I am currently a sophomore at boarding school, and I have applied for SYA Italy next year. Can anyone give me some input on their/their childrens’ experience with SYA? Both Italy and other countries. The chances of me getting in are limited, as I applied late and my school can only support 3 people doing programs like this a year (4 applied), but I still just would like information on SYA in general.
Thanks!
DS has a few friends who did SYA in France last year. They enjoyed the program. It was a homestay program.
Good luck.
Do you know if they fell behind in academics at all, or anything like that?
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I got in to SYA France. Anyone have stories of their year abroad in France?
I did SYA France and it was the best decision I ever made. The academics are run by the boarding schools who founded the program, so the English and Math teachers (the only subjects taught in English) are from top boarding schools, they change every year. The rest of your classes are in French by French teachers.
One common concern I hear is that SYA makes college admissions harder. This is not true! My classmates and I all are now at great colleges. SYA sets you apart, and honestly it is such a fantastic experience that it outweighs leadership positions in clubs you might get. What I tell people is that even if SYA wasn’t as good for college admissions as it is, and I didn’t get into any of the colleges I wanted to go to as a direct result, I would still choose to go to SYA because it was just such a wonderful experience.
There are lots of student blogs about SYA, many kids have them to keep track of everything. Do some googling, you can find tons of info on those blogs. I think the SYA website usually has links to some current ones as well.
Happy to answer any other questions!
I got into SYA France too!