Study Abroad Junior Year of High School & College Admissions

Parents Forum
1

My daughter is in 10th grade and has received a full scholarship to study abroad for a full academic year in Europe. She would study abroad during her junior year, during which time she would live with a host family and attend a high school in the destination country. While she is very excited about receiving the scholarship and attending this program, we are interested in hearing people’s thoughts about the effects it may have (positive or negative) on college admissions, especially in light of what we were told by my daughter’s high school (a large public school).

We informed the school administration about my daughter’s acceptance into this program, and they were not supportive of her attending the program and missing her junior year. They stressed that junior year is the most important year in preparing for college applications, and that missing her junior year could disadvantage my daughter in several ways –

  1. They cannot say at this point whether my daughter would return to the school as a senior or a junior. They can only do this after she returns from her year abroad and they review her transcript to see what courses (if any) they can accept. The student has no choice in this matter – it is the school’s decision based on a review of the courses taken abroad.
  2. If she returns as a senior, she will have missed the opportunity to take a challenging course load (APs etc.) during her junior year that colleges like to see, and will have to scramble to complete a number of requirements/tests that are required to be taken junior year, in addition to her senior course load.
  3. She will be disadvantaged in course selection upon her return because she will have missed class registration (which happens in the spring, and most AP and other popular classes fill up), and will most likely only be able to be placed in less popular/non-AP classes that still have openings. Her school can’t register or “hold” a spot for her in any classes while she is away.
  4. If she returns as a junior, she will be separated from her class and her graduation will be delayed by a year. While my daughter does not have a problem with this, it seems she would still encounter the problem in 3).

In light of the above, my daughter’s school suggested that she should consider studying abroad in college, rather than during her junior year of high school. She is passionate about learning foreign languages, loves the idea of studying abroad and was very excited to receive the scholarship. Should she still attend the program, despite the possible disadvantages outlined above? Will attending the program be a positive for college admissions? Any thoughts/feedback are much appreciated.

2

Congratulations to your daughter! My daughter did the same thing during her junior year of high school and she now has an undergraduate degree from MIT and is working on dual masters there as well. Exchange wasn’t always easy but it was a life-changing experience. Now the whole family is involved. My husband and I have been host parents with AFS for 5 high school students and I also volunteer.

Many people don’t understand that long-term high school exchange is very different from exchange during college and one can’t replace the other. High school exchange like your daughter is planning to do is full immersion since she’ll be living with a local family and going to a local school. And because she’s a minor, she’ll be treated like one of the family with the same rules and responsibilities as any other children they may have. Even if you live with a family during a university exchange it’s not the same because you’re an adult. You may get close to your family but it’s usually more at a peer level.

We talked to many college reps about the pros and cons of high school exchange before my daughter studied abroad. The consensus was that a year-long exchange is not looked on negatively because it shows independence and risk talking. It can be looked upon favorably if the student can demonstrate how they have grown from the experience. College reps know that this type of exchange is not for everyone and that it’s very hard. The reps we talked to said that they would rather see exchange on a transcript than another AP course.

We were lucky that my daughter’s large public high school was supportive and she was able to graduate with her class. She took the PSAT’s and SAT’s while she was abroad and then took several AP classes her senior year including both junior and senior year English. She was able to get her health credits through an online course the summer before she left. They gave her elective credit for the classes she took while abroad but didn’t carry over the grades into her GPA so her class rank wasn’t affected by grades she got when she couldn’t speak the language yet.

Is there someone at your daughter’s exchange organization who could talk to the school? They can provide data on the benefits of exchange and also give your school information on how other local schools handle similar situations. Is your daughter the first one at that school to do something like this? Sometimes finding an advocate within the school can also help like a counselor who may have studied abroad or a language teacher. If all else fails, you might consider taking this to the school board.

Good luck!

3

I’m surprised at your school’s reaction. While my daughter never studied abroad, every year there were a handful of kids at her high school who did. Most went away for one semester, but a few were gone for the full year. I don’t know how they worked things out academically – I know that there were some APs that weren’t taken – but the school never discouraged them and always figured it out. Colleges these students went to include Yale, Smith, Barnard and NYU.

You might want to contact a poster here, @calmom. Her daughter studied abroad, had some issues with (I believe) her math sequence, but did well in college admissions.

