<p>My younger daughter went to an American International school in South America for her junior and senior years. The challenge we found was how to normalize her US grades vs her new school. The new school used weighted GPA to determine class standing, top 1%, 5%, 10%, and Val vs Sal. D2’s old school didn’t use weighted GPA. She took honors 9-10th grade, but didn’t take any APs because her old school didn’t offer APs 9-10th grade. She was a contender for Val at her new school, but due to different weighting of her grades, she was disadvantaged. </p>
<p>D2 had to be very proactive at her new school to cultivate relationships with her teachers at the new school, whereas at her old school most of those teachers have known her since was in middle school. D2’s new teachers wrote excellent recommendation letters for her, but we were prepared to ask her old teachers if it was necessary. D2 also had to work hard to get leadership positions at various clubs and school organizations. </p>
<p>There were many up sides for D2 by moving, 1) she became fluent in Spanish, 2) made a lot of new friends, 3) she showed diversity, 4) her college application was read relative to students at new school rather than with super competitive students at her old prep school. D2’s test scores looked fantastic relative to other students. Overall, D2 benefited from moving overseas when it came to college application. In OP’s case, he would be competing with students who may tend to get better test scores. I would think students in China would be more competitive. They are used to put in additional hours (tutoring) after school. </p>
<p>We maintained residency in our home state, so D2 had the option of going to our state school. </p>