody asks for a TOEFL score or an admissions essay written at home. What decides it is an English test, an essay written in the room, a full application and an interview, so the most useful things you can do now are keep your grades clean, read and write in English every day, and get your birth certificate and old report cards together. If you are also weighing longer-term options for study in the US, the SHE-CAN Scholarship guide covers full-ride college placements for young women from Cambodia, Guatemala and Liberia, and the Rising Explorer Grant 2027 funds field research by high school and college students. American readers looking for the reverse trip should look at YES Abroad, or later at the Fulbright US Student Program once they reach college.
Eligibility
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✓Citizen and resident of a YES Scholarship countryFor the spring 2027 round, the program recruits in Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kosovo, Malaysia, North Macedonia and Pakistan. You must hold citizenship of one of them and live there when you apply. Pakistan and Bangladesh exclude dual nationals outright, and US citizens cannot apply at all (they have the separate YES Abroad program).
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✓Birth date inside your country's windowEach country sets its own age window, and none of them is flexible. For spring 2027, Pakistan asked for a birth date between 1 January 2010 and 1 January 2012, Bangladesh 15 January 2010 to 15 January 2012, India and Indonesia 1 June 2009 to 1 January 2012, Egypt 1 January 2009 to 1 January 2012, and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia 15 July 2008 to 15 July 2011. Expect every window to move forward by about a year for the next intake.
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✓Enrolled in secondary school, in the right gradeYou have to be a current secondary school student who will not have graduated before the program starts. The grades vary: 8th to 10th grade or O Levels in Pakistan, grades 8 to 11 in Bangladesh and India, grade 10 in Indonesia, and the 1st to 3rd year of high school in the Balkan countries. Pakistan also rules out anyone with a gap year or a repeated year.
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✓A strong, clean academic recordBangladesh, India and Egypt ask for the equivalent of a B average with no failing grades, and India wants that across four consecutive years of results. Pakistan sets a floor of 60% in each academic year and 60% in English, mathematics and science. Indonesia asks for an average of 80 across all subjects on your report card.
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✓Working EnglishYou do not need a TOEFL or IELTS score to apply. Instead, every applicant sits an English proficiency test in the first selection round, and you will spend the semester in ordinary American classes, so you need to follow lessons and hold a conversation in English.
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✓Eligible for a US J-1 visa, with little or no US historyParticipants travel on a J-1 exchange visitor visa, so you must meet its requirements. Some countries also limit prior time in the US: Pakistan excludes anyone who has already travelled to the United States, and Bangladesh excludes anyone who spent more than 90 days there in the past five years.
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✓No close family ties to the programSiblings and children of YES alumni are generally not eligible, and neither are relatives of program staff. Bangladesh and Indonesia also exclude applicants whose parents or family members work for the US Embassy.
Benefits
- Round-trip airfare, home country to the US Covered
- Pre-departure orientation Covered
- Host family placement (your home in the US) Covered
- Enrollment at an American high school Included
- Monthly stipend Modest monthly allowance
- Health insurance Covered
- Program activities and materials Covered
- Program length About 5 months (spring semester)
- Passport fees Not covered
- Medical exams and immunizations Not covered
- Extra personal spending money Not covered
Document checklist
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✓Preliminary application formThe first step in every country. In Bangladesh it is an online form on the iEARN-Bangladesh site; in Pakistan the spring 2027 round took paper applications sent by courier or post to the Society for International Education in Karachi. Use whatever format your own YES office asks for.
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✓School report cardsResults for recent academic years, so the office can check your average against the local cutoff. Pakistan looks at the past three years and India at four consecutive sets of results, so keep every report card, not only the latest one.
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✓Birth certificate or proof of ageThe birth date window is the first filter applied to every application. Indonesia explicitly asks for a birth certificate, and other offices will check your date of birth against an official document.
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✓Proof of citizenshipA national ID, family registration document or similar record showing you are a citizen and resident of the country you are applying from. Dual nationals are screened out at this stage in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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✓Proctored essayWritten under supervision on test day, not at home. You cannot prepare the text in advance, but you can practise writing a clear page in English in about half an hour.
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✓Full YES program applicationA longer application completed once you pass the early rounds, covering you, your family, your school record and your activities. It is what host families and placement staff read later, so it pays to be specific and honest.
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✓Passport and medical records (finalists)Finalists need a valid passport and a medical exam with immunization records for the J-1 visa and US school enrollment. The program does not pay for either, so budget for them before you reach this stage.
How to apply
Deadline and timeline
FAQ
What is the YES Scholarship?
It is the common name for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program, an exchange created by Congress in October 2002 and funded by the US Department of State. High school students from selected partner countries spend a semester living with an American host family and attending a US high school. More than 15,000 students have taken part since the first group arrived in 2003.
Is the YES program fully funded?
Yes. The program pays for round-trip airfare from your home country, a pre-departure orientation, your host family placement, a modest monthly stipend, health insurance, and program activities and materials. What you pay for yourself is your passport, your medical exams and immunizations, and any extra spending money beyond the stipend.
Which countries are eligible for the YES Scholarship?
For the spring 2027 round the program recruits in Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kosovo, Malaysia, North Macedonia and Pakistan. The list has changed over the years and is set by the State Department each cycle, so check yesprograms.org/countries before the next round opens rather than assuming an older list still applies.
What is the age limit for the YES program?
Most applicants are 15 to 17 when the program starts, but the rule is written as a birth date window that differs by country. For spring 2027, Pakistan required a birth date between 1 January 2010 and 1 January 2012, while Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia accepted students born between 15 July 2008 and 15 July 2011. Use your own country page, not a general age range.
When is the YES Scholarship deadline?
There is no single worldwide date. The spring 2027 round closed on 15 September 2026 in Pakistan and at 4 PM on 23 September 2026 in Bangladesh, with other countries publishing their own dates. The next intake has not been announced; if it follows the same pattern, expect applications around August and September 2027 for a program starting in early 2028.
Is the YES program one year or one semester?
The current round is a single spring semester of about five months, running from January to June 2027, for up to 270 students. For most of its history YES was a full academic year, but recruitment for the 2026-2027 academic year was paused and the program returned in a spring semester format. Whether the next intake stays at one semester depends on State Department funding.
How are YES students selected?
Selection is merit-based and happens in rounds. Shortlisted applicants take an English proficiency test, write a proctored essay, complete the full YES application and sit an interview. Only then are finalists chosen and matched with host families and schools across the United States.
Can American students apply for YES?
Not for this program, since US citizens are not eligible for a J-1 exchange visa. American students aged 15 to 18.5 can apply instead to YES Abroad, the sister program set up in 2009 that sends US high school students to YES partner countries.
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