<p>Binx, I work in a school with kids coming and going between countries and my kid spent his entire schooling overseas. Here's my two cents: Plan for college when you get home. Look at the schools with a large international population. (that was a recommendation given to me by state department personnel) I'd say LAC small over University large. Just make sure they have international houses. That's important for the first transition. They do move forward and integrate into the culture after awhile. She's much better off moving on to college, and she will get good offers if you and she together do the research. Lots of wonderful schools out there.</p>
<p>Thankyou everyone for your responses! The advice, points of view, and anecdotes are really helpful. </p>
<p>Just when we think we're comfortable with one direction, all these advisories to the contrary! :) At this point we are keeping our options open, simply because we don't know what the US schools will do. The GA schools where we live are not known for their flexibility. So they may say, No grades in 9th grade -- she definitely can't have credit for 3 years of HS. Or they may say, she has more than enough credits to be a senior -- no way can she be a junior. She has taken 3 years of physics, for example, earning passing grades the last two of those years. So does she get one credit for physics or two? </p>
<p>Our experience with the HS (It is a "known" since both S's graduated from there) is that the decision will be arbitrarily made, but set in stone once made.</p>
<p>Therefore, we are also keeping private school, joint enrollment, and homeschool options in our back pocket, if the public school decision is one we can't live with. There is even an IB school in Atlanta we will consider, if it looks like she's going to have to repeat her junior year anyway. I am also keeping track of colleges that don't require a HS diploma. Thanks, mini, for the homeschool help offer; I'll holler atcha if that becomes an issue.</p>
<p>We have maintained residency in GA (still own our home there and have the double-jeopardy tax records to prove it!) This complicates things with the homeschool department, because if we claim GA residency, then we were supposed to jump through the homeschool hoops to claim homeschool status. On the other hand, they didn't come after us for truancy, either. Our situation is very confusing to the bureaucracy, because we don't fit in their little boxes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the school suggestions, too. We have looked at a few already. Middlebury and Grinnell are both high on her list, although Middlebury's costs might hurt; scholarships seem few, and Grinnell is a bit more of a reach. We'll add the others to our explore list.</p>
<p>Jonri, you have a good point about losing her distinction. We wondered about that, too. Which gets weighed more: the experience, or the low grades that resulted from it? Actually you're wrong about the <em>star</em> idea; I'm not sure how I gave you that idea. D is not a <em>star</em> kind of person, either in personality or in aspirations. Our concern is simply that she will be so busy meeting requirements that she won't have time in her schedule for the things she loves and excells at. We aren't expecting leadership roles, just participation. </p>
<p>Prior to moving to Germany, she was a straight-A student in the gifted program, but she has never been a good tester. I do believe it is realistic to look for maybe an additional 100-150 points or so on further testing. Probably not much more than that. We are also keeping track of schools where her SATs "fit" or are not even counted. We are not looking for a hugely selective college for her, and have no desire to present her as something she is not; just looking for one where she will fit.</p>
<p>The point about recs is that Europeans in general are not effusive or generally complimentary in any way. And needing recs from a HS teacher who has known D only 2 months or so won't necessarily be any better. The one advantage she would get in the US would be if she had teachers who had her brothers, and would therefore have some common base of knowledge about the family to start with. However, several of her teachers here have told us they think she is "brilliant" (despite the lower grades) - so there is the possibility that the letters from here may be enough.</p>
<p>This is so hard. We go back and forth. It's so difficult to be prepared for every eventuality.</p>
<p>Thankyou everyone for your responses! The advice, points of view, and anecdotes are really helpful. </p>
<p>Just when we think we're comfortable with one direction, all these advisories to the contrary! :) At this point we are keeping our options open, simply because we don't know what the US schools will do. The GA schools where we live are not known for their flexibility. So they may say, No grades in 9th grade -- she definitely can't have credit for 3 years of HS. Or they may say, she has more than enough credits to be a senior -- no way can she be a junior. She has taken 3 years of physics, for example, earning passing grades the last two of those years. So does she get one credit for physics or two? </p>
<p>Our experience with the HS (It is a "known" since both S's graduated from there) is that the decision will be arbitrarily made, but set in stone once made.</p>
<p>Therefore, we are also keeping private school, joint enrollment, and homeschool options in our back pocket, if the public school decision is one we can't live with. There is even an IB school in Atlanta we will consider, if it looks like she's going to have to repeat her junior year anyway. I am also keeping track of colleges that don't require a HS diploma. Thanks, mini, for the homeschool help offer; I'll holler atcha if that becomes an issue.</p>
<p>We have maintained residency in GA (still own our home there and have the double-jeopardy tax records to prove it!) This complicates things with the homeschool department, because if we claim GA residency, then we were supposed to jump through the homeschool hoops to claim homeschool status. On the other hand, they didn't come after us for truancy, either. Our situation is very confusing to the bureaucracy, because we don't fit in their little boxes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the school suggestions, too. We have looked at a few already. Middlebury and Grinnell are both high on her list, although Middlebury's costs might hurt; scholarships seem few, and Grinnell is a bit more of a reach. We'll add the others to our explore list. We have been keeping spread-sheets on each school, and notes about their International focus are duly noted. It didn't occur to us to look for an International House, though. We don't think of her as an International Student.</p>
