Warning: Long post! I wrote this late at night!
TL;DR (please read all of it if you can!): I am interested in possibly doing an exchange (in Japan, forgot to mention this) my senior year of highschool, but am also really interested in applying to Ivy Leagues, MIT, etc. and am wondering if this will damage my chances of getting in or if I will have to do more as a sophomore/junior to make up for a missed year of school and how I would manage that. My school is small and private so I am not sure how open they would be to any exceptions or taking extra courses, etc. I have a ton of time to decide about the actual exchange but I have to choose my classes for next year soon and just wanted to get this out of my system.
As a preface, I fully understand that the college you go to does not define you and there are tons of other routes to a successful education besides the Ivy League and other top 20 universities. I understand that these plans could crash and burn and I may have to take a completely different route. However, I would like to do the best I can to get into these universities and want to challenge myself. This is why most of my current concerns about studying abroad revolve around my college application and chances of getting into these universities. And as far as the long bit about APs, that is mostly because I need to decide my courses for next year pretty soon so that is a concern at the moment. This post is mostly going to be my thought process thus far with sporadic pros and cons so please bare with me.
For the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about possibly looking into studying abroad senior year. Coincidentally, this is around the time when my school is releasing course selection for sophomore year, which is making me a bit anxious as this is the first year I will be able to take APs and I know these are a substantial part of the application for prestigious universities. While my school offers a decent amount of APs, it is a relatively small private school so I have my doubts about how lenient it would be towards things like taking classes during the summer or a class that a junior or senior would usually take in order for me to take more APs. And of course, I doubt I would be able to do much for credit during a study abroad year, which is why I am especially concerned about missing a year of class opportunities.
I have 9 periods including lunch and, this year, an open period that I took. However, I do band, which I don’t want to drop as it is my main extra curricular (or at least the one that takes up the most time) and I don’t think it would be worth giving up such a big EC opportunity for another class period. Also, I am required to take 4 credits an unweighted Theology class. That leaves me with 6 class periods. The science for sophomores at my school is Chem, and I believe it is treated as a sort of prerequisite to AP Chem so my chances of being able to take it in AP as a sophomore are slim. There is no AP English offered for sophomores, but I have never heard of a sophomore taking any sort of AP English class. I could take AP World History. I would be in precalc next year which is only honors and my math teacher for Honors Algebra II advised against taking it during the summer. There is a possibility of taking AP music theory as a sophomore. My language, Latin, does not offer AP until Junior year. So for sophomore year, that leaves me only one guaranteed AP that I would be able to take, a chance at another one, and a very slim chance of being able to take any others. Of course, I haven’t actually talked to the counselor’s about exceptions for extra courses, but from what I’ve seen so far the policy for these sort of things at my school is the “take it slow, move up when your ready” learning approach (which is not inherently bad at all) but it does lessen my chances for these types of things. For example, though, during the admissions process the admissions director told me that it is usually really hard taking Algebra II as a freshman and encourage considering talking the lower course instead even if you test out of it (I am taking Honors Algebra II and had an A+ average last semester).
For Junior year, I am pretty sure I would be able to take at least 5 APs. (However, the exchange program I am looking at starts in late March, so I would have to finish those early somehow?). So that puts me at 6-8 APs. But this would be it, I’d be shaving off a whole school year of an opportunity to take other courses. Even still, I would like to be able to spread them out more evenly in my sophomore year. And there is also the caveat of graduating with enough credits; I’m not sure what I would do about that or if I would have enough. Would this be enough? I’ve seen anywhere from 5-10+ APs on applications for prestigious universities, so it obviously varies. And by all means I understand that there is much more to the application than APs, but at the moment my decision on the courses I take next year are due in a couple months so this is my biggest concern at the moment. If you have any ideas or have been in a situation where you needed to possibly take extra APs, or if they weren’t offered, what are your suggestions? I understand I can self study for AP exams but do those even count much on applications?
And of course there is the whole counterbalance about the exchange itself if I do choose to go on one. I feel like this is definitely a big thing to put on an application that would probably raise my chances of getting into said universities at least a little bit. Or is it not? Are exchange programs something universities are generally known for not caring about in applications? Please let me know if you have any info on this! If I don’t go on exchange, of course I will probably take a few more APs and build up ECs, etc. during senior year.
I do have some concerns about the year I would go on the exchange itself if I did chose to do so. In my mind doing it senior year would make sense because then I wouldn’t be behind and would have a full three years to build up ECs and other material for application, both outside and in school. But it does bring up a few caveats. As previously mentioned I would probably go on an exchange that starts in late March (would be of Junior year) so somehow I would have to finish my classes early. Also, I would have to take the SAT only once in the Spring and not have an opportunity to retake it. Aside from that, I would have to write my applications during the exchange, so I am not really sure how I would manage that. If I actually do go on an exchange there are tons of other things to think about but these are just some things that come to mind of the top of my head.
I know this is extremely early to be thinking about this but I just want to get this out of the way so I can choose my courses knowing that I will have the option to study abroad if I do get the opportunity. All of this is very preliminary and I am not even half sure if I will be able to study abroad but I think it would have a lot of benefits and is definitely something I would really like to experience. I just want to make sure I have the option and wouldn’t need to make any drastic changes. IIf you did read this far, I do really appreciate it and would be very grateful for any advice/ideas you have to offer. Thanks a bunch in advance.
