I'm looking for a student exchange program for New Zealand students.?

Question

I'm 15 in 3months so i'm looking for an exchange program for next year for a year at least and i wish to go to the United States. Anyone know any good, reputable programs?

Answer 1

AFS, YFU and Rotary Youth Exchange all have excellent reputations in the U.S. and are welcome in almost every school. ASSE is good in many places. AYUSA/INTRAX has problems and many schools (including ours) will not accept those students.

Whatever program you pick, make sure it, or its partner in the U.S., is listed with CSIET (www.csiet.org). All the ones listed above are. If you do not use a CSIET program, you will have difficulties in many areas. For example, in my state of Kansas, you could not participate in any activities -- even if the school would accept you in the first place!

However, I'd suggest that instead of the U.S., you look at going to a country where you would learn another language. That's one of the biggest benefits of an exchange year -- and one that will pay you back the best in the long run!

In the meantime, why don't you check out this site:

http://www.exchangestudentworld.com/

It's an online community of exchange students who share their advice and experience (and for those of you who want to 'violate' because of this site, don't bother -- it is not to sell you something).

The other thing, if you can even apply this late, you need to HURRY. Most programs have already accepted their students for the 08-09 school year and are placing them in families now!

Good luck!