<p>Jonri, you have a good point about losing her distinction. We wondered about that, too. Which gets weighed more: the experience, or the low grades that resulted from it? Actually you're wrong about the <em>star</em> idea; I'm not sure how I gave you that idea. D is not a <em>star</em> kind of person, either in personality or in aspirations. Our concern is simply that she will be so busy meeting requirements that she won't have time in her schedule for the things she loves and excells at. We aren't expecting leadership roles, just the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities. </p>
<p>Prior to moving to Germany, she was a straight-A student in the gifted program, but she has never been a good tester. I do believe it is realistic to look for maybe an additional 100-150 points or so upon further testing. Probably not much more than that. We are also keeping track of schools where her SATs "fit" or are not even counted. We are not looking for a hugely selective college for her, and have no desire to present her as something she is not; just looking for one where she will fit.</p>
<p>The point about recs is that Europeans in general are not effusive or generally complimentary in any way. And needing recs from a HS teacher who has known D only 2 months or so won't necessarily be any more impressive. The one advantage she would get in the US would be if she had teachers who had her brothers, and would therefore have some common base of knowledge about the family to start with. However, several of her teachers here have told us they think she is "brilliant" (despite the lower grades) - so there is the possibility that the letters from here may be enough.</p>
<p>This is so hard. We go back and forth. It's so difficult to be prepared for every eventuality. I do feel overwhelmed thinking about the move back home, her adjustment to school, and the simultaneous college search. I guess that's part of the reason why I wouldn't mind postponing the search.</p>
<p>Binx - I'm also in the camp that thinks an extra year of high school might be disastrous. As you probaby remember, my daughter elected to do a foreign exchange in junior year, leaving her senior year to finish. Well -- now that it's senior year -- she is absolutely miserable. And this is at a school that she had attended since 9th grade - she has good relationships with many teachers, and she gets along well with other students.</p>
<p>But as soon as she got back she was aware that the living-abroad experience had changed her -- she found it difficult to relate to many of the kids she had once been close to. We get along fine at home, but she really is ready to leave and restless -- and unfortunately her feelings of frustration do not help with school performance. </p>
<p>I would strongly advise that you explore options widely and give your daughter a lot of leeway. It is important that she be an active participant in any decisions -- otherwise she may end up feeling resentful of you as well as frustrated in school. In hindsight, I think my own daughter should have considered applying to colleges with early admission programs (those are the ones that will take some students after junior year). That would have at least created the option of attending college this year. (And for her, that would have been early college -- she's on track to graduate at the expected time for her age). </p>
<p>There is no easy answer -- but I do feel that there is a good possibility your daughter will find that she has become more mature in many ways than her American counterparts, and so it can be almost punitive to put her in a situation where she will end up being older than most of her high school peers. I mean- imagine having to do high school at age 20... for her, it may feel that way. </p>
<p>I realize that your daughter's situation is a little different than mine -- my daughter was also living away from home, hosted by a strange family. But my daughter felt the biggest challenge was attending school where instruction was in a foreign language - she wrote her college essay about the challenges of the language barrier -- and she really feels that it was facing and overcoming that challenge that was the primary cause of the profound personal changes and emotional growth she experienced while abroad.</p>
<p>I am an American mother who has raised three children ages now 27, 18, and 13 in overseas schools in New York , Paris, Madrid, Geneva, Brussels, and Milan for the past 22 years.</p>
<p>I decided after the admissions process of the first child to an American "highly selective" university , that we would never be strung out or humiliated or beggars or gropers , like that again. We had all those feelings at the time with absolutely no justification.......This year, My eighteen year old had a nice admissions plan and so far it is working to perfection with very little of the stress we experienced with the first son. She has so far been accepted to a "public ivy" rolling admissions., and has merit aid from a small school in NY. Already two great possibilities before the other RDs roll in in April. SATs and ECs are nothing like what's posted everywhere on CC.</p>
<p>My biggest complaint is that most of the stellar candidates are so "perfect" at eighteen when they graduate high school that they really don't need college too much. Does anyone else feel that way? They already demonstrate the determination and basic life skills and could go out into the working world now and be trained by their first employers with no problem. (And leave the college spaces to our kids!) They have ticked off all the boxes, but haven't spent much time being teenagers, learning about the importance and closeness of family enjoying friendships and new places (how could they with all those ECs?), to their fullest. I didn't spend my high school years doing activities to be able to tick off boxes on an application.</p>
<p>Much of the goodness of life is truly present in an overseas experience, I really believe it. You certainly can sell that to willing ears at many colleges. </p>
<p>The colleges who recognize this, and there are many good ones, will be shoo ins for your daughter.</p>
<p>If you would like names of places happy to see our brand of "internationals" you can e mail me.</p>