<p>Dartmouth is indeed an amazing place! DS, a freshmen, is having the time of his life.</p>
<p>Yes, and thanks!</p>
<p>If that is the case then, it sounds like it would be a natural thing for you to talk about and focus on your application (it would be hard to imagine a year in another country would not fall under this category!) It probably wouldn't fall under diversity to admit you, but more of finding different kids with different passions who have explored those passions. Even if you aren't taking the same classes you would be taking at home, you have shown your willingness to go off the beaten path and do what you want to do.</p>
<p>Ya...being an exchange student might not get you in, but I think overall its worth it. People spend to much time worrying about petty BS instead of the intangibles that can change your life.</p>
<p>My D is living in Beijing her junior year through SYA, learning Chinese from scratch and living with a non-English speaking Chinese family in a very humble living situation. It is not only the hardest thing she has ever done, I doubt there are too many adults who could do it. If that doesn't count for something to college admissions counselors, then they should get their heads out of their calculators!</p>
<p>merryecho, I'm doing SYA too! Wow, that's amazing that your D is going in with no Chinese experience. That is so brave. I hope she's having a great time; SYA is such an amazing program.</p>
<p>Hi Raelah- thanks for the compliment, I agree, it was pretty brave. Are you doing your junior year in SYA as well? Have you picked out any colleges yet? I guess the SYA college counselor in Beijing is not very knowledgable. There really won't be that much time to choose between schools if SYA juniors want to apply for early admission.</p>
<p>Yes, I am doing my junior year in France. We just started doing our college counseling last week. We're lucky in France this year though; one of our American teachers works as a college counselor back in the States, so we actually do have someone knowledgeable. However, I did do a bunch of "college hunting" last summer before I even left (I was afraid that we wouldn't do much in France in terms of college, and I really didn't want to come back senior year and start from scratch, my huge public school counselor would have been NO help.) Anyway, I do have a bunch of schools I'm interested in, but more reaches than safeties unfortunately...</p>
<p>"More reaches than safeties"..it is much harder to find safeties you would be happy with than reaches, isn't it? I guess it's like shopping for a purse- everybody wants a Louis Vuitton, but what they really need is a nice, well-made purse that looks good. Good luck with your search. Looking at the SYA matriculation list, it seems that, regardless of the advice on this thread, SYA does count for something.</p>