<p>Does a YFU exchange program abroad help with college admissions? Do adcoms like it?</p>
<p>I went to Japan last summer on a $4000 scholarship from the japanese government for 6 weeks but I'm not sure if its really that good because I recently found out that basically everyone who applies to go on an abroad program HAS to get a scholarship.</p>
<p>Yah, doing an summer exchange program will probably look good to adcoms, but please, please, do not do an exchange just to impress colleges!! Colleges will want to see that an exchange broadened your horizons and deepened your interest in another culture. I doubt that you would be doing that if you are only going on exchange to beef up your resume :D</p>
<p>I already went, I wrote in my post I did it the past summer (which was the summer after my sophomore year). And I wasn’t even thinking about college at that point, my japanese teacher simply suggested it and I thought it’d be cool and signed up.</p>
<p>My question is whether or not colleges like an exchange program particularly from YFU where everyone gets a scholarship to go abroad</p>
<p>What travel_luv said is true…did you grow from the experience? Exchanges can be wonderful opportunities. </p>
<p>Where did you get the idea that all YFU exchanges are on scholarship? That is certainly not the case. Most going overseas on exchange pay to go. Some get smaller partial scholarships. By far the majority of YFU scholarships are for Japan (going back to post WW2) but the process is definitely competitive and it is very competitive to get a non-Japanese scholarship.</p>
<p>Other exchange programs have competitive scholarships as well, but again, most have to pay their way to go. You were very fortunate to receive a large scholarship. Again, your experience is something that if written about in an application in a positive way can be an admissions plus. Getting a scholarship to go is an honor that you should note on all of your applications because you went through an impressive selection process.</p>
<p>Most of all though, it is nice that you weren’t even thinking about all of that when you applied and went overseas. I hope you have wonderful memories that will last a life time and that the experience has changed your life for the better. And again, I have personally spoken to many families/students who were not fortunate enough to get a scholarship to go abroad, but decided to pay to go anyway because they felt it was such a wonderful thing. So you see, you should be congratulated on your achievement!</p>