Exchange in High School

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi, I'm a high school student (sophomore) and I am interested in doing an exchange (not exactly an exchange, more like studying abroad) my junior year. My dad found out and instead of turning it down like I'd expected he actually encouraged it, and said he would gladly help pay for part of the cost. </p>

<p>So my inquiry is to the parents who have sent their kids abroad during high school. How was the trip? Did they gain fluency in their target language? How did they receive credit for the classes? How did the whole AP thing work out, if at all? Anything extra is appreciated as well.</p>

<p>I had originally planned for 5 AP classes my junior year, but if I go abroad I'm not sure how that would work (I guess it would vary from program to program), if at all. </p>

<p>Any other comments, concerns, etc. is also cool. </p>

<p>I already know I need to talk to my counselor if I go through with it, and get any agreements in writing.</p>

2

<p>Rotary and AFS are the most well thought of programs, though perhaps some have experience with others. AFS is higher cost, though depending on where you go, the falling dollar could make European programs of any sort rather expensive. My D went with Rotary. This requires a good amount of advance planning, as at least in our district, applications are completed the fall prior to leaving. As with many things in life, the exchange is what you make it. My D went to the Czech Republic, which has a very difficult language. Still, she became conversationally functional over the course of the year, though not grammatically correct. Some exchangers in her town did not do as well with the language. Though rather unusual, but allowable in our district, she is on another, gap year exchange in S. America. Despite not being a Spanish student in HS, her language level in Spanish is quite good at this point. She did take a summer school Spanish class at the CC, and continues to spend time with her workbook from the class. But she says some exchangers are not doing very well with Spanish, though it was a HS language. Much of this is due to attitude, and the willingness to go out on a limb and try to commnicate, no matter whether grammatically perfect or not. </p>

<p>My D received credit from her HS for much of what she took in the Czech Republic, though had some social studies make up credit to complete senior year. Districts handle this in different ways, and yes, getting in writing is a great idea! She was out of the math and science sequencing in our HS, so never did take physics or as high level math as her peers. Some exchangers can participate in academics in the target country. In Czech, that was impossible, so she went to school, and participated in only biology and gym, helped in English class. Otherwise she read, as she went through the day with her classmates. </p>

<p>After senior year she took some of the AP tests, though our HS has a rather limited AP program in general. My feeling is that the Rotary year was a bit of an academic wash. The idea is that you are learning in other ways, which is certainly true, though whether that impacts her in college remains to be seen. Some, not all, colleges look on exchanges quite favorably, as it shows a maturity and ability to function independently.</p>

<p>Best wishes in your search!</p>

3

<p>Check with Rotary International. They pay for you to go.</p>

4

<p>Rotary is subsidized by the amazing good will and efforts of Rotarians all over the world. My D and I will always be in their debt. But is far from free. Insurance, air fare from their preferred travel agency, tours, obligatory starting and ending conferences all add up.</p>

5

<p>My D went on a junior semester abroad program to Argentina with a Buenos Aires-based company that charged her a fraction of what AFS cost. She spent 6 months in Buenos Aires, attending a small private school in the city and living with a young couple. Yes, she came back almost fluent (to be really fluent it generally takes a year abroad.) In Argentina, she took classes on a pass/fail basis. In her home high school, she planned ahead, doubling up on science in her sophomore year and humanities in her senior year. Colleges tend to look very favorably on semester/year abroad programs -- in particular the year-long programs. Adcoms realize the kind of maturity & courage it takes -- and the kind of positive, real-world experience kids come home with. Good luck. And go for it.</p>

6

<p>It looks like the smaller programs are the way to go :) I want to go to a Latin American country to become fluent in Spanish. </p>

<p>I'm Latino and speak quite a bit of the language from being surrounded by it and studying it to the point of being able to start in Spanish 3 H with the native speakers although I am not a native nor a fluent speaker. I know most tenses, write better than most of the native speakers, but I'm far from fluent. Fluency in Spanish is something I want before going to college.</p>

<p>I'd like to go my junior year so unfortunately Rotary is out of the question considering the deadlines were a million years ago. I have been looking at Youth For Understanding and AFS though. </p>

<p>And maybe I'd be able to take the AP Spanish exam while on the exchange without taking the class.</p>

<p>I'm currently working out a plan to get the classes I need. I'm done with math (took PreCal this year; all I need), but I'd like to take Calculus over the summer without having to worry about an AP exam almost a year later or taking it my senior year after being out of math for so long, so I think community college would be good for that. The rest I can take online on FLVS. </p>

<p>Anyways, keep the comments/opinions/concerns coming :) I appreciate all the help.</p>

7

<p>I'd like to add, for anyone else's reference that is interested in doing an exchange, this site:</p>

<p>Committee</a> for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students - Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students</p>

