DD wants to be an exchange student in France for 10th grade

[Annie N]

My daughter wants to be an exchange student in France for 10th grade (next year). We are actually having quite a lot of trouble finding out about this... but my current main question is what they study for science at the age of 15?

 

I am also having trouble sorting out what year she would go into--I don't want her to be lost by being in with her age group at a Bac school, but I don't want her to lose a year here, either. They seem to be generally ahead of us, so I am not sure how it all would translate.

 

Sigh. I wish she wouldn't want to do this... how will I keep her down on the farm...?

 

Thanks for any info!!!!

[GoVanGogh]

Sigh. I wish she wouldn't want to do this... how will I keep her down on the farm...?

:grouphug:

My ten-year-old is already talking about going to college in France. :crying:

 

We had foreign exchange students from France when I was a child. Great experience. I don't know the logistics of it, though.

[Annie N]

Thanks, Suzanne :) I have to admit that the exchange students I ran across had terrible problems, so I was totally against this idea at first!!! Good to know that others have had better experiences!

[Melinda in VT]

The kids who do exchanges around here do it through the Rotary. They offer summer programs and year programs.

 

They do not guarantee countries though. Kids provide a list of countries they would be willing to go to, and most kids get one of the countries on their list.

[Annie N]

The kids who do exchanges around here do it through the Rotary. They offer summer programs and year programs.

 

They do not guarantee countries though. Kids provide a list of countries they would be willing to go to, and most kids get one of the countries on their list.

 

This is very helpful, Melinda, thank you!

[Ailaena]

If she is going to a public school, odds are that she will "lose" a year by studying abroad. If you are with a district that will work with you, she can take summer classes before and after she leaves/arrives and take online classes while she is there.

 

Fair warning about taking classes while studying abroad: it sucks, and kids don't really do it very well.

 

Dd was going to study in France her senior year but it didn't work out. After LOADS of research, I decided on ASSE. The funny thing is that after we applied, I met and became friends with the regional inbound coordinator and she totally cemented my support of the organization.

 

If your dd has any interest in Chinese, Korean, Russian, Hindi or Arabic, check out NSLI-Y because it is FREE and had a stipend!

 

If you only want a fantastic yet rigorous academic summer, check out Choate Rosemary Hall's summer program :D

[Kathryn]

My uncle has been involved with School Year Abroad for about 30 years now. I have no idea how they compare to other programs financially since he works at an extremely expensive New England prep school, but their site talks about scholarships and financial aid and that they don't enroll ONLY prep school attendees. They have summer and year-long programs.

Edited July 24, 2012 by kebg11

[Starr]

I graduated early and then was an exchange student. I found volunteer work suited me better than going to school. Have you talked to her school about summer school, correspondence or some other creative way to fill in her year's credits. Personally I think a year in another country is worth making up a year in school. Good luck to both of you. :grouphug:

[joannqn]

We are hosting a short term exchange student from China currently through EF Educational Homestay Programs. One of the benefits they give to host families is a discount on their educational tours and language schools (see programs link at top then program benefits link to the left). Here's the link to their language schools; there is one in France.

[LadyMSews]

I was an exchange student to Sweden (through the same group ASSE mentioned above). It was a wonderful experience. I did "lose" a year of school here...I didn't know the language at all and my first term marks were dismal. I contacted my guidance counselor and he agreed to let me be AWL (absent with leave, lol) for the year and when I got back, we only counted credits in classes that I did well in, so my gpa wasn't totally screwed up.

 

I went when I was 17. It was a life-changing year and I've never regretted delaying graduation a year to go. I learned a new language, a new culture, traveled in Europe and made friends I'm still in touch with over 20 years later.

 

As far as what level she goes into over there, it would be up to the school. I took some general placement type tests and actually ended up with my age group, even though schools in Sweden are generally considered to be ahead of US schools...I guess my honors classes here paid off. :)

 

Bigger questions for me, as a mom, would be does she know any French? and is she emotionally mature enough to be away from every familiar thing for an entire year?

[Friederike in Persia]

I was an exchange student in CA for half a year (I'm German). That way I didn't lose an academic year in Germany. Most subjects were ok to catch up after I got back, for one or two of them my grade dropped some.