4

From a logistical point of view the easiest thing to do is a second senior year as a gap year after high school, but I agree with your daughter, with an interest in foreign languages it makes sense to do it sooner rather than later. Nothing will compare with a full immersion program where you are part of a family and attending a high school with local students. She will get to know the country in a way that hardly any college programs even try to replicate. (My son did one program with homestays in Jordan and another where he was housed with a university student also in Jordan, but neither program offered classes at the local universities because most student’s Arabic was not up to the task.) Colleges generally do realize that a student may have difficulties putting together a normal schedule, but it sounds like your high school is also making life more difficult than they have to. Good luck to your daughter.

5

My S’s friend did her junior year abroad, returned to school as a senior, and was accepted to all the colleges that she applied to. It sounds like your school is the problem. Maybe she could return to a private school that would be more felxible and helpful?

6

Is your daughter looking to go to a top school? Then coming back as a Junior might make sense. If she is going to a school that needs recommendations, it would be more difficult to get them from the international teachers.

We hosted a German exchange student who did just that…she was in the “Gymnasium” (highest level public German school) and they would not accept the credits. She could take whatever courses she wanted and didn’t have to worry about requirements.

7

A junior year abroad is, in the eyes of many schools, a kind of ultimate EC. It shows the student is mature, adventurous, willing to face difficulties, etc. My daughter did a semester abroad in high school as a junior and always regretted that it wasn’t a year. But several of her friends did the full year, still graduated on time, and got into great colleges.

I’m sorry the counselor isn’t more supportive. You DO miss out a lot with a junior year abroad. But you also gain so, so much. I would encourage you to pursue this terrific opportunity.

A few things to consider: how will daughter’s high school treat her grades from overseas? In my daughter’s school, courses were all pass/fail. Will she be able to complete all her high school graduation requirements by the end of her senior year? Are the SATs given in the country she’s going to? Are the sites easy for her to get to from where she’ll live?

Good luck to your daughter. Like others here, I hope she goes.

8

One kid here studied abroad junior year and was admitted ED to a college ranked in the 20s that was a surprising admit based on local GPA (friend of my kid and that is what my kid was told). She is graduating with her class. I don’t know if it impacted her ability to take APs this year. We are in a medium sized suburban public HS. It is not common for kids to study abroad for a year. Of course, that is just one data point.

As long as she can take equivalent pre-reqs, there should be no reason your D should not be in APs upon her return. Also, the bit about registration is ridiculous. With email, telephones and even skype, there is no reason she can’t register from abroad.

Who is the “they” that is telling you this? Guidance or the principal or superintendent? I would continue to ask questions and get answers at the highest level of administration. If the school district won’t budge, you and your D will have to make some decisions on whether to take a chance on this opportunity, with the possibility that she would have to repeat junior year, which would be a shame.

9

Our local HS is not supportive of study abroad and other “away” programs. But kids do them and they turn out fine. One student I know is going to Penn, another to Johns Hopkins.

10

I took my sophomore year in high school abroad, and it was a wonderful, fundamental, life-changing experience. I would encourage anyone to do it if they can, provided they have at least some ability to learn the local language. (It helps a lot if you have a few years of study before going, based on my observations.) Of course, I did it more than 40 years ago, before the era of a zillion APs before 12th grade (I actually got an advantage, by being able to do two foreign language APs, one in 10th grade and one in 12th), and before the era when the top student at a school like mine (which I was) had to worry about getting accepted at the college of his choice.

Besides the question of APs and graduation requirements, another challenge you may face that I didn’t is the leadership succession queue for various ECs. Newspaper and yearbook editors, club officers, and team captains generally get chosen at the end of the junior year (or the appropriate season that year), based primarily on performance that year. If you are not there, you won’t be a candidate. I am sure college admissions staff have the intellectual capacity to understand this and to correct for it, but whether they actually do or not, who knows? It probably makes some difference whether the school college counselor or a faculty recommender address that issue in their report/recommendation in some positive way.

