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Hi I am a sixteen year old soon to be Junior that is traveling and studying abroad next year in Karlstad, Sweden with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. I have decent grades and I have heard your junior year is important for college application. My Junior year is the year I am spending abroad. The school I am going to in Sweden is in the top 100 private schools in Europe, I will also be taking the equivalent of AP courses over there for a majority of my classes. My counselor back in the states also promised my transcript would be transferable from the year abroad. I have a very liable decision I soon need to make and I was inquiring college confidential to hope someone could give me some advice...

... Is it better to use the schooling credits I received in Sweden to apply for college, or would it prove far more successful to retake my junior year and imprint my admissions forms with the fact I have actually had five years of schooling, one in Sweden. I am confused and frustrated partly because I messed up my freshman year of high school and actually failed a class (I wont make any excuses although science is my strongest subject this year I was not into it). I don't know which path would be more beneficial. I am very intelligent person and after that incident began to radically turn my grading situation around. The class I actually failed was Biology, my intended courses of study in college (and Sweden) will be sciences (specifically theoretical Physics). I would like to go to the upper echelon of colleges but I do not understand which path to follow...

...I do participate in sports (track and field, cross country) I also am involved in my church's youth group. I have also set up a ROTEX or community service organization at my high school and within the community... PLEASE HELP!!!

By Steph0503 (Steph0503) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 04:07 am: Edit

hey sverigestudent!

Woohoo--you're going on a Rotary Exchange! I'm doing one now in Japan and I absolutely know how you feel. Just expect the unexpected and be flexible!

Soo...that also means your school in Sweden. I'm not sure how good you are in Swedish, or how much your Swedish school is actually going to have to participate in. I don't truly understand how you want to use the credits from Sweden to have it be college credits since usually people ask for high school credits. I'm not sure if this is what you'Re trying to ask, but is it about graduating school in on time, or having to use one more year?

My situation was that I knew about a semester of Japanese before going to Japan, and ended up in the Top 2nd school of the Prefecture.
Unfortunately, japanese schools are totally different from what I expected; and even with my hs counselor signing that i will get credits for all the courses I take. It ended up my too stubborn high school in Japan was like 'our school starts in April and we don't give half credits only that we will write down a list of classes you took' about 3 months into my exchange when I realized that 'evaluation' did not mean 'give credits'. In the beginning I was too wrought up in the graduating with my class ordeal that I was desperately seeking a way to get a credit, but was futile.

Anyhow, I sorta realized how stupid I was being with the credits since the school sorta made a special schedule for me to follow rather than having the exact same one as my classmates (In Japanese schools, they have teachers that change classrooms to teach, so one classroom would basically have the exact same schedule). This included going to Rotary Meetings first week of every month (so I leave around lunch time), Japanese lessons for around 6 months, more electives and so on. I really hate my school here (it is pretty much unreasonable compared to what my other exchanger friends can do--like taking time off to see other exchangers leave to the airport--I was pretty much threatened that if I skip classes for such reasons that I would be sent home early last month). So, in the end my counselor looked at my credits again and realized that I took a course over the summer and could pass with my class if I took all 8 periods next year when I return, and make up my Junior year and take Senior year at the same time.

Anyways, i wish I could tell you how your Biology grade would affect you in the college process (since I sorta have the same problem with my bio grade but intend to major in International Relations) but haven't even started the application process yet.

I don't want to scare you a bit about your studies, but most the exchangers I've met seemed to vegetate from the study process--they end up having fun, learning the culture and etc rather than staying up late at night every evening to under a pile of books. Anyhow I'm in a different country than the one you are planning to go to, but I found Japanese schools a total waste of time and all the rumored hard math and etc are just rumors. The students themselves sleep in class and don't take it seriously since they do most of their studying in Juku, which is a cram school to get into college.

Okay sorry for the huge babble--don't know if I made sense. I don't want to scare you off since I totally love my experience no matter how many ups and downs i had and already planning to do another exchange during college. But no matter how much you plan, you won't know the outcome when you're in another country with a different set of rules. HAVE A GREAT TIME!!

---Stephanie.

ps. theres this messageboard for exchangers if you haven't checked it out before..
http://www.rotex-usa.org