My parents condition was to find a Christian family, so I didn't go with an organisation, but organised it myself. Once I showed up at the local High School they just told me which level I should choose classes at and were then flexible enough to let me change after a few weeks.

Apart from English and US government there wasn't really anything that I learned academically during my time in the US (German gymnasium goes a lot faster and further than American High Schools), but I would recommend it to anybody. There was so much else to learn!

That goes back some years now, but I've arranged for the daughter of a friend to go from Germany to the UK and there again the school was happy and capable to place the student at the right level.

I know that there aren't that many Americans who go overseas at your daughter's age, but many Europeans do and most of them make very positive experiences. Whatever gets arranged won't be written in stone either. During my time in the States quite a few of the other exchange students changed their living situation once they were there.

 

Hope that helps some,

[milovany]

 

If your dd has any interest in Chinese, Korean, Russian, Hindi or Arabic, check out NSLI-Y because it is FREE and had a stipend!

 

Drat! Where were you a year ago?! ;) Our son would LOVE this (Russia) and but he's 18 now so will age out before the next round. Bummer. Thanks for the info. though!

[Annie N]

Wow, thanks everyone so much! This is a lot of information....

 

My daughter has been studying French, and would probably be lost for at least a month when she got there (I studied French for much longer and was completely lost for 3 weeks, but she has access to better resources than I did way back when!)

 

She is home schooled, so the school she has to deal with is me!

 

And she was born to be a world traveler--she has been away several times and really enjoyed it.

 

So it's really just the educational issues that we are concerned about. If she loses a year, well, it seems like colleges should be happy about her having "lost" the year in France! Not like she loses it by goofing off.

[Annie N]

I was an exchange student in CA for half a year (I'm German). That way I didn't lose an academic year in Germany. Most subjects were ok to catch up after I got back, for one or two of them my grade dropped some.

My parents condition was to find a Christian family, so I didn't go with an organisation, but organised it myself. Once I showed up at the local High School they just told me which level I should choose classes at and were then flexible enough to let me change after a few weeks.

Apart from English and US government there wasn't really anything that I learned academically during my time in the US (German gymnasium goes a lot faster and further than American High Schools), but I would recommend it to anybody. There was so much else to learn!

That goes back some years now, but I've arranged for the daughter of a friend to go from Germany to the UK and there again the school was happy and capable to place the student at the right level.

I know that there aren't that many Americans who go overseas at your daughter's age, but many Europeans do and most of them make very positive experiences. Whatever gets arranged won't be written in stone either. During my time in the States quite a few of the other exchange students changed their living situation once they were there.

 

Hope that helps some,

Wow, this is amazing--You are in Central Asia, which is a place I have always wanted to go...

 

And you arranged it yourself, privately--I would be happy if she could do that as we are Catholic and would want her to be with a Catholic family.

 

And since my daughter is homeschooled, she'd be able to catch up, esp if she went for less than a school year, which I did not think of as an option.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience!

[SonshineLearner]

That's so exciting!! I wanted my daughter to think about doing an exchange... but she has no desire :(

[EthiopianFood]

OT, but does anyone know of a program where you can host a student from India?

[Friederike in Persia]

OT, but does anyone know of a program where you can host a student from India?

 

Sorry, I don't know of a specific organisation, but wanted to say, there must be thousands and thousands of Indians who would love to stay with you :D. I've lived in all sorts of countries, some of which were politically very anti-American. However, esp. young people were super keen to make it to the States even from those countries and India isn't like that.

[Friederike in Persia]

Wow, this is amazing--You are in Central Asia, which is a place I have always wanted to go...

 

And you arranged it yourself, privately--I would be happy if she could do that as we are Catholic and would want her to be with a Catholic family.

 

And since my daughter is homeschooled, she'd be able to catch up, esp if she went for less than a school year, which I did not think of as an option.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience!

 

I should be packing cause we're going on holiday in a few hours, but I much rather write some more about exchanges:tongue_smilie:.

 

The Catholic Church is so big and somewhat diverse that I'm not sure how exactly you can go about it, but I'm sure there are ways to arrange a request for a host family. I do this ever so often when friends or relatives want to go to the UK (dh is British). I'll ask about in our family of churches who would like to have a host student and usually something comes up.

