We are on a March cycle and have found great APs in March. I think there are wonderful APs all times of the year...it's all in the screening.

We used to be on a January start date, just this year on an April start date.

We've actually found the pool to be OK for January. It's smaller, but we've still found winners (our APs come from Germany and we did start looking by October). Some girls just haven't found a family yet - maybe they were late getting their application in or whatever.

We found the pool for April arrival to be tiny, definitely smallest yet. We matched with a girl who graduated young and need to wait to turn 18 to be eligible for the program. I'm not concerned about age - our best AP so far was 18, worst AP so far was 26.

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for someone who wants to go on to university and is taking a gap year. The problem with the cycle we are on is that a late September departure doesn't leave time for a full travel month before university starts in October.

A late September departure might not leave time for any travelling if your AP needs to move. The housing market in many university cities is tight and if they need to be (back) at university from 1 October they might need to be back in their home country to arrange their move a month or so before that. We have had students sleep in emergency accommodation (gyms etc.) for a few weeks over the last couple of years because it's so difficult to find - affordable - accommodation late September / early October.

My HF transitioned in the middle of summer break (mid/late July).
Had AP 1 do the first half, then a week or two of family vacation (depending on new AP's arrival date), then welcome AP 2 for the second half. My HPs figured that split up summer more fairly (summers are exhausting with 4, later 5 children - infant/toddler to teenagers, if you need to balance all their needs) and at the same time didn't put pressure on the AP about getting the children to school on time. Plus you'd actually get to spend time with the older three while during school weeks you didn't see the oldest until 3 pm and only had the middle two for two hours in the morning and then an hour after school, summer break allowed for bonding (doing activities together, going to the lake, playing outside etc.) for the incoming AP and time to say goodbye for the outgoing AP. My HF didn't do camp so otherwise AP 1 would have had to juggle 4/5 children 45 hrs each week for three months in the end - great because she knows the children and has an idea what to do with them but still a lot of work.

Agree on July or August arrival not being ideal.

I would prefer mid Sept -- so get the start of the school year stuff out of the way and then focus on training the AP (though fall sports are hectic)

September through Nov. are also lovely months in DC

From my personal experience with western europeans, they either want to arrive in early summer, once they are done with school, or spend the summer back home before arriving to US in August or September. Our family prefers the latter, because I think the summer is not the best time to transition, and certainly not a fair representation of the rest of the year in our family. We also like to vacation in August, and I would be weary of taking a brand new AP we don;t know on vacation, and I thin kit would also be weird to leave a new arrival at home. By arriving around Labor day, she starts right when the entire family is in transition. The summer becomes the highlight of their time with us, and we end the summer (and her year) with a vacation together. Perfect for everyone.

We happen to be on A December arrival right now (due to 1 rematch and 2 delays in arrivals), which really sucks, but it's our last year in the program, so it was only a drag for one year.

A lot of APs want to be home by late Aug for school to start in Sept...so mid/late july is a popular arrival time to give them their travel month. We only take over 21 year old APs and most finish their undergrad and are going back for their version of a Masters or Honors program as they call it. They graduate college normally in June, HS it is all over the map. Some (say Netherlands) have finals that they have two chances to pass, if they pass on the first time they can come early Aug, if they have to retake some cannot come until late Aug or early Sept.

Our cycle ends in late September and it hasn't been ideal for the type of candidate we are looking for (German, Austrian, or other Northern European with excellent driving skills and experience with driving in snow). We are looking for someone who wants to go on to university and is taking a gap year. The problem with the cycle we are on is that a late September departure doesn't leave time for a full travel month before university starts in October. I agree that I would push to match for an August or September arrival -- I think it's fine to have the AP transition in late July or August to say good-bye to the old AP, maybe have a week or two family vacation, then welcome a new AP at the beginning of the new school year.

So June is better than Sept? Isn't it hard to start a new AP when the kids are out of school?

Can someone expand on Sept. v. October? Are there some countries where they are first available in Sept. v. available over the summer and they would be the ones no one picked?

Thanks for the feedback.

I think with Oct you are likely to get the leftovers who weren't picked in summer. The "late start" folks likely list as Sept, but when you get to Oct, you are looking at candidates who likely could have left in June/July/Aug but no one picked them. I would definitely try to push this back to Sept or even Aug. It's a totally different game to match for summer than in one of these off-season times.

Why October? If you can do September, you'll have a ton of choices.

We're also on a January start cycle and not loving it. The upside is that it works for Australians and New Zealanders, so there are some native English speakers in the mix. But the timing is out of sync with the rest of the world, as far as I can tell, so we have fewer options with our timing.

I'm thinking I'll offer a 6 month extension to our current AP if she's interested. If she's not, I'll see if the extension APs have anyone decent looking for a 6 month block - but I'm not too optimistic about that working out.

If none of that works out, then we'll just suck it up for one more year. When that AP is wrapping up, the kids will be old enough to be in aftercare, and we'll deal with the hassle of it for a few months just to get us onto a summer schedule, and have a few months gap of AP coverage.

Are you looking at a certain country? For (central) Europe you'd be a bit late with an October cycle (university mostly starts between mid August and early October) but January would also be an unusual time.

I am currently on Mid January cycle. It inevitably snows and kids are off within a few days of her arriving. And it is so dreary. So I would like to move to a October cycle. How do people find the number and type of candidates that time of year?