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[pennywise256]

I live in Mexico and I'm on the first year of the two-years Diploma programme of IB. I'm considering to go to Finand or to the Nethernalds as exchange student. However, rotary requires me to be 15 to 18.5 years old for the time of departure. My examinations are held on May of 2013, I go 18.5 exactly on may 30th. Could it be possible finishing my education here and then going on the exchange? I'm confused, and I don't really know how both, rotary and IB, work. Could it then be possible to leave on August 2012 and complete my examinations on a Finnish or Dutch world school on May 2013 ? I don't know what to do. I think it is not wise to leave now, or so soon, because I would get lost on the topics, risking the possibility of getting awarded my desired IB diploma. Though, I can afford losing the last 6 months of IB I need to take the wisest decision now. A friend of mine took a year in Finland before starting IB, and she says that even though it's also a world school, her subjects were totally different. We have Spanish A1, English A2, Biology, Math Studies, Philosophy and Anthropology. She says she had English A1, Finnish A2 (and she totally knew nothing of Finnish ! ), Biology, Mathematics, Russian History and Visual Arts. They are very different, and I would need to study for the subjects I am going to apply for (the ones I'm taking now), not the ones I will be taught in those few weeks.
One more thing. Does any of you know how much I would need to complete my stay, either in Finland or Holland ? Will 5000 USD make the trick ? My parent pay at least that amount a year here for IB.

wish me the best. I really want to go abroad before turning older

Edited by pennywise256, Aug 19, 2011 - 04:07.

[Cynthia]

Well, what people usually do is go on an exchange before they begin the IB programme - which, clearly, is not a possibility for you anymore. You could contact your local Rotary club for advice on what to do (eg. if it would be possible to leave after your IB exams despite the age limit). It might be possible to do a part of the programme in a different school, although you might run into some problems (eg. different parts of the syllabus covered in different times) and need to do some extra work individually. Obviously you'd need a school that offers the same subjects as yours. When it comes to Finland, this at least might be impossible, since no Finnish IB schools offer Anthropology; you might look into whether or not your subject combination might be possible in a Dutch school.

Overall, the whole thing might be a great experience but possibly more trouble than it's worth unless you can manage to go after finishing IB - perhaps you might want to consider going to uni abroad or an exchange there, although it's not quite the same