<p>Wow @ the complaints and new stories on some major exchange company names.</p>

8

<p>My daughter went for a semester in 11th grade with YFU, which is about the same as AFS. I have a son who did a summer program with AFS, so I am familiar with both programs. I'd say that AFS is slightly better organized.... but not by much -- so there is no reason to choose one over the other. My d went with YFU simply because their schedule for departure & return date meshed better with her school semesters. </p>

<p>My d. really loved her host family and had a good time; however, she did not gain the level of the fluency she would have liked. Everything I have read advises a year-long stay over a semester to truly gain fluency, because with a semester you end up going home just at the point when you are beginning to get fluent -- which is exactly the experience my daughter reported. However, it might be different with your exposure to Spanish and also because you have an opportunity to speak it at home; my d. was studying in Russia & had limited opportunities for reinforcement once she got home. </p>

<p>As far as arranging course work: Because my daughter took some advanced coursework in 9th grade, she figured out that she could get in all required high school coursework to graduate on schedule, with the semester abroad. She did have to make some arrangements with her high school for credit-- she got her g.c. and the principal to agree that they would give her credit for course work completed while abroad based on whatever paperwork the Russian school provided, and she also arranged for independent study with the Honors English teacher at her high school. The English credit was easy - she worked with the teacher to set up a reading list for fall semester, took the books with her, and emailed back essay assignments from the books.</p>

<p>I advised my d. to get all promises in writing about course credit before leaving -- she ended up writing out little statements and getting the teachers & g.c. involved to sign them. I just didn't want her to come back and find out that they had suddenly discovered some policy that precluded credit. Even so, the g.c. who worked out her schedule and told her that all course requirements would be met before she left, changed up after she got back and told her she needed extra coursework to graduate.</p>

<p>As to the AP's -- my d. could simply not take as many APs as other classmates with the year abroad. She was allowed to enter AP Psych mid semester when she returned; but no other AP's in 11th grade; she had to defer US History until 12th grade, and could not fit APUSH into her schedule. So I think she only took 3 AP classes total; however, she ended up with college credit for 5 AP courses because she self-studied on the US History & English and did fine on the exams. </p>

<p>However, if you are on a very competitive track -- you want a top GPA and as many APs as possible -- then a semester or year abroad really is going to make it difficult. If not -- then the time abroad will be looked on favorably by most colleges, and of course you will be able to explain later that you were unable to take certain courses because of the scheduling issues. My d. was accepted at very competitive, reach colleges -- so I am quite sure that her lighter courseload was not held against her. </p>

<p>Don't expect to learn much academically in the school while you are abroad -- you are there for the cultural exchange and the school authorities generally know that -- so you can't expect to be placed in course work that will meet equivalent requirements at home. You will not generally know where you are going or what your course schedule is until you get there.</p>

9

<p>One more thing --- take a cell phone that is internationally equipped when you go. </p>

<p>This will detract somewhat from the cultural immersion (my d. spent way too much time text messaging friends from home) -- but after looking at your links and concern about safety, I think you will feel better knowing that you can quickly communicate with home if anything comes up.</p>

10

<p>Definitely ^ :)</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice. I shouldn't be so concerned about APs, because I would give them up for this in a heart beat. And I do like the idea of being out of that kind of classroom setting for a year.</p>

11

<p>My son is currently abroad in a program run by his independent school. He is a 16 yo sophomore. </p>

<p>He is having an <em>amazing</em> experience. We looked at other programs, but decided to go with his school program as it was tightly coordinated between his home school and the French school.</p>

<p>There's all sorts of things to work out, like visas and course credit, when you try to put one of these things together. Sit down with your GC (or director of studies) and put together your plan from now through graduation to see if you can make it all work. My son is taking math in the summers to pull it off.</p>

12

<p>I wonder if my school is part of an exchange program that nobody knows about :P</p>

<p>Thanks, I'm going to find out how my school handles exchanges, if at all.</p>

13

<p>One word: skype. If you will have high-speed internet available, even at an internet cafe (definitely in available in Argentina/ Mexico City/ Caracas-- harder in Central America), it can reduce your bill to 0. (By the way, this is in addition to the cell phone which is a great idea.)</p>

<p>I didn't look at the link but I'm pretty knowledgeable about Latin America. Probably the safest country you can choose is Chile. It is very safe just don't get involved with any protests because their police can be rough. Central America, in general, has a high crime rate although you will find Panama City and Costa Rica a little safer. Colombia is too dangerous. Mexico City and Caracas have a rising crime rate-- mainly thievery although there's kidnapping in Mexico City. Most other South American cities fall between these extremes: Lima (pretty accent), Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Quito. I would not recommend Paraguay, the Dominican Republic or Bolivia because of their strong accents unless your family already happens to be from there. </p>

<p>Is there any possibility that you will have relatives at your disposal, even if just in case of emergency?</p>

