Do I get to choose my country?

This is a very popular question. And the answer is, yes and no. For short-term exchanges, since they involve family-to-family reciprocal arrangements, we make every effort to accommodate country preferences. It may not always be possible to grant a student's first choice, but normally that can be done.

 

Long-term exchanges work differently, in that students from our exchange partners will be coming here for a year, and we have built relationships with these counterparts over many years. The countries we exchange with are those we know run top-quality programs, and we re-evaluate them each year. There are a limited number of exchanges available with each country, and we will not overload any country in either direction. Therefore, for long-term students, we ask you to select 3 countries from our over 30 preferred countries. We will only exchange with Rotary Certified Districts. The majority of students will get one of their top 3 choices. But remember, flexibility is a vital characteristic for a successful exchange student, and that starts right at the beginning.