Application Timeline

I know that most of you will find this boring, but I really appreciated reading other people's application timelines when I was applying to the Peace Corps. The process is so long and convoluted that once in a while, I think everyone asks themselves whether their application has somehow, purely on accident, fluttered off of some administrator's desk and been carried down into the darkest recesses of our nation's capital, only to be found again during the next government shut-down. Thus, these timelines reminded me that yes, other people experience it. Nothing will test your patience more than a Peace Corps application.

It went something like this:

June 11th (2010):  I begin my application online.
September 30th (?): I finish my application, after numerous career planning appointments, several recommendations, and a few essays. And then I wait.
November 10th: I interview with my regional recruiter. She tells me at the end of the interview that she will nominate me for a position! Hooray!
November 12th: After a quick call from my recruiter, I receive my official nomination by email: Environmental Education in sub-Saharan Africa, to be departing in mid-August, 2011.
November 23rd: I receive my medical packet.
January 17th: I send in my completed medical packet, but only after three appointments with the college health center, the loss of at least 5 vials of blood, the most thorough physical exam of my life, a dentist appointment, and wrestling with a ream of paperwork regarding a recent concussion. I wait (quite a while).
April 12th: My patience exhausts itself. I send an email to PC making sure my application isn't missing anything. I get a reply back immediately saying that the nurse has not had time to review my file yet.
April 26th: Call from the PC nurse. Something is wrong with my blood test paperwork. My doctor fixes it and I send the new paperwork in two days later.
May 2nd: My online status says medically cleared!
... 3 hours later: My placement officer calls and says that she has a position for me, but I would leave earlier than expected. French-speaking Africa as an environmental action volunteer to depart June 29th. She says I need to make a decision about this position by the following morning (Eeek!!). After agonizing over the departure date, I call her the next day and say yes.
May 6th: My invitation comes in the mail, and my placement is in Benin! The entire application took about 11 months from start to finish.

Hopefully this may serve as a reassuring resource for those of you who wish to or are applying to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. Good luck!