The school can help if it wants to. First and foremost, of course, by accepting her 11th grade coursework in some appropriate manner. (Watch out for issues with GPA weighting and class ranking.) But also with the leadership issue. My daughter had something of this problem when she switched schools between 10th and 11th grades. She was there for 11th grade, but the expectations of who was going to run what had largely already been set before anyone started to remember her name, and rocking the boat wasn’t her way of winning friends and influencing people. When it became clear she would be one of a handful of National Merit Finalists at the school and would be applying to some very selective colleges, the administration (which was very college-focused) realized that she was going to have a problem showing leadership, and a vice principal approached her about starting up and running a program that would take place her senior year. Which she did. I would love to report that this was admissions magic, but the results were ambiguous. She (and her parents) nonetheless really appreciated the school’s effort.

11

I can’t help but think that your school is worried that it will be more work for them, and that that is the real issue.

IMO this is too good of an opportunity to pass up. And many, many colleges will look at it as a significant EC, as an above poster stated.

With respect to junior year being “the most crucial year for preparing college applications,” I would dispute that. You can do plenty of college visits this summer before your daughter leaves for Europe. She can take SATs overseas. And the common app doesn’t open until Aug 1 of senior year, so your D can certainly manage the application process by doing a little work on either end of her trip to Europe.

BTW, one of my favorite singers, K T Tunstall from Scotland, did a h.s. year abroad here in the US, in Connecticut.

12

Thanks everyone for the very helpful responses and perspectives. While the school said that my D is free to do the program if she wants to (we had spoken with the principal and guidance counselor), they wanted to make sure we were apprised of the possible negative ramifications/complications (from their perspective) of her missing her junior year. We will continue to work on this with the school.

13

My daughter’s school discouraged her from studying abroad her junior year, so she quickly applied for the spring semester of her sophomore year and was accepted. Oh, my gosh, it was an amazing experience for her. She stayed with a local couple in Cadiz, at the southern tip of Spain. She attended a regular public high school and learned SO much. She came home so much more mature and settled. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I wouldn’t hesitate to send a child junior year. I can’t say that my daughter has done that much related to college this year (her junior year).

14

My daughter did a foreign exchange for a semester her junior year, in Russia. We didn’t know how it would impac college admissions and we just let go of worrying about that: it was an adventure and a challenge, and we could think about college later.

It was definitely disruptive to her schedule-- my daughter was not able to take junior year AP’s or even a full course load when she came back in the spring. And she had to double up with courses senior year-- definitely stressful, particularly fall semester (when DD also insisted on taking two weeks off in Sept. & Oct. to visit colleges on her own). Plus of course DD missed a round of standardized testing – no PSAT, for example.

DD’s SAT scores were never what we thought was needed for an elite college- she was an A student but very few weighted courses and big gaps – no math beyond 2nd year algebra, for example – only 2 lab sciences.

So what happened with college? D. turned down spots at U of Chicago & UC Berkeley to matriculate to Barnard. She applied to 12 different colleges and was accepted to 9, including most of her reaches. I think the time abroad was a big plus factor – though we did put some thought into what colleges would most value the time abroad.

So basically: the net impact of a year abroad is that your kid ends up with a more interesting college application, potentially making her more attractive to colleges, at least for those with holistic admission standards.

I’m very sorry that your DD’s school is not at all supportive. I stayed out of direct conversations with the staff at my daughter’ s school - I insisted that she work out everything on her own with her school guidance counselor & principal, partly because I knew that she wouldn’t have me to fall back on when she was abroad. I did strongly suggest that she get a firm commitment from her school on the credits from abroad, in writing-- she actually ended up with more high school credit, and everything was treated as an “A” on her record - but the courses were meaningless as far as filling any graduation requirements. (Because my d. was an A student, unweighted A’s didn’t really help, but they didn’t hurt either)

I do feel that you and you DD need to plan for the possibility that her present high school will throw down barriers when she gets back. If they won’t make guarantees in advance and are unsupportive … then you’ve got to plan for the worst. How does your DD feel about that school? What other options might she have when she comes back? (A different high school? A homeschooled senior year? Direct enrollment in a community college?)

Do keep in mind that senior year is tough for students who have spent a year abroad - they tend to mature tremendously, and then they come home and it’s hard for them to relate to their high school peers. They are ready to fly and be independent – no way will your daughter be happy if she is told that she is expected to spend an extra year in high school.

15

Most American high schools make it nearly impossible for a student to be an exchange student without having to repeat a year. I think it’s shameful, really, because it’s yet another thing that keeps American students from exploring other cultures, seeking adventure, and becoming more well-rounded, open-minded people. College study abroad is not the same (though still great!).

