<p>My current HS sophomore D is determined to graduate HS early. Her plan is to take what would have been her senior year and use it as a gap year, and she is interested in doing a study-abroad program for that year. She already checked out the programs and knows which ones will take her as a high school graduate. That way, her US high school academic record would not be impacted by her study abroad. </p>
<p>I have done a lot of nodding along as she plans (“sound great honey; sure that would be nice”) figuring she was just young and that she would change her mind, but she managed to self-study and test out of English II (with an A!) this summer so her plan is fast becoming a real possibility. For our school district, she only requires 1 other extra credit to make it work, which she could do online next summer.</p>
<p>Anyone else have a kid who did this? How did it work out? Thoughts on how a college (not Ivie but competitive LAC probably) will look at this? </p>
<p>Just for background, D is very bright (ACT 29 in 7th grade), does well in school, but doesn’t always excel (she balks at doing work she feels is “dumb’, and wants to do things her own way), and is not interested in building the resume to make herself read like the perfect applicant, and is well aware of what that entails – she’s our youngest so has been privy to many college conversations at our home.</p>
<p>If she’s in a program in Europe, it might work. If she tries to travel on her own, she might have trouble just because she’ll be underage. It’s hard to sign for things when you are 17, to manage finances, to find a place to live.</p>
<p>Would she consider doing a high school exchange program, like through Rotary? If she finishes all her requirements for graduation, then anything she takes in the exchange program is just gravy. It might be a little harder to apply for college while away, but she can do it. </p>
<p>Yes, she is thinking a high school exchange program, just as an already graduated student. AFS does allow this, just not to every country (it depends on how the high school program inside each host country works, I think). I don’t think she’s researched Rotary yet.</p>
<p>I know someone who did just this and spent a year in a high school in Belgium on a rotary. I didn’t actually graduate from high school early, but I was 16 when I graduated and took a gap year in France in a program that had arrangements for one to stay with a family and do language studies. I had a great family that gave me lots of wonderful experiences. (Picking grapes, learning about the local architecture, taken to parties by their oldest son who was in his early 20s at the time.) I came back speaking French fluently which allowed a number of experiences in college. (Translating a book about architecture in Senegal for one of my professors and doing a thesis on French and German housing among other things.)</p>
<p>Honestly, graduating early from high school can hurt her college admissions chances at higher ranked colleges, so it depends on her college aspirations. She will have less time to build strong ECs, may not complete the most rigorous courses at her high school, and might not have the test scores at that point she would want. (And I am the parent of a kid who had a top 3 SAT score in the midwest NUMATS talent search in 8th grade, so I know your type of kid…). It is also hard to apply to colleges from abroad if she decides to wait to apply.</p>
<p>A lot of kids in the past took their junior year of high school abroad, and finished their senior year at their high school. What about that as an option instead? Or looked into an AFS summer program – one of my kids spent a full summer in Finland on an AFS program the summer before senior year. Remind your D that she can also study abroad in college.</p>
<p>Or…finish high school with her class, apply to college, and then take a gap year to spend a year abroad with AFS or Rotary.</p>
<p>She wants to be careful she doesn’t end up in a college program abroad, as that would make her a transfer students instead of an incoming freshman.</p>
<p>I think it’s a great idea and I tried to encourage my daughter to do it, but she insisted on a semester abroad in 11th grade instead. Everything I’ve heard or read suggests that a year-long homestay program is the key to gaining language fluency. It will impact the number of courses your d. can complete in high school --but it’'s better for her to know before she leaves that she’s completed all requirements, than to come back from term abroad only to find out that planned courses are not available or that the g.c. had been mistaken about some requirement or another (issues my d. had to deal with). </p>
<p>Does your d. plan to apply to colleges in the fall of her last high school year, and then defer admission for a year? (Probably easier than trying to coordinate applications from abroad).</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that YFU also has programs for high-school graduates, as well as AFS. Your daughter might consider community service programs as well as attending-high-school programs, as she may end up feeling that she would rather be doing something other than attending high school while abroad. My d. found that she ended up learning much more of the language of her host country when she was not in class - so she ended up cutting her high school classes a lot and spending more time on the campus of her host-sister’s local college. </p>
<p>My daughter also wanted to graduate early from high school but ended up going with AFS on a year-long program during what would have been her junior year of high school. She then came back and completed her senior year. It worked well for her because she could spend senior year with her friends and graduate with them. It also made college applications easier. </p>
<p>The experience abroad wasn’t easy for her or for us, but it was life changing in a very positive way. I agree with Calmom that a year abroad during a high school exchange program is a much better option than a semester. I’ve never heard a year student wish they had gone for just a semester, but every semester student I’ve talked to wished they could have stayed for the year. Just as they were getting comfortable with the language and culture, they had to leave. </p>
<p>Every college admissions officer we spoke with before my daughter went abroad said that a year-long high school exchange would be looked upon positively. Of course, she wrote about her year and how she had grown in her essays. She got into most of the universities she applied to and ended up choosing MIT. </p>
