I nearly forgot, I know yet another student who studied abroad in Japan as a high school junior. He didn’t apply to any Ivy schools, but his essay was a great read and he now attends the most selective public college in New York. He also loved his experience and speaks Japanese fluently.
If you are going to be a regular student in a high school, presumably studying regular subjects, AOs aren’t going to hold it against you that didn’t take MORE AP classes, instead of going to Japan.
Your application is assessed in terms of what classes are available to you and how you compare to other students at your school. Admittedly it won’t be as straightforward to compare your three years at Jones High and one year at Tanaka High to Sally Smith’s app with four years at Jones High. But so what? You don’t need to be like Sally Smith.
Have your experience, and apply to MIT or wherever. If you are a strong applicant, a year of study abroad isn’t going to ruin your chances.
But do this in an informed way. None of our anecdotes are about pure whim, None here mentions the experience as just wanting to travel, “just getting out there,” while also having Ivies and MIT in mind.
You have summer options. And you will be wise to understand the compromises that mat be needed. That may include moderating the tippy top ideas.
You’re a first semester freshman. One grade report, no grades or scores noted. We have no idea what strengths make a tippy top feasible. But you’re willing to upend your hs education for this, change hs…apparently before speaking with the GC. Or identifying a program.
Of course time abroad is valid. But you have other options, including summer programs. You need more than our encouragement, to make a wise decision.
Why don’t you want to do this as a 5th year in HS - what are the obstacles you’re thinking of? This opportunity can change the trajectory of what you want to do in college, so if you think you can handle this experience at your age, this could be really helpful to do this now.
I also want to mention that it’s really HARD to live in a country with a different culture & language, even though it’s so interesting and even though Japan is safe and a 1st world country. So the idea of spending a month away from the US in the summer won’t really help so much with your college application, but could be invaluable in helping you decide whether you want to take this big of a time commitment away from the US while you are in HS.
There’s no method to increase your chances in these schools. If there were, everyone would be doing it, nullifying your chances anyway. All the competitive applicants have a perfect/near perfect GPA. They all have near perfect SAT scores. All of them have an essay, and all of them think their essay is going to get them in. 5% of them get in. It’s more a lottery than a competition. There’s no reason to start spending $$ for things like that.
@coolguy40 , I agree with most of that, except it isn’t a lottery.
OP, I encourage you to think about what’s going to make you happy in the long run, rather than fretting about what is a slim possibility. If your parents are supportive and you can make it work with your schedule, by all means, go to the foreign country where you don’t speak the language. I’m remembering yet another student I know. She lives in Australia (now a junior at university) and as a second-year high school student, did a semester in China. She loved it too, as most students seem to.
It is not too soon to start planning study abroad as a high schooler, if you are up for the challenge.
Summer experiences can be fantastic, but they are not a substitute for the student who wants a more immersive experience. So ask yourself what you want out of study abroad. Six or eight weeks is not like a span of several months. I do agree that if it’s simply a case of thinking it would be cool, without having a deeper understanding of potential issues that might arise and solid reasons for wanting to do it, you need to think it through with the help of your parents.
Returning to the question of “will doing this enhance or weaken your app to tippy tops,” there’s no definitive answer. A student with top grades, scores, essays and ECs isn’t going to be dismissed out of hand for studying abroad. You will probably want to engage in some ECs while you study abroad, because simply being a tourist for a year of high school won’t impress top colleges. Build a couple of of solid relationships with teachers not junior year so you can get good recs for college.
In short, I absolutely think you should not pass up the opportunity, if it is going to work for you. Honestly, by the time you are a junior, you need some good match and safety schools anyway, so don’t get hung up on tippy tops.
There are several things to consider (based on the handful of kids I know who have taken a year abroad in high school. )
First, if you go to a local high school, it will help you learn Japanese. It will not help you learn chemistry or history or whatever else because your language proficiency will be an impediment to that. So you need to be sure you have met all your requirements-- not just what uour US high school wants but also what colleges want – outside that experience. A friend’s kid got majorly messed up by assuming her junior year in Europe would basically be high school and language immersion. It was really only the latter in large part. Her college admissions process was challenging at best and it also made her feel, once at college, that she was missing enough in her foundation that certain as academic paths were not open to her. Granted, that’s one person but it does shed light on what could go wrong. (I realize your plan is to do it all in 3 years before you go.)
You would be well advised to have your standardized testing done before you go if you are going senior year. No need to add the stress of getting to a test center and preparing when your head is someplace else.
