My daughter has applied to go on a youth exchange next year (her sophomore year in high school) for the entire school year. She is a really mature kid who does great in school and has a terrific attitude. I am slightly apprehensive about her studying abroad (likely France) but the opportunity seems too great to pass up.
Have a couple of questions for anyone knowledgeable about these things
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Should I push to have the credits transferred to her US high school or the opposite? She has always been a 4.0 student but I can not imagine that she would be able to do that while in a french high school taking classes in a language that she has only started studying. Without these credits, she will be only one credit shy of the required credits after only three years of high school (ie not counting the year abroad). This could easily be made up with a single online course.
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If she becomes fluent in French, coming home and taking French II sounds a bit silly. I have been told that colleges want to see multiple years of study of the same language. What should she do when she returns?
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Do you think that this will help or hurt her college applications? Like too many folks I make too much money to qualify for financial aide (hhi $300sh) but not enough to stroke $65k checks annually especially with 2 others only a couple of years behind. She is looking at either an instate school (UF) or getting a merit scholarship somewhere else if that is even an option.
Not sure that this is the best forum for this but would appreciate any feedback.
I was a Rotary Exchange student to Belgium many years ago. It was one of the best overall experiences of my life (though very challenging at times).
I went for my junior year of high school. When I returned, my principal allowed me to take a placement test in French (which put me in French 4/5, the most advanced class offered), then awarded me some credits for what I had learned while overseas (she also gave me social studies credits). With these credits, I had enough to graduate with my class.
I was very glad I hadn’t tried to transfer credits from my Belgian schools to my home school. I ended up going to two different schools, and I have to admit that it was liberating not to have to concentrate on school work. My GPA most definitely would have suffered if my grades overseas had counted. I would definitely advising taking the one extra online class.
I think it will be easy for your daughter to explain why she has fluency in the language without years of class credits.
My college essay focused on my experiences overseas, including the self-reliance I acquired. I think the experience made me a more attractive admissions candidate, but I can’t say for certain.
I hope your daughter has a wonderful year.
Since you are in Florida, it will be very easy for her to make up any specific credits she needs through Florida Virtual school during her junior/sr years. For example, if she needs a health class, she can do that easily in a few weeks. I’d try not to have the grades transfer back. Take an extra science in 11th grade and an extra math in 12, so she’ll have 4 years of each core class.
She may be eligible for merit at Florida colleges or at other schools. I don’t think it will matter.that she did all her core classes in three years or four. It doesn’t matter for most colleges (or bright futures) if she has French 1&2 or French 3 and AP, as long as it is 2 years of a Foreign language. She might also want to take it at a community college when she comes back.
My daughter was a Rotary exchange student to Turkey in 2011-12. She graduated in 2013 via a public charter school for homeschoolers in our state (so had to meet same grad requirements as those in traditional high school here.)
We did not attempt to use the credits from study in Turkey. For one thing, she moved around a fair amount, and the formal schooling was a bit inconsistent. For another, the language barrier was an issue.
I HAVE known of students who used their credits earned in the exchange to meet grad requirements for traditional high school programs though.
We homeschooled any missing credits. I actually set her up with a couple of Turkey-related courses for her to work on while in-country.
I definitely think the exchange year can help with admissions if the rest of the “package” is solid. I would not say my daughter’s stats were outstanding though. She had pretty good grades, pretty good test scores. The Turkey thing was interesting enough. In the end she was choosing between Univ of WA and Bryn Mawr, and she went with UW.