<p>Check to see whether the program’s partner in your country of choice will accept graduates. Some won’t, so it may be better for your daughter to get all of her credits but not officially graduate yet. </p>
<p>My daughter deffered her Swarthmore acceptance to take a gap year. She did all 4 years of high school and will be traveling around Eastern Europe and the United Arab Emirates with a fried who is taking a gap year as well. I don’t see why it would make sense to leave all her friends and not get the full high school experience. More colleges are actually encouraging students to defer their acceptance. Advise her against graduating early.</p>
<p>Thank you for sharing your experiences, it all helps. I am aware that graduating early may leave her with less on her college apps, but honestly, she’s not doing much to build EC’s or Leadership there anyway. She does not like her school, and actively tries to spend as little time there as possible. (Yes, we have considered changing schools, but that’s a whole other discussion). In her particular situation, getting through and moving on is more her focus, not enjoying her time there. </p>
<p>We did discuss Junior year abroad, but I know some people who have experienced issues with their high school coming back. I haven’t specifically asked her school about that yet, but will. </p>
<p>As far as when to apply to college, I’m unsure. Do you tell colleges you plan to defer upfront? Actively pursuing her plan to graduate early so she could spend a year in Iceland becoming fluent in Icelandic would sort of be her most interesting EC, so she would want colleges to know that when applying, right? </p>
<p>She might want to consider applying for colleges in her final year of high school anyway, just as though she was going to attend the following fall, and then, after admission, ask to defer her acceptance for one year. Many colleges will do this quite willingly. (And you can find out in advance whether they do – the information is usually on their web sites.)</p>
<p>The rationale for this is that it’s a lot easier to go through the college admissions process while you’re in high school. The high school personnel you need to work with – the guidance counselor, the registrar, the teachers who are writing your recommendations – are right there. You can meet with them in person. Also, it’s easier to communicate with the colleges from a stable U.S. address than if you’re wandering around other countries. If you need to speak to the college admissions office on the phone, time zones are less of a problem. If you need to audition for anything, you can get to the campus much more easily. And when your year abroad is over, your place in college is waiting for you.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the rush, but if she isnt challenged in high school and is eager for the next thing, I think I would help her find more opportunities in the area, perhaps CTY in the summer?</p>
<p>My kids were both young for their age, and they both took a gap year. I would agree that time away from the classroom progression gives students a different perspective which is to their benefit when they do step onto campus.</p>
<p>I also agree with applying while in high school. Both my daughters did this & deferred. Although at the time, oldest’s choices were all public schools which did not carry over acceptances. They have now changed their policy.</p>
<p>She ended up applying to and attending a private college she hadnt considered while in high school, youngest had come to the conclusion that her previous choices could be made to work, despite the fact that she was a very different person than before her gap year. She is very wise.
But unless OP daughter is going to tour colleges while taking a break, it makes sense to have that out of the way.</p>
Go abroad Jr yr and return for Sr yr of HS. Pro: going abroad during HS probably boosts your college application a bit. Con: Yes, sometimes is strange/hard to reintegrate into HS after being away for 1 year. Might be a little more challenging to take SAT/ACT SAT2s while abroad.
Finish HS 1 year early, and apply for college 1 year early stating on the application that you plan on deferring enrollment for 1 year. Pro: can work on college apps while in the US. Con: stating deferment up front, how may it affect admissions?
Finish HS 1 year early, and apply for college 1 year early without stating on the application that you plan on deferring enrollment. When you get your acceptance, then ask the college if you can defer your enrollment for 1 year. Pro: can work on college apps while in the US. Con: none
Finish HS 1 year early, go abroad, apply to college later. Pro: If deadlines are 12/31, you will have maybe 6 mos at most (assuming you started abroad June immediately after graduation) of additional ECs or essay writing fodder, and it probably boosts your college app a bit. Con: you have to work on your college apps (including teacher and guidance counselor letter of recommendations) when abroad. </p>
<p>Sorry that your D does not like her HS. My niece also thought about getting her GED early and starting college early when her lifetime best friend abandoned her in 9th grade to join another clique. </p>
<p>I personally think that colleges would like seeing a kid who forges their own path and thought outside of the box, but it is hard to know for sure, unfortunately. </p>
<p>I don’t think the junior year abroad thing works so well in high school. The year abroad part is fine - it’s the coming-home part that is really tough. </p>
<p>The problem is that the year-abroad changes the student, in very positive ways. The student’s perspective is broadened and they mature tremendously – and the kid comes home and finds herself very much out of step with her high school friends. </p>
<p>My daughter loved her high school but she was miserable for about a year after she returned from her fall semester abroad. She kept wishing she had opted to graduate early – she felt stuck. After just a semester abroad, her high school friends seemed naive and childish, with trivial day-to-day concerns. High school activities that had once seemed exciting, such as prom, instead seemed irrelevant. I think things leveled out over my d’s senior year as she could devote more attention to her college apps and plans – but for a long time my daughter felt like a misfit at a place that had once been the center of her world. </p>