If you want to do this because of the experience, I really think the gap year option is the best. If you think it will help you in college admissions, I would see if you can do your junior year twice - once at home and once in Japan. That way, it’ll be part of your application without all the challenges of being a year away from high school requirements.
If you do it your way, you will still have college options so if you are willing to be a little more fatalistic about it – some colleges will like what you’ve done and others won’t and the ones that do better mirror your priorities and sensibilities – go for it. If you are truly worried about making the best case for a certain set of schools, I would play it safe and make it an extra year of high school.
Yes, I totally get that. I’m sorry if this all seems premature but I just wanted to get a general feel for how my options sounded. I’m actually surprised with how many replies this thread got. I think I’ll look into summer programs depending on how I am doing by the end of sophomore year. If anything, if they work out I can better consider a year abroad.
I definitely agree. As far as a 5th year I don’t have any particular problem with it but it just depends if the college I apply to will allow me to take a gap year. I would rather get right into college but I’m sure that mindset could easily change in a few years.
Yes, definitely, I will definitely do those things. I’m just trying to get a general sense as to if this is something I want to pursue further at this point. I think it would definitely an amazing opportunity but there sure are a lot of obstacles/cons to think about too like you and everyone else has mentioned.
Late to this thread, but will share my older brother’s experience. He was a Rotary exchange student in Europe for his senior year in high school and decided to return home to take a second senior year so he would be able to take AP Calc BC and have time for college apps and essays. He applied to 5 schools and got accepted to his first choice, NYU, with significant merit and graduated a few years ago. He said that had he not taken a second senior year, he would not have had time for the college app process during his exchange year and likely would not have ended up at NYU.
Acclimating to a new culture/language while having to go through the college application process from afar at the same time would have been very difficult, in his opinion. YMMV.
My concern is doing this in senior year. Along the lines of what @Orcus2020 wrote, junior year allows one to tend to any slack from the away experience.
Doing it in 12th means everything needs to be ‘good to go’ with the college apps and your full hs record. That’s risky to count on, when OP hasn’t yet learned much, if anything, about college admissions. Or, for a tippy top. (Throw in the MIT blogs.)
It feels like some here focus on the excitement and that’s hard to argue with. Of course it has living challenges and adjustments, but that doesn’t stop lots and lots of kids, year in and year out. The fact that a semester is longer than a summer, by a few weeks, shouldn’t remove summer as a viable option. I get the impression this interest is primarily for the ancillary opportunities- the country, the travel.
But because OP also asked about tippy top colleges, imo, we have to admit the impact of trying to cram 3 remaining years of hs into 2. And without much started. OP isn’t super accelerated in his coursework now and unless I’m missing something, band is the only EC-- but treated as a course, by his hs.
Add, apparently OP hasn’t looked at costs yet. He’s assuming a job now will yield enough to pay for the program and transpo, and may be surprised.
At this point, I think we’re repeating ourselves. OP needs to get off the dime and start researching what’s out there, projecting what he can earn, and taking a more serious look at whether Ivies or MIT are feasible, too. Remember how we discourage most freshmen from setting their sights on those, before they have any hs record.
OP, you’ve gotten some great advice. Keep thinking & talking to your parents about this. Explore programs that offer both a year/semester/summer experiences abroad. But your first real tangible step would be to speak to your high school counselor for specific information how the school handles year abroad programs, and what kinds of issues you need to consider before deciding whether/when to do a year abroad. Good luck. You sound like a smart, mature and interesting person, and I wish you the best in high school and beyond!
Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it! I will be sure to take all of these things into consideration. It’s all been super helpful and I really appreciate the time everyone took to reply/
Just to clarify though band isn’t my only EC, I do Latin + a Latin competition club, Robotics club, piano, and I volunteer at my local botanical gardens. As far as how next year is looking I am seriously considering transferring to a public school, really not even because of the study abroad (though there could be benefits with that) but after talking about my ideas and plans for next year we all concluded that I’m really not too happy at my current school and the public school would probably have more opportunities, though I am not sure yet.
Where I stand: I’m definitely not as set on it as I was before. I do think it will be increasingly difficult to complete credits to be competitive for a top tier college without taking multiple summer classes if I try to graduate early. Also, I am a bit worried about lacking purpose in a high school abroad other than language immersion (just in the school, not in the outside culture and traveling). At least I know with college I would be taking courses that I could get credit for. However, there is still a big part of me looking back at the comments about missing out on an opportunity and just going for it.
There is definitely a lot to research and consider, and I will do so in the coming months and throughout next year. And, on colleges and careers in general.