Anyone's teen done a semester or year abroad in high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did an exchange as a teen in HS and a year abroad at college. Best and most educational experiences of my life. Paved my way to foreign language fluency, a career in international business, and now a position at the State Dept. Definitely do it!!!

Similar for me. Life changing. HS junior year abroad (learned first foreign language), college semester abroad (learned second foreign language), and now I’m making big bucks in BigLaw, using those languages and cultural skills nearly every day.

What did I miss HS junior year? A prom? A few parties? Some math and science that I’ve never missed?

Thirding all of this. I only needed one year of English credit to graduate after junior year, so I took it over the summer and spent what would have been senior year in Germany. On the day of my senior prom, my friends and I built a bonfire in a park along the Rhine and passed around cigarettes, Sprite and a bottle of Aldi vodka — probably more fun than I would have had at home.

My stints abroad led to advanced skills in two languages and some of my most cherished memories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did an exchange as a teen in HS and a year abroad at college. Best and most educational experiences of my life. Paved my way to foreign language fluency, a career in international business, and now a position at the State Dept. Definitely do it!!!

Similar for me. Life changing. HS junior year abroad (learned first foreign language), college semester abroad (learned second foreign language), and now I’m making big bucks in BigLaw, using those languages and cultural skills nearly every day.

What did I miss HS junior year? A prom? A few parties? Some math and science that I’ve never missed?

Thirding all of this. I only needed one year of English credit to graduate after junior year, so I took it over the summer and spent what would have been senior year in Germany. On the day of my senior prom, my friends and I built a bonfire in a park along the Rhine and passed around cigarettes, Sprite and a bottle of Aldi vodka — probably more fun than I would have had at home.

My stints abroad led to advanced skills in two languages and some of my most cherished memories.

You aren’t doing a good job selling the experience to parents!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did a one year program with YFU back in the mid-80’s to Australia. It was a great program, but it really did screw up the academics b/c of different standards and being there 1/2 of 10th and 1/2 of 11th due to the school year being opposite. If you’re on the same school calendar, it may be fine. Just make sure your current high school signs off on what you take and will give you credit. Otherwise it was a great experience.

OP here. My son would love to go to New Zealand or Latin America both places where the school year starts in Feb.
it sounds like it was still worth it though. Would it have been better half of 9th then first hlaf of 10th?

No. In fact, it would have been better 1/2 11th and 1/2 12th. The school system there has set classes through 10th, then you break off for 11th and 12th depending on whether you’re taking the A level college entrance exams. 11th and 12th college prep are more like our high schools so they placed me in 11th there, but it was really hard b/c I practically jumped a grade and their classes were much tougher than ours (think first year college for us). Plus, I was coming from a very small Midwest town and the academics weren’t as good. It could be totally different now, but this was mid-80s. Still loved it, but I would have rather taken it for no credit and took more fun classes as opposed to their hard college prep classes. Anyway, 9th grade and honestly even 10th grade is way too early - both for maturity and being able to take advantage of everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did an exchange as a teen in HS and a year abroad at college. Best and most educational experiences of my life. Paved my way to foreign language fluency, a career in international business, and now a position at the State Dept. Definitely do it!!!

Similar for me. Life changing. HS junior year abroad (learned first foreign language), college semester abroad (learned second foreign language), and now I’m making big bucks in BigLaw, using those languages and cultural skills nearly every day.

What did I miss HS junior year? A prom? A few parties? Some math and science that I’ve never missed?

Thirding all of this. I only needed one year of English credit to graduate after junior year, so I took it over the summer and spent what would have been senior year in Germany. On the day of my senior prom, my friends and I built a bonfire in a park along the Rhine and passed around cigarettes, Sprite and a bottle of Aldi vodka — probably more fun than I would have had at home.

My stints abroad led to advanced skills in two languages and some of my most cherished memories.

Fourthing this. I am the PP who did 2 years in high school abroad. I actually did 3 semesters and a summer abroad in 4 different countries as well and am fluent in 3 languages. It's been a resume booster and I don't have any regrets about missing out on some of the more typical high school experiences. Going to college here in the DC was basically zero transition after having had to adapt to myriad situations that were a lot more stressful and foreign. It also made me really uninterested in college parties. I'd been able to pony up to a bar and order myself a drink or sit and have a glass of wine in Paris, why would I want to be involved in some secretive mess of a party drinking jungle juice out of a solo cup?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS experience: last summer (between 5th and 6th grade), a three week academic program in London. Certainly not a semester but DS loved it and we talked about doing something similar again this summer but then, Corona. It was a really great experience and he made friends who live in different countries that he still has contact with.

What program was this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did an exchange as a teen in HS and a year abroad at college. Best and most educational experiences of my life. Paved my way to foreign language fluency, a career in international business, and now a position at the State Dept. Definitely do it!!!

Similar for me. Life changing. HS junior year abroad (learned first foreign language), college semester abroad (learned second foreign language), and now I’m making big bucks in BigLaw, using those languages and cultural skills nearly every day.

