The Peace Corps' New Application Process

[Jonathan Whatley]

In a bid to shore up sagging numbers, the Peace Corps on Tuesday announced significant changes to its application process.

Sixty-page forms that used to take more than eight hours to fill out have now been shortened and streamlined and can be completed online in less than an hour, Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet said on NPR's Here and Now.

The number of people who actually complete the application process has fallen by more than a third from its peak in 2009.

In addition to being less cumbersome, the forms now allow prospective volunteers to express preferences about which of more than 60 countries they'd prefer to serve in. Throughout the Peace Corps' half-century history, volunteers have simply been sent wherever they were needed most.

"We are offering our applicants the opportunity to choose the specific country and the specific program they want to apply to," Hessler-Radelet says. "That's a big change for us."

In Response To Dwindling Applications, Peace Corps Makes Big Changes (Alan Greenblatt, The Two-Way, NPR, July 15, 2014)

[soliloquy]

I guess beggars can't be choosers.

[alissaroot]

I think I read recently that they were also doing shorter terms, like 3 or 6 months, for experienced persons in certain areas. I've always thought about doing it. It's still on my bucket list after my kiddo is grown and out of the nest.