<p>My husband and I are very seriously considering a 2 year assignment in China. We have 5 children. Our oldest would complete her Jr & Sr. years in China and the 2nd oldest would finish his Freshman and Sophomore years there. Through our company expat program, they would have the benefit of excellent private international schools in China but we are concerned about how this divide would be viewed by college admissions. Any thoughts? Thanks!</p>
<p>Remember to consider that living outside the US will mean being out-of-state for all state universities, with implications for admissions, cost, financial aid, and scholarships.</p>
<p>My b-in-law has raised a family overseas (state dept) and it’s worked out fine for them…they’ve kept residency in virginia (they keep a house there) and their kids have received excellent educations at international schools… </p>
<p>All the US born kids I know who have attended overseas international schools have been admitted to top tier schools albeit privates. They possess a very diverse experience and they are also bilingual. You would also be able to save much more money since you will enjoy expat perks and tax benefits. The only downside is the polluted air in China, especially Beijing.</p>
<p>My kids went to 3 different schools in the US. It’s a pain to line up the requirements, but I don’t think the schools they applied to had any issues. Military kids often go to 4-5 high schools, in the US and overseas.</p>
<p>We live in London and most of the expat kids here go to an American school, which follows an American curriculum including AP courses. You will need to investigate whether the school in China offers AP courses or IB curriculum. American universities are fine accepting IB results, but switching from an AP school to a IB school (or vice versa) is difficult. The kids from the American School in London have no problem at all getting into US universities. Many families keep a house the US, nut I really don’t know if that helps with in state tuition. </p>
<p>My younger daughter went to an American International school in South America for her junior and senior years. The challenge we found was how to normalize her US grades vs her new school. The new school used weighted GPA to determine class standing, top 1%, 5%, 10%, and Val vs Sal. D2’s old school didn’t use weighted GPA. She took honors 9-10th grade, but didn’t take any APs because her old school didn’t offer APs 9-10th grade. She was a contender for Val at her new school, but due to different weighting of her grades, she was disadvantaged. </p>
<p>D2 had to be very proactive at her new school to cultivate relationships with her teachers at the new school, whereas at her old school most of those teachers have known her since was in middle school. D2’s new teachers wrote excellent recommendation letters for her, but we were prepared to ask her old teachers if it was necessary. D2 also had to work hard to get leadership positions at various clubs and school organizations. </p>
<p>There were many up sides for D2 by moving, 1) she became fluent in Spanish, 2) made a lot of new friends, 3) she showed diversity, 4) her college application was read relative to students at new school rather than with super competitive students at her old prep school. D2’s test scores looked fantastic relative to other students. Overall, D2 benefited from moving overseas when it came to college application. In OP’s case, he would be competing with students who may tend to get better test scores. I would think students in China would be more competitive. They are used to put in additional hours (tutoring) after school. </p>
<p>We maintained residency in our home state, so D2 had the option of going to our state school. </p>
<p>My DD went to an International School for Junior and Senior Year. She got an IB Diploma and got many many credits for it at SUNY Binghamton. There was no issue with colleges at all.She got in where she should and didn’t get into Ivy League (but those were super high reaches). She got the scholarships one would expect.</p>
<p>We have no idea what her GPA is. Her Fresh/Soph grades were on a 0-100% scale. Her Junior Senior grades were 1-7 (IB). The only time that was an issue was Rutgers used GPA to determine autoscholarships…but an email took care of that.</p>
<p>I will say that the PSAT scores for National Merit will be with the “international” kids, therefore the highest cutoff.</p>
<p>There was actually some girl at my high school who had parents with this same sort of situation (not China but outside the US). Junior and Senior years of high school. Her parents moved and just got an apartment for her so she didn’t have to leave. I didn’t know her all that well so I don’t know all that much about the situation, there may have been more to it than I know. I just remember this because it seemed so odd to me. </p>
<p>That could potentially be an option for you if you think the oldest is mature enough and if it’s financially feasible. </p>
<p>Also, I can think of a couple Americans who went to high school in Hong Kong who went to the same University as me out of high school (Michigan). So it’s clearly possible, but perhaps expensive if they’re going to be OOS for everywhere. </p>
<p>Re: Hong Kong</p>
<p>Note that the universities there have costs for international students that are competitive with in-state public university costs in many US states.</p>
<p>One of my children had a transcript that I suspect some schools didn’t know how to process, and perhaps weren’t willing to try. When a school has many more applicants than openings, you can’t make them work too hard. In fact, I phoned an admissions office to ask how they might read an absence of certain classes, and they confirmed that it could go against the student (despite a very challenging and interesting set of classes). So I suggest you do think about it carefully - but if your student takes relatively standard and rigorous classes, I wouldn’t think that would be a big issue.</p>
<p>Now, even though some colleges became inaccessible, possibly because of the academic experiences my child had, neither one of us would choose a different path, in retrospect. It was life-changing, worth it, <em>and</em> there were some really great college options.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that as a US citizen, you will not be considered an international for US university admissions (as some people seem to be implying). Also, overseas international schools (especially the American schools) send many, many kids to US universities every year. They are, in general, very knowledgeable about the application process. There is a big difference between being an American citizen who happens to attend an International HS in China and a Chinese citizen who tries to apply to a US university. </p>
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<p>The “international student” comment was in reference to universities in Hong Kong, not universities in the US.</p>
<p>We have tons of friends whose kids went to international school in China. They all got into colleges they were happy with. I think you’d be fine with two years of HS there–one year might be more problematic. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine why any college would consciously penalize a student whose family moved due to job issues. As with any application there will be strong and weak points. Your job is to maximize the strengths–and there plenty of strengths to be had from an applicant who lived for two years in China.</p>
<p>…and you can do an IB diploma in two years.</p>