I want to go to Japan as Foreign exchange student im 14 is there any programs where everything is paid for?

Question

i reall want to go to Japan like super bad!! i talked to my parents about it and i want to go as a foreign exchange student but is there any way that a family over there can pay for travel? plz Help!

Answer 1

i thought they pay for it google something lol

Answer 2

There are scholarships, but unless you're really lucky, then there's no free exchange program.

Youth for Understanding does have a listing of scholarships for their Japan program. If you can fit within the requirements, then it is worth a try. But most are partial scholarships for the summer program. The James Bradley one is good scholarship for Japan, but it's very competitive and you would really have to step up your game to be chosen.

Another good exchange program is Rotary. It's not free, but it costs significantly less than others. (I'm going on the long-term exchange for $3,900 and they're allowing us to pay it in parts.) However, you cannot pick your country. My district only allowed us to pick our top 5 choices and we weren't allowed to rank them. It's supposed to show our flexibility.

AFS is another program I hear good things about. I don't know much about it, but a lot of students like it. I don't know how they are in the way of scholarships, but from what I heard is that they encourage the students to try a range of fund raising opportunities in order to pay the fee.

And I think they have partial scholarships too.

Answer 3

I'm sorry, no family is going to pay to have you come live with them as an exchange student. It doesn't work that way. Families DO volunteer room, board and support but you must supply the rest, including personal expenses.

Fortunately, right now you are too young. Most organizations require to to be at least 15 and sometimes 16.  That will give you time to raise funds to do it.

Rotary is the cheapest program, but the most competitive. As another poster stated, YFU also offers many scholarships to Japan. If applying for scholarships, I encourage you to apply early -- and often! If you don't get one your first year and you apply again, you have a very good chance!

Whichever program you select, please make sure it is CSIET listed! You can find that list at www.csiet.org. That's very important not only in making sure you can get some credit for your year but also if you have difficulties with a program.

For lots of information on the experience in general, check out http://www.exchangestudentworld.com/. It's a site written by current and former exchange students and covers everything form applications to returning home.

Good Luck!