Would studying abroad senior year lessen chances of getting into Ivy League/MIT etc.?

[altacct]

@Lindagaf

Foregoing the opportunity of a lifetime for the roughly 95% chance you’ll be denied at those schools is a good way to ensure you’ll have at least one regret your whole life.

This is definitely a good thing to think about, I know that getting to those schools is a really low percent. However, its just really difficult to gauge where I will be in two years. The thing my parents kept bringing up when I mentioned it too them was “why do it so soon? its so early, you should wait until college. there are so many risks” which is understandable but it does raise some points. Of course I want to travel to Japan and quite frankly given certain circumstances if there were no classes at all I would still go for it, but from a purely academic standpoint, I don’t even know if these classes would count for anything. But at the same time going to class is just the tip of the iceberg. But then again, that is a decent portion of what I would be paying for. I just wouldn’t want to feel stagnant. At least with studying abroad I am taking classes that are more of a sure thing for counting towards something. BUT I DON’T WANT IT TO SOUND LIKE I ONLY CARE ABOUT CLASSES, its just one of many things that comes to mind. Maybe I just need to research the different programs.

@Lindagaf

And fwiw, my daughter studied abroad in Japan for a semester and it’s the best thing she ever did. Do it.

ETA: One of my students studied abroad for his entire junior year of high school. He loved every minute, speaks two languages fluently, in addition to English, and wishes he could have stayed longer.

Your youth is so fleeting. Seize the day, @altacct .

Can I ask what program she went with?

@lookingforward

First, the difficult part.

Don’t transfer to a public. At this point, you have no idea how much can get complicated from that. Transcript differences, course equivalency definitions, filled classes, a GC who doesn’t know you, your position of respect within the class or in a club/on a team, etc. And is this a Jesuit hs? They are generally better quality and straight shooters.

"I feel like this is definitely a big thing to put on an application that would probably raise my chances of getting into said universities at least a little bit." Not really. Lots of kids do time away, in one form or another. Or other things that have their own impressiveness.

Plus, over 4 years in hs, for a tippy top, you’re expected to have an increasingly strong trajectory, not just get in the right courses and maintain GPA. That includes the depth and breadth of your EC opportunities. You can’t cram all these elements into 3 years. Eg, I hate to think what trade-offs you’d make, if fitting in higher math or science means dropping something non-stem, but seen as equally vital to a tippy top.

You’d need to max out EC opps before going. That’s more than running something or winning some award. For stem, eg, it can mean an internship. Depending on what specific stem interests, it can mean some opps that are generally reserved for rising seniors, not juniors. Or, if premed, X years volunteering in a health setting, increasing responsibilities, becomes X-1.

You’re also trying to check the feasibility at a time when so much about applying is not well known to you. Successfully getting a TT admit relies on some strategy and a lot of awareness. Eg, not sure that, at this point, you know what the big essay is meant to convey. Many kids have their epiphany at a time when you plan to be done with your US hs years. You’ve “heard,” but can’t be sure, what club opps. Unless you’re already looking into specific Japanese programs/hs, you can’t know their stem offerings or the quality of those. (Or other bullets mentioned by @melvin123 .) Or just how difficult it might be to take courses entirely in a foreign language. (Do you know iy anything is taught in English?) Generally, what language one learns in a US high school comes nowhere near the tech terms, lingo or manner of discussing tech issues. And it sounds like you’d be relying on self study or some outside course to pick up enough? How green are you, at Japanese? Realize that this one issue can affect your grades there, too.

Generally, the kids I’ve known who did a senior experience, were 110% ready, in all ways. They knew the short list of foreign hs programs and the actual rigor, the parallel rigor to what they could have, back at home.

And, they were distinctly NOT set on an Ivy or MIT, but quite flexible about what targets. (Like flagships or a nice match college.) NOT looking at stem majors. They were looking at the opportunity, itself, that was their focus. Not looking for a tip, other than the relevance of studying in Japan to their future hopes and plans. How does this idea even connect to your future plans? (Tippy top adcoms will want to see how this makes sense.)

It sounds like your enthusiasm is so strong- and being fed here. You are right to be asking the feasibility questions. But please try to balance the excitement with some solid consideration of the challenges.

BUT. The opp is so great. I agree, you would need to time this just right.

I’m gonna go in order of paragraphs here-

Definitely complications. I think I am going to try shoot my shot though because there are a couple of “choice” schools in my district. Right off the bat for benefits benefiting specifically study abroad- Bot of these schools offer Japanese classes and clubs. Not only would this help my language skills beyond self study but many of these programs offer short trips to Japan. Also has a lot more EC opportunities, which would help me build them up more solidly over three years. Also I think it would probably be more lenient towards letting me take extra classes, classes during the summer etc. Aside from study abroad I think both these schools would have better opportunities than my current school in general. Also my school is so small (graduating class less than 200) that I think it would be statistically easier to rank higher percentile at a public school for things like auto-admit state colleges (based on certain percentile). My current school is a catholic school, its not bad quality per se but it does have some major organizational and balance issues.

ECs might be a little tough but I could try to do more summer programs. As far as classes I could probably take an English class over the summer and extra STEM APs as electives (?).

This is a dumb question but what are opps, sorry. I’ve been self studying for about a year but inconsistently, I’m around half way through a beginner textbook, I’m looking to amp it up this semester and over the summer as things slow down.

Honestly I’m not actually sure how it would specifically pertain to future plans. I definitely want to travel more in the future. Other than that, I just am really interested in getting out there and in Japan in particular. I know Japan has some great STEM opportunities but I’m not sure if I would want to live or work there permanently.

timing is definitely the biggest issue. I ultimately would likely need to decide for sure by around this time in two years, or probably earlier. So ultimately its going to depend on how things go this summer, the next year, and the summer after that. It’s just hard to decide when I would actually want to do this and if its worth it.