<p>Any parents or students with first hand experiences with School Year Abroad for Junior Year? (or friends who have done it?)</p>
<p>Looking to know about time away. Thinks to think about. Communication strategies. Reintegration with classmates when you return.</p>
<p>What were classes like and were they with local students or SYA kids? How big were classes?</p>
<p>I have only my own experience of many moons ago, but which involved reintegrating back into BS, etc. I was with the English Speaking Union and went to a BS in Scotland. I had no other ESU classmates with me–only the natives, as it were.</p>
<p>Happy to PM.</p>
<p>Can I get cc’d on the PM? 
It’s putting the cart before the horse until Thursday, but I did a full year abroad in college & am very interested in the experience for DC during BS, so I’d love to hear more about your ESU experience.</p>
<p>Okay, here goes, based on my own experience (in prehistoric times):</p>
<p>(1) How successful it is depends on the kid. I think it would be most successful for a student who’s really outgoing - regardless of language skills. I was a brilliant linguist, but tended toward being a loner and introvert (the one who was always in her room studying instead of out socializing). That made my semester abroad particularly challenging - and I had problems I would never wish on my own kid!</p>
<p>(2) How successful it is also depends on the level of supervision. In my case, there was no supervision. I was placed with a family in a remote part of the country and that was the end of that. If there was any further interaction with the sponsor organization, I was unaware of it. (And my cynical guess would be that the only further contacts were the monthly payments to my host family.) I suspect it’s unlikely that programs like that still exist. If they do, stay away like the plague! At the time, I loved the independence and would have been miserable being part of a highly supervised school group . . . but to say that the situation was far from ideal would be the understatement of the century!</p>
<p>(3) Finally, success depends on the student’s ability to maintain her relationships with her boarding school community. It goes without saying that if you’re gone for a semester, those relationships are jeopardized. I think the best possible situations would be if (a) the school has organized the program itself, and all the students in the program are from that school, or (b) the school really strongly encourages its students to get involved in semester away programs, so that a lot of students are gone, and not just one or two. But to be one of only a handful of students who were gone, when everyone else stayed at school, would be harder. And the transition back into the school community would be challenging.</p>
<p>Just my take on things - your student’s experience may be quite different.</p>
<p>I know its a kind of a mini trend to do that now in HS but Junior year is the one that colleges look at the most. Your kid wants to present the most rigorous program to colleges at that time. Not going to happen no matter where they go abroad. Also, potentially they will be taking 2 SAT’s and 1 set of Subject SATs during the junior year. If they are an athlete they will start recruitment process in the Spring of Jun. year. In my opinion this puts a huge unnecessary stress on a kid. If you want them to have an abroad experience, do it during the Summer.</p>
<p>IVY matriculation out of SYA is remarkably high. One would say you have a better odds having gone through the program. I’ve been a college interviewer for 30 years and my husband is a current Adcom so we already know there is no downside in terms of college apps. The students still take all the normal entrance exams including PSAT in their Junior year.</p>
<p>What we were looking for is first-hand stories about logistics, integration back into BS after the year, etc. Some of the more qualitative things you can only get from people who have lived through it.</p>
<p>Thanks to those who PM’d. The comments were remarkably helpful.</p>
<p>Exie–can you post some of the feedback you received through the pm’s. I am going to apply next year and I’m considering China. I haven’t found much info on the program other than through my bs. I’m excited for your kid. What country? Thanks.</p>
<p>I can’t because they were PM’s - but - for the most part the experience was positive and transformative. </p>
<p>I’ll post which country as soon as D makes up her mind about the final decision. We’re still working through logistics and pros and cons and I don’t want to jinx it. </p>
<p>But I have to tell you - I’ve found comments online and looked at the coursework and it’s very tempting. The school has sent 150 kids and had only 3 students who didn’t thrive for reasons that weren’t specified (other than to say the reasons were odd).</p>
<p>I read on someone’s blog that a student complained about his host family’s love of seafood. Sigh.</p>
<p>SYA is great. My D attended Italy in her junior year. It was a life changing 9 months, even when things were not perfect. This is FAR more intellectually challenging than any full load of honors or AP classes …which if you think about it would seem rather ordinary to any college. Taking on the risk of living with a family in a foreign country for 9 months is life changing. My D would have stayed longer. Her situation was not perfect but the intellectual and emotional growth was far more than expected. My D spent her first two years at a demanding northeastern boarding school as well as her fourth, back to graduate with her class.</p>