 

Another way of arranging things would be by finding some French people where you are and ask them if they know somebody. That is actually how I managed to go to the States, my voice teacher in Germany at the time was American and she asked a friend,.... and I ended up staying with an opera singer;).

[Mom in High Heels]

Is there any chance she'd be willing to wait until she goes to college and then do a semester abroad through school?

[Catherine]

Students generally do not use the exchange year as academic credit. They just pick up where they left off when they return, graduating a year later. I second another poster's information about NSLI. AFS also sponsors a fully-funded scholarship program to Germany, Congress-Bundestag. Our students and my son all came to us through AFS, an organization that was created by WW I volunteer ambulance drivers to promote peace through cultural understanding. It's a good organization. AFS has live online information sessions with returnees-very good sources of basic information. You can find them through the AFS website.

 

My son had a really life-changing experience. It wasn't always easy, but it was very valuable. He returned fluent in German and that fall took a 300 level university German class (for majors-they let him in anyway) and did very well. Fluency in a second language is a very marketable skill.

 

The only recommendation I have for you is to consider waiting until she is older. The unhappy exchange experiences I've seen were almost always kinds younger than 17. Maturity is so important and the stresses of a cultural exchange are very real.

[garddwr]

My daughter wants to be an exchange student in France for 10th grade (next year). We are actually having quite a lot of trouble finding out about this... but my current main question is what they study for science at the age of 15?

 

I am also having trouble sorting out what year she would go into--I don't want her to be lost by being in with her age group at a Bac school, but I don't want her to lose a year here, either. They seem to be generally ahead of us, so I am not sure how it all would translate.

 

Sigh. I wish she wouldn't want to do this... how will I keep her down on the farm...?

 

Thanks for any info!!!!

 

10th grade in France is called Seconde, and is the first year of the Lycée program. You can find a brief overview of French secondary education here. If you read French, you can find a general outline of educational plan for Seconde here. The basic courses everyone would take are broken down as follows (according to the link above; the numbers indicate hours of instruction per week):

 

Matières Horaire hebdomadaire de l'élève Français 4 Histoire-géographie 3 Langue vivante 1 et 2N 1 5,5 Mathématiques 4 Physique-chimie 3 Sciences de la vie et de la Terre 1,5 Éducation physique et sportiveN 2 2 Éducation civique, juridique et sociale 0,5

If you need translation, that's basically 4 hours of French, 3 hours of History/Geography, 5.5 hours of foreign language instruction (usually 2 languages), 4 hours of math (math is integrated not divided into Algebra, Geometry etc.), 3 hours of a combined physics/chemistry course, 1.5 hours of Life and Earth sciences, 2 hours of PE, and 0.5 hours of civics/judicial/social sciences. Below the table in the article is a list of exploratory subjects that are expected to take another 1.5 hours per week.

 

It's been a couple of decades since I was in school in France, but this doesn't look too different from the way things were back then. After 10th grade studies become more specialized depending on which baccalaureate track a student chooses, but it looks like tenth grade is pretty standardized.

Realistically, I would expect an exchange student to spend the year learning language and culture. Don't count on academic progress in other areas. But language and culture make for fabulous educational experiences! French teachers tend to be really tough in grading, and won't likely give breaks to a kid who is just learning the system and language--just make sure your daughter knows that going in and is prepared for it.

[sheryl]

My niece, now 28, was a foreign exchange student in France. All went well for their experience. Have no iidea about classes though.

[Nan in Mass]

My youngest is studying French this summer in Switzerland, living with Swiss families. If he weren't headed for engineering, we would have thought about sending him during the school year and just counted it as several French classes on the transcript, but he already has a rather strange transcript due to peacewalking/traveling in past years and wants to work on building a solid science foundation at the community college now. He knew some French when he went. We arranged the trip ourselves, with lots of help from TWTM board. We began by picking a French language program and then scrambled around looking for a family. We didn't do it this way on purpose. A co-worker of my husband transfered to France. He said he'd find a family situation for our son. When that fell through, it was too late to try to arrange something "properly" (through AFS or Rotary, the two people recommend here) and we decided to do it ourselves. People here in the US thought it rather unusual but it seemed very ordinary to all our European friends. I now have a much better idea of why Americans are monolingual and Europeans are multilingual LOL. So - if all else fails, it is possible to arrange a summer program.

