<p>Hello all!</p>
<p>Next year, I am studying abroad from August to January in Argentina through AFS intercultural programs. I was reading up on what makes a great EC, and studying abroad was on the list. Will my AFS experience next year help me with college admissions? If it will, how much will it help?</p>
<p>Thank you for your time, and sorry if you have seen this post in other forums, Im trying to find the right home for it.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a particularly good EC. IT just shows that your parents have some money.</p>
<p>That was a bit harsh. Yes, it is an EC that is primarily undertaken by students whose families have means, but it can help you demonstrate that you have unusual independence and cultural awareness compared to your peers. It can give you excellent essay fodder and spark ideas for areas of individual research. If you develop great language skills, your subject test scores may end up quite strong and that can be a plus.</p>
<p>A high school exchange does not suggest unusual independence or cultural awareness. It’s just not that rare an experience among rich kids.</p>
<p>My son did his sophomore year of high school living with a host family in a little town in France and attending French public high school. He came home fluent, did extremely well in AP French and post AP French, French SAT2 and placed into 3rd year college French, nearly into 6th semester college French as a freshman.</p>
<p>He had excellent college admissions results – the year abroad does show unusual independence for a 16 year old kid. It gives them a different view of the world – which is valuable in and of itself in our increasingly global society.</p>
<p>How many kids in your school have actually done this? For a year? If its more than 2-3 from your typical high school class, I’d be surprised. I won’t say it’s unique … because that would require a modifier … but it’s not a common experience.</p>
<p>^ Off the top of my head, about 10% of the students in my high school class did an exchange abroad. Most went for just one semester.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that it’s common or not valuable, but it’s not rare and it doesn’t really show very much about the character of the student. It mainly just shows that their parents can afford it.</p>
<p>Of the guys who did it, several were saying how they hoped the local girls would be all over them… and it worked (or so they claimed).</p>
<p>Well I am the first student going from my school in its entire history and there is something like 50 kids are going for all of the state of Connecticut. Thanks for your input cnp55. We will see how colleges take it, but Im glad it worked out for your son. Maybe this will be the little bit more that will push me into some really prestigious schools. And, if it isn’t, no big deal because it will be an amazing experience regardless.</p>
<p>Why does it reflect any worse than a kid from a private school or a boarding school? It actually costs LESS to go to a one-year abroad program than to a NYC private school or a Northeast boarding school. Walk into any Ivy dorm and half the kids went to private school. There’s no way that they hold that against you and if you come back fluent in Spanish, that’s fabulous.</p>
<p>Who said they would hold it against you?</p>