Wednesday, December 1, 2010
How hard is it to get accepted to an exchange student program?
How hard is it to get accepted to an exchange student program?
I am 17 years old from MN, USA and I want to take a semester or year in Belgium, Germany or France. I am an A student, involved in track, cross-country, and wrestling. I am an intern at the MN Capital and I work part time for the American Red Cross. I am wondering how hard it will be for me to get accepted into an exhange program, the odds, and how hard the scholarships are to get. Anyone been through this and have some tips?
Studying Abroad - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
I have not been through it, but my guess is that you are an IDEAL candidate for being accepted. Can your parents afford it? Most of the exchange students tat I have come into contact with have come from well-to-do families and the experience has been WONDERFUL for the whole family, plus great for the receiving families.
2 :
I've vetted several candidates for exchange student programs and, at a glance, you seem to be a good one. However, a lot depends upon the personal interview. That's where the major decision making is done. The interviewer will be looking for maturity, independence and problem solving ability. Also, openmindedness. As far as scholarships are concerned, that depends upon the program. If money is an issue for you, I suggest you begin with Rotary Youth Exchange. It's a very good program and one of the best bargains as well. Other top rated programs are AFS and YFU. I'll add a caveat here. Since you have mentioned both Belgium and France, you may NOT be eligible for these countries. The French parts of Belgium and Switzerland as well as France all require 2 years of high school French. If you've not had those, you may need to revise your country choices. Good luck! What I see so far looks good!
3 :
I was an exchange student to Belgium and am happy to see this lovely country listed among your choices!!! I would highly recommend pursuing exchange through Rotary International for several reasons. First of all, Rotary does a very good job keeping tabs on their exchangees. You will be accepted by a host club and will likely have at least monthly contact with them. You will have a designated Rotarian who is your liaison and will help you with any issues that might arise (such as a problem with your host family, school, travel issues, banking, etc.). Some other programs assign you to a host family, charge you a fee for doing so, and that's the end of their relationship with you. (I won't name names, but exchangees I met who were traveling through other programs often voiced that they wished they had gone through Rotary - we had good support, activities with and through Rotary/Rotex, and contact with our home and host clubs.) Also, if there is a financial concern, Rotary usually provides a monthly allowance for the exchangees in their program. Your host club will provide this to you. I had several very good exchangee friends who got by on the money they earned from their summer job and their monthly Rotary allowances. Others were a little more fortunate and had additional money coming from home. Some host families gave their exchangees money, but usually not on a regular basis. Not all exchangees come from well-to-do families, and that's a good thing, as the purpose of the exchange program is to promote international understanding, and not everyone in the US is loaded. (Especially now!) Based on the information you provided above, it sounds like you would have a good start in the application process. However, be aware that all reputable programs are going to be concerned about your ability to handle the challenges of living abroad, away from your family, for a year. Just because you are successful in your home environment does not mean you are emotionally equipped for an exchange - some of the people who struggled the most were the ones who lost their "status" by being abroad and didn't know how to be the new kid, how to be alone in the cafeteria the first day of school, etc. Are you parents supportive? (Parents are interviewed, too, so these are things to discuss with them!) I recall that my parents were asked things like, What would you do if your child called and said she wanted to come home? They may ask how you think you will do around the holidays, do your parents plan on visiting you while you're on exchange, if you've ever been away from home before. Demonstrating that you've taken baby steps towards being away from them for an extended period of time can only help you. Also, we were advised that choosing the least common/popular country would increase our odds of being assigned to a country of our choice. Ex: I knew I wanted to go to a French-speaking country, but France was really popular (and therefore spots were being competed for) and Switzerland was more expensive, so I ranked Belgium as my first choice and got it. Someone else who ranked France as their #1 ended up being assigned to Hungary (which she ended up loving). This is something else to consider - the program may ask you if you're willing to accept placement in a country other than those you've listed. Discuss this with your parents to find out in advance if there are any countries they would be opposed to & why. Some countries have age limits for their exchangees, too - if you're going to turn 19 during your year abroad you may find that certain countries will not accept you and your choices may be limited. (I took a gap year between high school and college & was 19 most of the time, but fortunately dear sweet Belgium was okay with that!) If you get assigned to a country with a more unusual language (let's say Norway, for example) they may ask if you'd be willing to go to Concordia or some other language camp in advance of your departure. Just an FYI: Belgium's Rotary has a wonderful Rotex program that provides travel opportunities for the exchange students outside of Belgium, including trips to the UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Czech. These trips would need to be paid for by you/your family - host clubs don't usually sponsor them. This would be an expense to consider if you're devising a budget. Also, your home club might sponsor you - it's worth investigating. As far as how hard it is to be accepted, that just depends. My home club pretty much sent anyone who applied and was found to be appropriate to go - they accepted as many foreign students as they sent out, so the year I was gone my high school had eight exchange students. Other people I met were from areas where the home club only sent one student per year, or only three students per year, etc. So the degree of competition for spots will vary.
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