Hi friends! I am strongly considering doing a gap year abroad. The program I am interested in will have me do a 5th year of high school (essentially repeating senior year) in Uruguay, Argentina, or Spain. I was wondering if there was anyone on college confidential who had a gap year with a program like this, and if they could comment on their experience, how it was completing an additional year of hs, etc. ( I am very young for my grade, so the age gap doesn’t really concern me).
I have some experience with gap years and Argentina. I spent my sophomore year on a full scholarship to Argentina, and even though it wasn’t a gap year after high school, it was sort of a gap year, even though I eventually ended up getting enough credits that I didn’t “lose” a year of high school. Now, I’m going to be taking an early gap year (graduating early) to spend the year in Germany with CBYX, or perhaps in Lithuania or Turkey/Malaysia/Indonesia with YES Abroad. Study abroad in Argentina was an amazing experience for me - I went from basically no Spanish knowledge at all (I had studied Chinese in school, hehe) to speaking at approximately C1 level of fluency. I went to school in Patagonia, made a bunch of Argentinian friends, and now I know a ton about Argentinian culture - which is pretty exciting from a personal standpoint even if I don’t plan on pursuing a career in which I would actively use this cultural knowledge. However, from a professional standpoint, study abroad is wonderful because you become more proactive, pragmatic, a better communicator, a stronger leader, etc. You really can’t go wrong with study abroad, especially high school study abroad, which tends to be a waaaay more immersive experience than college study abroad.
As far as taking a gap year goes, it’s not uncommon for exchange students to take a gap year to go abroad. I personally like the idea of taking a break from the typical progression of studies to go abroad - it makes you more mature, you become fluent or at least conversational in another language, and it’s a very unique experience that can help you to stand out later in getting jobs or internships during college.
Also, go to Argentina, because it is amazing. You can’t go wrong with Argentina. The accent is beautiful, the country has a little bit of everything, and the people are extremely friendly even though they will, at times, drive you crazy. You’ll most likely have a good amount of freedom (I used to go out at 9PM and return at 7AM the next morning and this is completely normal), but it’s also a pretty family-centric society so you should have the opportunity to build a close relationship with your host family. Also, Argentinian music, history, politics, and culture in general is very interesting - in my opinion, moreso than Spain or Uruguay, though I’m definitely biased, hehe.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to shoot them my way
I would add that it won’t be like repeating senior year… it’ll be like having an entirely different type of senior year since the required classes, content of the classes, ways of teaching, student expectations and behaviors… will all be different.
@MYOS1634 has a very good point.
Additionally, one thing about Argentina is that your school day, if you go to a public school (which is definitely better cultural immersion-wise in Argentina) will likely be pretty short - I used to enter class at 7:30 AM and the school day lasted until 12:30 (then I would come back from 2-3 PM twice a week for gym). You won’t be spending all day in school, and assuming you go from about August-July, you’ll also be there for summer vacation. Thus, you’ll have the opportunity to pursue volunteering and other activities during the summer, and to meet new people and to get to know the culture better. I really wouldn’t be worried about “wasting” too much time in high school during an extra year in Argentina.
Thank you for the information! At this point I am waiting to see what college I get into in order to decide what program I will take (Tufts, for example, has their own gap year program). Very informative though!