 

By next year, do you mean next month or do you mean in a year and a month? I think it might be too late to do it for this coming Sept. through a program like AFS or Rotary. You would probably have to arrange it yourself by finding a family who would take her and then finding a school. I think France has catholic schools. You might look at those as well as the public ones? Is she ready to go away from home for a year at 15? A year is a long time. I understand why you are worried about the science but the nice thing about science is that it can be doubled up. It is possible to take two at once. It would take gobs of time, but it is perfectly doable, unlike math. On the other hand, she is more likely to understand a math class, especially if she can correlate it to something like the Khan videos, which are in English, or if she brings along an English math book at the right level and an English geometry book, one that has a nice index so she can look things up by topic. I would assume that her language arts and history would improve just by being in Europe and working in a foreign language, even if it is done non-academically, and would worry less about those two subjects. She could read a European history overview before she goes so what she is able to put the bits and pieces she sees when there into the big picture. She will be reading classics while she is there (the French are good about that). She can keep a journal and write letters or emails. Struggling to describe things and to put happenings into words definately improved my children's writing. My youngest had to learn how to write emails of inquiry in both French and English in order to set up the trip. Mine haven't read and written enough while traveling that I would give them an English credit, but it does add an academic component to their travel, enough that I am willing to give social studies credit. Just a few thoughts... I've been combining travel and homeschooling academics for years now. Just make sure she finishes a math book.

 

Nan

[Annie N]

10th grade in France is called Seconde, and is the first year of the Lycée program. You can find a brief overview of French secondary education here. If you read French, you can find a general outline of educational plan for Seconde here. The basic courses everyone would take are broken down as follows (according to the link above; the numbers indicate hours of instruction per week):

 

Matières Horaire hebdomadaire de l'élève Français 4 Histoire-géographie 3 Langue vivante 1 et 2N 1 5,5 Mathématiques 4 Physique-chimie 3 Sciences de la vie et de la Terre 1,5 Éducation physique et sportiveN 2 2 Éducation civique, juridique et sociale 0,5

If you need translation, that's basically 4 hours of French, 3 hours of History/Geography, 5.5 hours of foreign language instruction (usually 2 languages), 4 hours of math (math is integrated not divided into Algebra, Geometry etc.), 3 hours of a combined physics/chemistry course, 1.5 hours of Life and Earth sciences, 2 hours of PE, and 0.5 hours of civics/judicial/social sciences. Below the table in the article is a list of exploratory subjects that are expected to take another 1.5 hours per week.

 

It's been a couple of decades since I was in school in France, but this doesn't look too different from the way things were back then. After 10th grade studies become more specialized depending on which baccalaureate track a student chooses, but it looks like tenth grade is pretty standardized.

Realistically, I would expect an exchange student to spend the year learning language and culture. Don't count on academic progress in other areas. But language and culture make for fabulous educational experiences! French teachers tend to be really tough in grading, and won't likely give breaks to a kid who is just learning the system and language--just make sure your daughter knows that going in and is prepared for it.

 

This is so kind of you! And this is very good information, thank you very much! (I was looking but was unable to find what I was looking for!)

[Annie N]

My youngest is studying French this summer in Switzerland, living with Swiss families. If he weren't headed for engineering, we would have thought about sending him during the school year and just counted it as several French classes on the transcript, but he already has a rather strange transcript due to peacewalking/traveling in past years and wants to work on building a solid science foundation at the community college now. He knew some French when he went. We arranged the trip ourselves, with lots of help from TWTM board. We began by picking a French language program and then scrambled around looking for a family. We didn't do it this way on purpose. A co-worker of my husband transfered to France. He said he'd find a family situation for our son. When that fell through, it was too late to try to arrange something "properly" (through AFS or Rotary, the two people recommend here) and we decided to do it ourselves. People here in the US thought it rather unusual but it seemed very ordinary to all our European friends. I now have a much better idea of why Americans are monolingual and Europeans are multilingual LOL. So - if all else fails, it is possible to arrange a summer program.

