My son is an 11th grader at a well known boarding school. He is interested in spending his senior year abroad. There are several programs which he showed me, and provide room, board and classwork in another country (Spain, UK, France, Japan, etc). He is most interested in learning another language fluently and wants to go to Spain. The tuition and fees run about the same as it would cost at his current boarding school. If he spends the year abroad, he would transfer the credits and still graduate with a diploma from the current school.
I’m a little uneasy about this for several reasons. Mainly because he will lose the senior year at boarding school which will probably be the best of them all. I am also skeptical that he would have the same level of course rigor abroad. I suggested that he spend a summer abroad in Spain, but he doesn’t feel that its enough time to learn the language well enough.
Have any other parents let their boarding school kids spend a year abroad? If so what was your experience like?
My DD considered it (although for 11th, not 12th grade) - she wanted to go to the Arabic Year program at King’s, in Jordan. This had been her plan since 8th grade, so she went through the application process with that in mind. However, by the end of her first year at Cate, she completely abandoned the idea. She really wanted to have all 4 years there, and not miss out on anything. For a small school, they do so much! She thought that by Junior year she’d be a bit bored & ready for a change, but that has proved not to be the case AT ALL.
She has also determined that a gap year would give her so much more in terms of an “authentic experience”. As a current high-schooler, you’re pretty limited to more structured, institutional programs. (The least efficient way to truly learn a language is to sit in a classroom with other people who speak English) As a HS graduate, I think that the options increase exponentially. If you and your son are willing to consider it, maybe compare the programs that he’s thinking of for 12th grade to gap year ideas. He may be inspired by some of those possibilities. Another benefit is that he can self-fund it by working throughout or working the first half to pay for the second half.
My kids didn’t want to remove themselves from the social scene/bs life for a year. They both did gap years instead, with a bonus being more flexibility as @GMC2918 mentions.
I do know a handful of kids who did SYA during their junior years. One advantage they mentioned was that it was supposedly a less stressful year than junior year at BS which is notoriously stressful.
I would suggest your DS talk to his advisor/others on campus about this. Fall of 12th grade is not a common time to be away with the college application process. Years ago my sister did spring semester of 12th grade abroad but she was not happy with the social situation at her LPS. I know many at DS school who do a year or semester in 11th grade.
I agree that talking to advisors/college counselors should be part of the process for considering the option, however, I can’t see many roadblocks in terms of the college process. So much of the process is online these days and with Skype, etc. it would be easy to stay connected online, IMO.
I don’t see why to not let him try it just because of his social reasons. I think it should be up to him to decide. Are you talking about SYA? (similar cost, credit transferable, etc.) It sounds amazing.
I wouldn’t do it. He’ll miss the best year at BS, miss rigor, miss CC counseling, etc. What I’d consider is a summer program. If he likes that, he could do another summer after high school or a gap year. Several colleges offer a first semester abroad (Bard in Berlin, Colby in Spain or France). I feel like, as mentioned above, there are so many more alternatives post high school and senior year at BS is one of a kind.
@sgopal2 , are you sure this is just about a language and not some other underlying issue that’s making your son want to leave school?
I had the same thought about whether there might be some other underlying issue. At any rate, does your son already have some knowledge of Spanish? My understanding is that kids will get much more out of a semester or year abroad if they already have at least the basics of the language, as opposed to starting essentially from scratch. In fact, many language immersion programs require that the student already have the equivalent of at least one year of that language at a high school level.
@SculptorDad yes I think it is SYA. he mentioned to me some acronym but SYA sounds familiar.
@gardenstategal yes I think it’s purely a language issue. He speaks Spanish with a gringo accent and he wants to speak like a local. To make things worse three kids from his dorm are from Mexico. He is a well adapted kid and loves his BS otherwise.
@soxmom he has a good knowledge of Spanish but is by no means fluent.
I tend to agree with @twinsmama. I don’t see the point. There are so many other ways he could become fluent in Spanish without giving up his senior year.
While SYA or any program will build his proficiency, he probably won’t speak like a native accent-wise. Just think of all the Spanish/Latin American celebrities who were not born here. Their English is generally not with an American accent.
I did some research on the year abroad options. SYA is founded by Exeter, Andover and SPS, by far the most expensive one, but is also the most well structured and rigorous one. It has four countries; Spain, Italy, France, and China. Spain is the most popular and competitive to get in. French requires level 2 study to apply. They are all taught by highly credentialed teachers, as they should be for the price.
Which is the beauty of a gap year. He does not have to worry about academic course work other than the language course, and can actually get out and mingle with the locals, perhaps do some volunteer work. A big part of the benefit in going abroad, IMO, is getting a feel of the culture in addition to gaining proficiency in the language.
@sgopal2 That’s why I qualified it. A counter example, I came here to go to BS 5 years ago, and while my accent has lessened, it is still evident. Nobody has ever mistaken me for a Bostonian.
I don’t really get your point, @sgopal2. What difference will 12 months make for fluency and accent? If he wanted no accent, he should have probably studied abroad at the age of 10.
I’m with @skieurope on this. He could devote more time to learning the language and culture on a gap year with no math, science homework, no college apps to worry about, etc.
You can take language classes on a gap year, right?
Another benefit as one of my kids saw it: Most spanish spoken in the USA isn’t Spain spanish. Going on a gap year opens up more options of countries to learn the language in than SYA provides.
“Nobody has ever mistaken me for a Bostonian.” That’s a plus.
Our oldest spent a term abroad his junior year. He went to Island School in the Bahamas. He wouldn’t have traded this experience for another semester at his school. There were absolutely things he missed out on (gave up water polo and definitely hurt what level math he attained). For him it was a transformative experience that was priceless.
@sgopal2, Losing an accent is not so much about age but about a person’s ability to distinguish sounds (his own and others’) and to modify his own sounds accordingly. Both are tricky, especially the second. Plus you have to be brave to keep trying if you hear your own bad accent coming out of your mouth (I wasn’t! ).
