<p>My daughter studied abroad for the first semester of her junior year (11th grade) – she spent a semester living with a host family in a small city in Russia. She is now a Barnard grad – accepted RD.</p>
<p>The truth is that studying abroad messed up her schedule, a lot - she simply could barely meet all the requirements for high school graduation, much less take a lot of AP’s. When she got back, she was taking less than a full schedule – she was not allowed to enter a math or lab science class mid year. She had planned to make up the math with a CC course the following summer, but it didn’t work out that way (she couldn’t keep up with the fast pace of the summer-session college course, so had to drop the class). She spent hours working with a gc at her high school to make sure that she was meeting all requirements, and then when she got back there was a different gc and she was told she needed another high school course. So it mean that she was applying to colleges with only 3 years of high school math (through advanced algebra), and only 2 years of a lab science. Plus she didn’t score all that well on the SAT/ACT so she was applying to extremely selective colleges with a “stats” that looked unimpressive.</p>
<p>That being said, she got into the colleges she targeted. Before she went abroad, she made sure that she would get credit for the high school courses she took while abroad – so they at least showed up on her transcript. The arranged to do independent study with the honors English teacher – he gave her a list of books to read, fitting with the course curriculum but also tailored to her interests-- and a set of assigned papers to write which she sent by email. She was an A student and had a high class rank, even though her time abroad limited the number of weighted grades she could earn.</p>
<p>Obviously the time she spent abroad was a positive factor in admissions. But that doesn’t mean that will work that way for everyone – that is, there’s not an automatic leg up for all students who do a foreign exchange. But I do think that it made her application stand out in a way and, at least in her case, probably boosted her chances at the most selective schools on her list.</p>
<p>If you were to ask my advice about the best/easiest path – I’ll tell you what I told my daughter – the best plan is probably to stay in high school and then plan a full year abroad as a gap year, or to go abroad during spring of senior year rather than junior year. My d. would have none of that , because she didn’t want to miss her senior year – things like senior prom, graduation,etc. </p>
<p>Obviously things worked out for my daughter and they can work out for you to: but make this choice with your eyes open and the full understanding that you cannot predict the possible impact, good or bad, on college admissions. Be sure that you have some safety schools on your list that you will also be comfortable attending. (As a California resident my d. was set in that department – the world would not have come to an end if she had ended up attending UC Santa Barbara rather than Barnard).</p>