 

By next year, do you mean next month or do you mean in a year and a month? I think it might be too late to do it for this coming Sept. through a program like AFS or Rotary. You would probably have to arrange it yourself by finding a family who would take her and then finding a school. I think France has catholic schools. You might look at those as well as the public ones? Is she ready to go away from home for a year at 15? A year is a long time. I understand why you are worried about the science but the nice thing about science is that it can be doubled up. It is possible to take two at once. It would take gobs of time, but it is perfectly doable, unlike math. On the other hand, she is more likely to understand a math class, especially if she can correlate it to something like the Khan videos, which are in English, or if she brings along an English math book at the right level and an English geometry book, one that has a nice index so she can look things up by topic. I would assume that her language arts and history would improve just by being in Europe and working in a foreign language, even if it is done non-academically, and would worry less about those two subjects. She could read a European history overview before she goes so what she is able to put the bits and pieces she sees when there into the big picture. She will be reading classics while she is there (the French are good about that). She can keep a journal and write letters or emails. Struggling to describe things and to put happenings into words definately improved my children's writing. My youngest had to learn how to write emails of inquiry in both French and English in order to set up the trip. Mine haven't read and written enough while traveling that I would give them an English credit, but it does add an academic component to their travel, enough that I am willing to give social studies credit. Just a few thoughts... I've been combining travel and homeschooling academics for years now. Just make sure she finishes a math book.

 

Nan

She would be doing it not this coming-up year, but the following year, when she would be 15.5 and going into 10th grade. She wants to do it then because she does not want to lose any time the following year when she will be able to start taking courses at the community college.

 

Since she wants to study physics in college, she needs to get a lot of good science courses under her belt in high school, so she is in a position similar to your son's :)

[Annie N]

Thank you all so much for all your responses--I know I won't be able to thank you individually....

 

I just remembered how exhausted I was when I was overseas and dealing in a foreign language all the time, and my daughter does tend to wear herself out when she is away from home--well, at least she always comes home totally exhausted. Maybe a school year would be too much for her...

 

So all the alternatives you are describing are really helpful :D

[Annie N]

Students generally do not use the exchange year as academic credit. They just pick up where they left off when they return, graduating a year later. I second another poster's information about NSLI. AFS also sponsors a fully-funded scholarship program to Germany, Congress-Bundestag. Our students and my son all came to us through AFS, an organization that was created by WW I volunteer ambulance drivers to promote peace through cultural understanding. It's a good organization. AFS has live online information sessions with returnees-very good sources of basic information. You can find them through the AFS website.

 

My son had a really life-changing experience. It wasn't always easy, but it was very valuable. He returned fluent in German and that fall took a 300 level university German class (for majors-they let him in anyway) and did very well. Fluency in a second language is a very marketable skill.

 

The only recommendation I have for you is to consider waiting until she is older. The unhappy exchange experiences I've seen were almost always kinds younger than 17. Maturity is so important and the stresses of a cultural exchange are very real.

You know, the experiences I saw were also with kids younger than 17.

[Allearia]

I was an exchange student my senior year of high school. I only needed one English class to graduate so the english teacher gave me some independent study assignments to do. Unfortunately I didn't do much and had to cram it in the summer after I got back before I got my diploma (though I still did the graduation ceremony with no problem). It was hard to apply for colleges etc. while there, and I also had to do the ACT there, but with the Internet now and with a lot more options that shouldn't be hard to get around. I did go to school there but didn't do it for any credit or do homework. I would hesitate to do it as early as the tenth grade year however. It would probably be best not to count on any school over there giving credit, and to make other arrangements before and/or after the year. It should be worth it for the experience and fluency in language so graduating a year later may be an option. Another student who went at the same time had graduated and been accepted at a highly selective college before she went and just had her admittance deferred for a year, that was probably the best so it was more of a gap year. It is definitely worth thinking through all the different options and issues before deciding for sure on when to do it. I would love one or both of my sons to have the experience.

[Kathryn]

She would be doing it not this coming-up year, but the following year, when she would be 15.5 and going into 10th grade. She wants to do it then because she does not want to lose any time the following year when she will be able to start taking courses at the community college.