What did I miss HS junior year? A prom? A few parties? Some math and science that I’ve never missed?

I mean I agree with you. But you can also make big bucks and gain skills, etc doing this another way. Its weird that people frame this as a "must" or a "leg up" when its really pretty rare- its a privilege and and awesome one- but just view it as that. If you come from a family where this is a real possibility you are already well on your way to being a successful adult- since you are in the top 10% or whatever of people who understand this is even a thing at all and have access to the networks that make it happen.

Top 10%? Sorry, no. I was raised lower middle / working class in the middle of nowhere (though with education-insistent parents, thank God), so this is not just for the Upper NW-to-Potomac zone. My parents scraped together money for airfare. But this experience did help me get college scholarships. Honestly, there is little in high school I could not live without. Sure, I never took Calculus or Physics, but I can write all of this, fluently, in various languages.

[Anonymous]

I did a summer in Japan between 11th and 12th grades in high school in the late 80s. The program was Youth For Understanding and I got a good scholarship. I have no idea if they are still around.

[Anonymous]

Look up school year abroad (SYA). Started by Exeter. Programs in Spain Italy France and China. For sophomores juniors and seniors. Well run well respected program for decades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in high school OP. Don't do this.

Why not in high school?

the GPA etc - not a parallel learning experience unless you attend the "American school" in London / Paris / etc

Who cares. Why are people so stuck on GPA? I would prefer that my kid have life experiences than a 4.0 GPA.

[Anonymous]

Mine spent her senior year abroad. It worked out well from many angles, she had 3 full years of US high school for grades/classes/EC accomplishment etc and then was applying to college fall of her senior year based on transcript from end of junior year.
I myself spent junior year of high school abroad. It was a great experience. However, it probably hurt me somewhat on the college front as it interrupted both the academic and EC progression. So when I was applying my senior year the last full year transcript they had to look at was my sophomore year. I definitely would do it again, but there are pros and cons of spending a year of high school abroad and that is one of them.

[Anonymous]

My kid went to one of the overseas United World Colleges as a Davis Scholar for the last two years of high school, completing the IB diploma there. The Davis Scholarship requires they return to the U.S. for university/college and the scholarship continues for four more years of college. It’s competitive to get the Davis scholarship (50 scholarships were awarded for over 600 U.S. applicants during the year that DC applied), but UWC is a feeder of students to top universities in the U.S. so it is worth the effort of the application and interview process and good preparation for the college process. There are more than 100 Davis Scholars at Brown University at any given time, for example; there are over 100 at Middlebury College right now, and a large number at Princeton where the Davis family went to college, etc). It was life-changing in all the best ways for DC who returned to a top US university, very well prepared, having had a once in a lifetime experience.

Yes, it was hard on the us, the parents. But seeing the growth and excitement and the opportunities for DC made it worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

I did it in high school. 2 months in Sydney When I was 16 (spring of Sophomore year). It was awesome. I went to an all girls school that had an international network which made it easy to arrange. Would have been hard if academics didn’t come easy (making it easy to catch back up) or if I wasn’t really independent/adventurous but it was by far one of the coolest things I did in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in high school OP. Don't do this.

Why not in high school?

the GPA etc - not a parallel learning experience unless you attend the "American school" in London / Paris / etc

Who cares. Why are people so stuck on GPA? I would prefer that my kid have life experiences than a 4.0 GPA.

They can look forward to plenty of life experiences while stacking shelves in Walmart after getting a 2.0 GPA. That is some long lasting experience, I'm sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in high school OP. Don't do this.

Why not in high school?

the GPA etc - not a parallel learning experience unless you attend the "American school" in London / Paris / etc

Who cares. Why are people so stuck on GPA? I would prefer that my kid have life experiences than a 4.0 GPA.

They can look forward to plenty of life experiences while stacking shelves in Walmart after getting a 2.0 GPA. That is some long lasting experience, I'm sure.

Oh, please. The kids who are mature enough for this kind of thing and can learn how to balance this experience with academics don't end up stocking shelves at Walmart. I did TWO years abroad in HS and my GPA did take a bit of a hit, which is maybe why I ended up at Georgetown instead of Harvard. Oh well. Haven't set foot in a Walmart in my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in high school OP. Don't do this.

Why not in high school?

the GPA etc - not a parallel learning experience unless you attend the "American school" in London / Paris / etc

Who cares. Why are people so stuck on GPA? I would prefer that my kid have life experiences than a 4.0 GPA.

They can look forward to plenty of life experiences while stacking shelves in Walmart after getting a 2.0 GPA. That is some long lasting experience, I'm sure.

Oh, please. The kids who are mature enough for this kind of thing and can learn how to balance this experience with academics don't end up stocking shelves at Walmart. I did TWO years abroad in HS and my GPA did take a bit of a hit, which is maybe why I ended up at Georgetown instead of Harvard. Oh well. Haven't set foot in a Walmart in my life.

But you're missing the point. You were focused on your GPA. Obviously. That is essential.