14

<p>Just a note on communications -- my d. did not have internet access in her host home- she had to pay for access at an internet cafe -- but we were able to talk on the phone regularly using calling cards I bought off the internet. She would text me when she wanted me to call her - for Russia the calls were about 3 cents a minute, so I probably spent about $25 on cards at most over the course of a semester.</p>

<p>I know that my daughter was placed in a community where she felt extremely safe physically. I do also know that organizations like AFS & YFU do leave the process of screening and host selection up to the affiliate organizations in those countries, and it can be very late in the process before the host family is known. There can be glitches -- my son went to Thailand with AFS and it is obvious that his host family misrepresented their economic status on the forms -- the forms had been filled out by the 18 year old son, who was the only one in the family who spoke English, and made it sound like the family was quite affluent (house with swimming pool, many rooms, etc.) -- in fact the family was quite poor, had only rudimentary indoor plumbing (shower=bucket + hose) -- and had to send their older son off to stay with relatives to make room for my son. My son absolutely loved that family -- the first communication I got from him was a post card saying that he had found a better set of parents and wasn't coming home -- he was joking, of course, but the family lavished attention on him and one lesson quickly learned was that love in a home has nothing to do with money. </p>

<p>But this illustrates that you do have to be flexible, and prepared for cultural differences as well as simply finding that some expectations are not borne out. It really helps if you are resilient and have a good sense of humor when things go wrong. If you spend a semester or a year living in someone else's home, sooner or later there will be some conflicts or misunderstandings -- and it can be tough when you are far from home and not completely fluent in the language.</p>

15

<p>As long as the people are nice and not completely broke, I wouldn't mind conditions like that. </p>

<p>As of now, I'm waiting to receive a catalog from AFS in the mail. It'd be nice if they would include all that information on the site (there is some, but not a lot), but I guess it's their way of getting the contact information of everyone even slightly interested. </p>

<p>Once I get all that jazz I can compare YFU and AFS, and in the mean time look for other programs.</p>

16

<p>It's important to work things out with your currrent school about how credits and grades will be handled. OTOH, my son is having an awesome experience -- so what if he missed AP European History -- he is <em>living</em> in the middle of European History in a thousand year old village!</p>

17

<p>
[quote]
As long as the people are nice and not completely broke, I wouldn't mind conditions like that.

[/quote]
Actually, I don't know what your home life is like, but one reason I supported (and paid for) my d's foreign exchange is that I felt that she was kind of spoiled at home and took a lot for granted -- so I wanted her to get a sense of how the rest of the world lives. I was glad that my kids chose to do exchanges in less affluent parts of the world. </p>

<p>But I brought that up because when my son was in Thailand, he was with a student group where each of the kids was staying with a different family, and even though his hosts were clearly the most impoverished of all, several of the other kids complained a lot about their home situation and the amenities. In some situations there were legitimate complaints, but my son realized that often it was the student's attitude that was to blame -- you really do need to take things in stride. </p>

<p>I saw that you had linked to some sites about safety for foreign exchange students, and while there were some accounts of things that definitely were big problems -- I think it is important for both you and your parents to recognize that things don't always go as planned or expected with a foreign exchange. For my kids, that was part of the adventure. </p>

<p>As noted, it was nice to have the safety line of a cell phone with my d. My son had traveled earlier at a time when cell phones were not so ubiquitous, and it was much harder for him to communicate -- I went for days without hearing from him or knowing if he had safely arrived at his destination.</p>

18

<p>Agreed 100%. </p>

<p>I'm from "humbling" neighborhoods, and my parents are from even more "humbling" neighborhoods, so I try not to take things for granted too much. </p>

<p>I'm not sure if anyone knows anything about the company CIEE, Counsel on International Educational Exchange, (<a href="http://ciee.org)%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ciee.org)&lt;/a>, but I am currently in contact with them as well as AFS (quite slow at responding) and still waiting for their catalog. </p>

<p>I'd contact YFU as well but I really don't have any questions for them at the moment.</p>

19

<p>I would recommend AFS. It is hands down, THE best organization out there. Others are strange where you switch families every other second and don't provide adquate support. I went abroad with Austria and AFS did everything it could to make the experience safe, fun, and educational (thought arguably more people were interested in beer than culture...).</p>

<p>YFU has a few instances of students getting into serous trouble and I've heard complaints from some former exchangers that they pretty much dumped them in their host country and were hard to get ahold of afterwards.</p>

<p>I never really liked Rotary, if only because the very idea of switching families every three months is a little off-putting. Then again, maybe I could've used it to get away from my weird host family.</p>

<p>Despite the fact, if a host family doesn't work out, you can request to be changed at no cost or anything.</p>

20

<p>Have you gone on an exchange with AFS Miss Silvestris?</p>