<p>College Confidential, pls halp.
I'm currently a sophomore in high school, studying hard and enjoying all my extracurriculars. I make good marks (top 5% of my fairly competitive high school), and I'm looking into schools such as UPenn, Georgetown, NYU, etc, I've been looking in to a year of study abroad in my dad's home nation of Austria between junior and senior year in order to really learn the language and absorb the culture. However, the only way this could work within a Texas high school is if I enrolled in an online school and took some lower-level courses, like health or whatever, before returning to an AP crammed schedule. This means my high school career would technically take five years... I'd be going to Austria with Rotary, so I'd have proof of the legitimacy and all, but how would colleges look at this? Would it hurt my chances? Thanks!</p>
<p>It sounds like a wonderful experience that you shouldn’t pass up, a fantastic opportunity to get to know a language and about your father’s home intimately. I think it will make you a very compelling candidate. I think they will appreciate the hoops you had to jump through to make it happen and the language acquisition. Also Rotary is the seal of approval, as you say, not everyone gets chosen for such, right? In any case, I wouldn’t live my life passing up things I wanted to do because of splitting hairs over what looks better to colleges. You will get in some college and make of it what you will.</p>
<p>It sounds like a great experience and one that would help you stand out among your peers. It’d certainly be highly valued at schools like Georgetown or NYU.
However, Rotary kids typically just take their classes at the foreign high school as juniors and return with credits (but no grades, everything I think is seen as Pass/Fail) - no need to take Health and such unless your HS requires that on top of the foreign high school. I suppose you could take it as a “gap year”, too, is it what you’d like to do?
In any case, it will NOT hurt your application and, most importantly, living abroad in full immersion tends to be one of the most profoundly defining experiences of youth, so go for it! :)</p>
<p>Yea, just because I want to get as many AP credits as possible, it would be more of a gap year. Thanks for the support! I think I’ll also call up a couple of the schools I’m interested in, just to check.</p>
<p>Colleges see a very small number of students who study abroad in high school now, I think it differentiates you in a good way. It shows you are willing to take a risk and try something new at a young age, which I think colleges like. You should do it!</p>
<p>You can’t expect college admissions officers to act as personal advisors to you. I don’t know why you would call them with this question. They cannot possibly comment on your application at this stage as you are only a sophomore.</p>
<p>I would only be calling to see if a gap year and essentially five years enrolled in high school would lead to anything less than favorable in the admissions process, definitely not to evaluate me as an applicant.</p>