I was a high school foreign exchange student my junior year of high school, and while it had some negative ramifications, it changed my life. It absolutely gave me a leg-up in college admissions (and life!), though I can offer some sage advice to help your daughter avoid some of the downsides (that didn’t help with some college admissions in my case). From the sound of it, your daughter may have been accepted by the same program, given full scholarship programs for high school foreign exchange are few in number–is it the CBYX program? She should do it. It’s super prestigious to get the scholarship, for one, plus it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and will change her forever. I grew enormously as a human being, became fluent in a language, and the experience shaped my passions & worldview. Every job I’ve had since graduating college has had something to do with international language or culture, and my experiences and fluency gave me a leg-up for getting those jobs. (I found homes for exchange students in the U.S. for two years and have marketed international premium channels, including a German channel, for 4.5 years) I have a perspective on being American–and how the rest of the world views us–that I think has made me more well-rounded and generally more empathetic.

My pro-tips: her credits likely won’t transfer and she will have to repeat a year. This sucks, but I present to you the crappy alternative: my school was MAJORLY LAME AND TERRIBLE and tried to reneg on letting my credits transfer (they guaranteed they would). I returned home and the bargain for being able to go into my senior year and graduate on time was they converted my pass/fail grades I got from my German school (all passes) into Cs. Cs. I was a straight A student. My bulldog mom negotiated them up to Bs (even though it is the most ridiculous idea ever that I would get a B in English… in Germany. I got the highest marks on all my papers.), but that was the best we could get. It tanked my GPA. I had to submit an addendum to the schools I applied to explaining the situation–2 out of 4 must have paid attention b/c I got in with scholarships; the other two clearly did not GAF, because I didn’t pass muster. (schools where a computer checks your base stats clearly don’t read addendums!) I hated high school with a fiery passion and the idea of being held back hurt my soul, but in hindsight, I probably would have been better off repeating the year so I’d have no GPA problems. The tricky thing about getting actual grades from the school–which have a better chance of transferring over–is that it is HARD to do well academically in a foreign language, even if you’re pretty clever. German gymnasiums (college prep) are really difficult, even for Germans… with the language barrier, pass/fail was the most generous option. I aced my English class over there (of course!), as well as art & music, but the pass/fail metric was super helpful for classes like science which is FREAKING HARD in another language. Again: repeating the year might be a blessing in disguise.

Either way, make sure she takes the SAT before she goes, ie: NOW. (May or June exam) A year of becoming fluent in another language turned my English/math brain to baloney and just two months home was not enough to put me back into American/standardized test mode. I know if I’d taken my SATs before I left, my scores would have been higher. A year abroad does delightfully weird things to your English brain (in many ways it strengthened my writing skills, but the initial transition was weird–I had to retrain myself in essay writing metrics), and in my case German math is nothing like American math and that year really poked holes in my math abilities–there’s a rhythm and rigor to doing well on the SATs, and study abroad can mess with that. On the plus side: I scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT II German exam!

So that is to say: I was a straight A student who saw a GPA dip due to crappy transfer issues & didn’t test well on my SAT as a senior. This was back in 2001 when it wasn’t quite as dire–nowadays, that SAT hit could really make college admissions difficult. Hindsight is 20/20 & I should have suffered through being held back to give myself more time to recover academically. And I know my school certainly “punished” me for being a way in the way your school has warned you–I didn’t get all the courses I wanted as a senior (also had to double-load on English to graduate on time–took American Lit & AP lit simultaneously), and it hurt me mostly on the club side–didn’t get into the NHS, or any senior positions in club elections b/c I wasn’t there (and people forgot me). It’s way worse now than it was then–there weren’t that many APs offered at my school, so I didn’t miss out on too many AP credits (I took AP US History as a senior).

But, as someone else mentioned: being a high school foreign exchange student was the ultimate extra curricular activity. Your essay will blow the socks off 99% of other essays, as long as you can string words together well. Such a meager percentage of Americans have a passport, let alone study abroad, let alone for a year, as a teenager. You stand out, and many schools will value that “diversity”–you can bring something to campus that others cannot. I know my essays, especially for BU, were excellent–I wrote both my general essay and my “why I want to study journalism” essay about my exchange (in a year where they got a glut of September 11 essays). When I got to BU, another kid in my German class had done the same scholarship program–what are the odds that out of just 200 Americans who do it a year, we both end up at the same school? That tells me BU specifically was looking for that kind of experience, and offered both of us generous merit aid. My fellow program alum ended up at a wide variety of schools, from the Ivies all the way down–however many of them did the program as a gap year. I was one of the few who missed a year of high school to do it.

