Is there a good chance at NOT being accepted in a foreign exchange program??

Question

i am a high school student trying to apply for a foreign exchange program but i am worried about not being able to go. i was wondering if anyone knew what the chances of getting accepted or not were.

Answer 1

If you are the child of US citizens & living in the US, your chances are actually pretty good.  Relatively fewer Americans apply for such programs than foreigners applying to come to US on an exchange program.  And immigration does not worry about American citizens overstaying visas or committing immigration-law violations because Americans almost never do such things.

If your grades are good, your foreign language skills pretty good (at least intermediate level coursework in a foreign language with good grades), and your parents are in favor of you going abroad to study for a term or school year, you have a good chance of participating.  Go for it!  And have a wonderful time.

If your parents are citizens of another country, competition can be really tough!

Answer 2

I personally have done a few study abroad programs to Spain, France, China, and Costa Rica. So i should have a pretty good idea.

Basically, if you have to pay a program fee then it is highly likely that you will be accepted. If it is a free program/scholarship based, it tends to be more competitive especially if a lot of people know about the exchange program or if it is heavily advertised. Think of how you learned about it?

To be on the safe side, you might consider applying for two other programs for similar dates in the country of interest.

Travel Organizations:

http://www.intraxstudyabroad.com/

http://www.afs.org/

University or College Study Abroad office:

Wherever you're located just check out their "study abroad" website or department and see if they allow it.

Department of State Programs: (assuming you're in the U.S.)

http://www.state.gov/youthandeducation/

(most of these programs are scholarship based(free))

I hope this was helpful, and feel free to ask any other questions. Just add me as a fan.

Good luck,

Bernard