Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You and your daughter seemed super bored with your life and willing to waste money on this. Maybe instead you should look for challenging opportunities closer to you. Just because your kid's school is not rigorous, doesn't mean you can't find something challenging outside of school that doesn't involve sending your kid away across an ocean. She can do that in college and she'll learn a lot more.

OP. Maybe you should not be so judgy.

Anonymous wrote:Does she speak and write French fluently? High school in France, where French is the language of instruction, is intense, extremely competitive and demanding. I know, I did it and survived. It's not a place for some half baked adventure. It's also not on a semester system, it's not on a pick your classes system (you get a few electives but you have to pick a track first) and it's not a system you can parachute into for an experience.

Anonymous wrote:DD would like to study abroad for a semester of high school. Looking for experiences specific to France. What agency did you use? Did they let you specify a city? Were grades given? She would also like to specify Paris area because she has an Aunt that travels there for work. We’re thinking one semester most likely spring. Any input on that would be helpful as well.

Anonymous wrote:You and your daughter seemed super bored with your life and willing to waste money on this. Maybe instead you should look for challenging opportunities closer to you. Just because your kid's school is not rigorous, doesn't mean you can't find something challenging outside of school that doesn't involve sending your kid away across an ocean. She can do that in college and she'll learn a lot more.

Anonymous wrote:Unless your daughter’s high school has their own program, it will be hard to do just one semester versus a year. My siblings and I all did years abroad. We didn’t get credit for most of the classes and had to make it up with summer school and internet courses. It was a great experience and I learned a language and still keep in touch with my host family 20 years later. That said, I wish I had done it as a gap year because it hurt my GPA and college admission stats. Overall a positive but would have been better later.

AFS is probably the best company to do it through. I went through Rotary which was great but at least at that time they didn’t let you choose your country, so France would be tough to get.

Anonymous wrote:OP and I agree this is probably not helpful for college admissions. She most likely will not get credits and have to compress her academic load. But, she wants to achieve fluency and have the experience. We also live in a rural area where the academics offered are not very challenging and I think it would be a good experience to be in a more rigorous environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wants to be in Paris which narrows the options considerably. She also wants to do spring semester.

I don’t think our high school will give credit, but it is a good suggestion to ask for their opinions. I know of another student that went to Germany for a semester. I have a call out to his mom to ask how that went for him.

Why not just have her do a gap year.

This is the answer.

If she’s in a public school, it’s not going to fly for her to jest get no credits for half the year, states don’t require just that you get the work done, there are also attendance requirements…plus how would this even work given that most classes are full year? Plus selective colleges want to see 4 full years of English, math, science, etc.

It might be possible- I graduated from my local public school after spending junior and senior years as an exchange student in two different countries- but it was a bureaucratic nightmare that I don't think would be worth it for a semester. I could write a tome about what needed to happen (summer school, getting exemptions to sit for state tests a year in advance without taking that level of coursework for classes with no seat time, advance approval from host schools to have a particular class schedule, translating foreign grades, etc) but I'll just say the first step is to talk to your HS principal (superintendent? I had to) and get a sense of what this might look like.

Having said that, doing a summer or gap year is WAY easier.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wants to be in Paris which narrows the options considerably. She also wants to do spring semester.

I don’t think our high school will give credit, but it is a good suggestion to ask for their opinions. I know of another student that went to Germany for a semester. I have a call out to his mom to ask how that went for him.

For your DD this could be a wonderful, intercultural experience!

like Emily in Paris!

French PP here. I agree that studying abroad can be a wonderful experience, although personally I would have her wait until she's an adult and can do more things on her own.

But please don't mention that horrible Emily in Paris! It has nothing to do with reality, I hope you know this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wants to be in Paris which narrows the options considerably. She also wants to do spring semester.

I don’t think our high school will give credit, but it is a good suggestion to ask for their opinions. I know of another student that went to Germany for a semester. I have a call out to his mom to ask how that went for him.

Why not just have her do a gap year.

This is the answer.

If she’s in a public school, it’s not going to fly for her to jest get no credits for half the year, states don’t require just that you get the work done, there are also attendance requirements…plus how would this even work given that most classes are full year? Plus selective colleges want to see 4 full years of English, math, science, etc.