<p>I also had to be prepared for big changes – fortunately I was, but I actually lost friendships over it. I understood that my daughter was going to return from the time abroad with the same mindset that college students have when returning home after fall semester - they no longer feel like children it is not easy for them to return to the old routine and rules. My d was 16 – too young to drink at home, but the rules abroad were different. She spent her exchange in a country with a drinking culture, and where the social life of young people her age often took place at bars. I expected that and gave my daughter the same freedom post-exchange that I would have given a returning college student. </p>
<p>So I think that the post-graduation gap year really is a better way to go. The student has the full benefit of the experience abroad, and is ready to move onto the next step upon returning. </p>
<p>@beyondtx – I also think that if your daughter goes abroad, she needs to do so with the understanding and the idea that she doesn’t care how it impacts college admissions. It may be a plus factor, it may be a negative, it probably will be something of a mixed bag. It worked out really well for my daughter - in fact, the abroad experience probably was the reason she was admitted to reach schools despite lackluster test scores and some clear deficiencies in academics. (GPA was great, but she pretty much got out of high school with the minimum level of math and science she could get away with, definitely less than what most colleges like to see). </p>
<p>Your daughter sounds a lot like mine – she knows what she wants to do, and she’s going to do it no matter what anyone else tells her. My way of dealing with that was simply to give my d. emotional support, let her know the extent to which I was willing to contribute financially,and to take a hands-off approach from there. I let her do the legwork with her high school and with the exchange groups - (she opted for YFU). I always deliberately avoided helping with logistics for my d., because she always was wanting to do things that I wished she weren’t, so her ability to do the planning and arranging along the way was one way that she could demonstrate to me that she had the maturity and resilience needed for whatever i was she was planning to do. (This did not stop in high school.)</p>
<p>So the point is: leave the college planning to your daughter as well. She can apply, or not, whenever she feels is appropriate, and she will get in where she gets in. The sky won’t fall if her future college doesn’t happen to be on a US News top 10 list – and, more important - she won’t care anyway. If she spends a year in Iceland that will be a year among peers who don’t share the Ivy-obsessed mentality of US high schoolers, and she may come back with very different ideas about how and where to continue their education </p>
<p>If she does apply to colleges her senior year with the intent to defer, I do agree that reporting her plans would probably be the most interesting and intriguing part of her application, and is likely to be a potential boost – though of course future plans are not as bankable as past accomplishments. But she also has an extra year to submit more applications if she is disappointed by results. Yes its harder to do that from abroad, but it certainly is not impossible. She’ll have internet and will be able to do most of what is necessary online. </p>
<p>And again, her perspective about where she wants to go to college may change in the course of that year abroad n any case. </p>
<p>My 17 year old traveled – with a friend, who just turned 18 – throughout Argentina during her high school junior year abroad. They stayed in hostels, took local transportation – it was a life-changing experience. So for the right kid, traveling with a least 1 other person, it can be very enriching. </p>
<p>OP, many kids do this, and we have friends whose two daughters graduated high school early and spent their senior year/semester studying and traveling abroad. </p>
<p>In many ways, a junior/senior year abroad is the ULTIMATE EC, and one that is highly respected by colleges. A kid who does this has to be disciplined, on top of school requirements, mature – and adventurous: exactly the type of qualities selective schools look for. (Plus, they come home fluent or nearly-fluent in a foreign language. Major accomplishment!) My friends’ daughters who spent their senior year/semester abroad both got into highly selective, Ivy-caliber schools. </p>
<p>The drawback is that you have to do a lot of the college application process from overseas. But in this day and age of computers, Skype and tech savvy kids, it can be done. </p>
<p>Be proud of your daughter, and help her make this dream of hers come true. She sounds like a winner. </p>
<p>Calmom, your experience really spoke to me - I really appreciate the advice of letting her take the lead and run with this. If she is mature enough to do most of the planning, she is mature enough for the experience. </p>
<p>I spent about 10 days traveling abroad during the same period that my daughter was doing her homestay. I remember being in a German train station, trying to puzzle out the process for purchasing a ticket for the next leg of my journey, and realizing then how much more confident and capable my daughter already was than me when it come to travel - and that was a decade ago, when my DD was age 16. </p>
<p>I do think that technology really has made travel a different experience. Even 10 years ago, my d. was traveling with a cell phone and we were doing a lot of text messaging. </p>
<p>So that’s one piece of advice I have, before she goes abroad: make sure you understand what those international text messages cost! The plans and costs have changed a lot over the years – I’ve always stayed with a carrier that provides internationally-compatible service, and when d. is abroad we do generally rely on text messaging, because whatever it costs, it is generally less than the toll for a voice call. These days, your daughter will also probably be staying in a home with an internet connection, for email or skype. A decade ago, in a less affluent country, my d. had to rely on local internet cafe. </p>
<p>The last time my DD was abroad for a long time, after she returned to the states it took me months to get back in the habit of calling her (we were still on opposite coasts, as she was a college senior at that point). I’ve lost track of the number of places where my daughter has lived & traveled. </p>
<p>Iceland is quite an interesting choice – I think it is an exceptionally open and friendly culture, and definitely will be a very safe place for your daughter to spend her year abroad. </p>