Sorry I wrote you an essay! I just cannot express enough how worth it it is to do a year long exchange in high school. The long term benefits far out weigh the short term disadvantages. And you can always play it super safe and do the study abroad + repeat junior year. With that combination, assuming scores stay in a good place, your daughter would be a unique, competitive applicant. (and bonus: it continues to impress into adulthood. Like I said–having it on my resume has helped me get jobs. No one cares about college study abroad later on, but high school foreign exchange remains eternally impressive) And if it is the CBYX scholarship, feel free to ask me questions via PM. I could literally write a book about it :slight_smile:

16

proudterrier, I know lots of kids who did a year abroad program in high school WITHOUT repeating a year.

17

If the student will be spending a year in Germany – there may be another college option as well:
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/learning-curve/american-students-head-germany-free-college

I concur with the suggestion to take the SAT in spring of sophomore year – it’s just on thing that you can get out of the way and there’s really no downside, since the test can be retaken down the line.

18

I have a friend whose daughter had a Rotary scholarship. She crammed all her requirements into junior year graduating early and did the rotary instead of senior year. But the OP has the scholarship for this year. I don’t think she should have to repeat junior year, but she may have to apply to schools that actually read transcripts and extra notes. Luckily there are lots of them.

19

My younger daughter studied abroad for 2 years (junior and senior year), living with us (we moved abroad). It is all very exotic and exciting to live in a foreign country, and a great thing to tell your friends that you are living abroad. Reality for us was we watched D2 cried almost daily for the first few months. She did master the language and she will always value her experience, but there was a price she paid. It took a lot of effort on our part to get her grades normalized. If I didn’t push so hard, her new school would have been happy to give her course work lowest weighting.

I am sure most host parents are wonderful people, but what if they are not? How would your child handle it? I may be an outlier, but I don’t think I would be that keen on my 16 year old daughter living with a family I have never met. Of course I was one of those moms that didn’t let my daughters sleep over at friend’s house that I didn’t know the parents.

We traveled internationally a lot as a family. My kids studied abroad when they were in college and enjoyed their experience, but they still ran into few issues.

20

@katliamom I didn’t have to repeat my year so I’m aware many kids don’t, but many of the people I’ve talked to who did the program after me (or considered it)–so in the intervening 15 years–have been told by their high school that they would have to. I’ve found this to be the case in most major metropolitan county school systems–the perfect cocktail of lots of red tape/no exceptions policies and having to streamline hundreds of thousands of kids through a rigorous system of checkpoints to graduate. I found the more urban/affluent the school system, the less flexible they were (that includes not accepting incoming foreign exchange students, either). And also the point I was hoping to make was that: I didn’t WANT to repeat a year, but in hindsight, from the perspective of college admissions specifically, I might have benefited from doing so. So it’s not the worst thing that could happen, if the school later says no.

@oldfort I actually experienced all the worst case scenarios! (and saw many more in my years working with inbound exchange students). If OP wants to ask me any questions about them, I’m happy to share. My first host family was a nightmare (creepy, verbally abusive host dad) and I had to find a new family by myself (my exchange org sucked), I had trouble making friends, my teachers didn’t know what to do with me, school was ridiculously difficult, it was lonely, etc. And yet it was one of the most beneficial and amazing years of my life. Teens are resilient and programs like this won’t select kids who can’t take it. Culture shock is natural and happens, and adjustment is rough, but it’s very doable. Situations happen with host families, but that is what exchange organizations are there for. My organization dropping the ball back in 2000 was an outlier, and the person who poorly managed the program resigned halfway through my year. My second host family wasn’t perfect, but they were good, well-meaning people. And my mom got to visit halfway through the year and meet them :slight_smile: (we still exchange Xmas cards, and my host sister just had a baby!) But, I’m also AMAZED my mom didn’t jump on a plane and to come and get me when everything went south. It must have been really scary for her.