 

Since she wants to study physics in college, she needs to get a lot of good science courses under her belt in high school, so she is in a position similar to your son's :)

 

If what people are describing is accurate, not being able to use overseas experience as a year's credit here, it might make the most sense in this case if she wants to do a full year to do it AFTER her 10th grade year. So, she'd do freshman, sophomore, then year abroad, then junior and senior with community college credits. It breaks it up nicely and makes her a year older for the year abroad and for community college.

[Annie N]

If what people are describing is accurate, not being able to use overseas experience as a year's credit here, it might make the most sense in this case if she wants to do a full year to do it AFTER her 10th grade year. So, she'd do freshman, sophomore, then year abroad, then junior and senior with community college credits. It breaks it up nicely and makes her a year older for the year abroad and for community college.

 

That's definitely an option, in fact, it sounds like a really good idea!

 

I wonder if any homeschoolers have experience with this? We were thinking about putting off one of my older children's graduation because of some glitches we had had with the community college, but those were resolved, and I thought it would look kind of bad to do that.

 

The other advantage of doing it that way would be that she would also have time to go overseas and see how she likes being there, and how she handles it. I might know of a couple of people with whom she might be able to stay for a short time in the summer. Of course, the advantage of going during the school year is that she would meet people her age from France.

[Kareni]

Drat! Where were you a year ago?! ;) Our son would LOVE this (Russia) and but he's 18 now so will age out before the next round. Bummer. Thanks for the info. though!

 

Here is a program for college undergraduates that your son might investigate.

Critical Language Scholarship Program

 

Regards,

Kareni

[milovany]

Here is a program for college undergraduates that your son might investigate.

Critical Language Scholarship Program

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Thank you!

[Nan in Mass]

I think once they start taking community college classes, the line between college and high school becomes blurred, making it not nearly as "bad" as losing a whole year of high school if you are only doing high school. We in the homeschooling community tend to think of community college as part of high school but I think you will find that more ordinary people would view this plan as going to college early, after only three years of high school, one of which would be abroad. I don't necessarily think college admissions would view it that way, but I think other people would. I tended to think of my children as ordinary or even behind and I was surprised over and over by the people who oohed and aahed over how advanced my children were, going to college early, when all they were doing was taking high school level classes at the community college. Our community college has a three semester calc/calc-based physics sequence. If your daughter wants to go into physics, I can see why she wouldn't want to go in 11th or 12th, but the idea of going between 10th and 11th is a great one, I think. You could look at what she has done and give her French and social studies credits. For a three week intensive college course in Ireland, my sons received three credits of Irish history and three credits of Irish literature. Just to give you some basis of comparison... There was some reading beforehand (and during, obviously) and they wrote a paper when they returned. During the trip, they had lectures every day and field trips. Their humanities professors organized the trip and went with them, hence the daily lectures. Anyway, I agree about how exhausting it is to work in a foreign language all the time. I think it would be very hard to get any extra reading or schoolwork done on top of going to a French school. She might be able to refer to a book in English to help her with the French schoolwork (if she wants to try to keep up with her French math class, for example) but extra English reading is probably a bad idea. I sent some English lit with my son just in case he was bored and had too much time on his hands, but I told him it was strictly optional and that if he managed to switch his thinking to French, he should avoid reading in English because it would make working in French more difficult. Eventually, he will be able to switch back and forth easily, but for a short stay like this, I'd rather he immersed himself in the French. If she finds herself totally lost in her school classes and with lots of time on her hands, she'd probably be better off picking a few of the simpler French classics and working through them with a dictionary. Or even non-classics. My son is reading The Hunger Games in French lol. This being his vacation, I am not about to object. I'm just happy he is reading, in French, on top of his classes.

 

If you found someone for her to stay with and sent her for a few weeks next summer, she could get get a head start on the French immersion part. It takes awhile for one's brain to start processing lots of French at full speed. It would also help her to get her bearings faster when she goes for the year.

 

Have you thought about having her take some sort of standardized test in French when she comes back?

 

It is fun to have someone to talk to about this. It is a huge part of our family life at the moment.

 

Nan