Second year of high school in the United States: the right choice?
Repeating secondary school, a second year of high school in the United States, has become common practice in our country in recent years. But what is the real benefit of repeating one's final year of secondary school?
To begin with, there is a double negative connotation in the words "redo" or "second".
Next, it is important to consider the educational benefits of this stay, given the well-known gap between secondary and higher education in our country . In the humanities, students move from structured and guided learning in small groups (classes) to total autonomy at university, with little pedagogical guidance and no tutoring (unlike the Anglo-Saxon system where students are very often assigned a tutor from the beginning of the academic year).
Worse still, after their final year of secondary school, students choose, without any transition, a subject in which the vast majority have never had a single hour of class (law, medicine, marketing, communication, etc.). Like turtles that, at birth, try to reach the sea but few succeed, our fresh-faced secondary school graduates wash up on the beach of their first year of higher education due to a lack of proper preparation and academic guidance.
Read about it the article dedicated to academic coaching.
Repeating one's final year of secondary school to prepare for higher education: the solution?
The success of the second year of secondary school – as if repeating a year – rests on the recognition of this gap. But does the second year of secondary school truly prepare students for education ?
The United States: the preferred destination for Belgians
The country to which most Belgians who choose to repeat their final year of secondary school go is the United States. However, the level of secondary education there is notoriously lower than in Belgium and in Northern Europe in general. The study by American professor John H. Bishop of Cornell University, NY, entitled "Which Secondary Education Systems Work Best?" The United States or Northern Europe ? This article demonstrates and explains why, on average, Northern European students are 10% more likely than American teenagers to complete high school and learn significantly more during that time. In fact, most European countries require American students to complete two years of higher education before entering a European university to reach the required level. Following this logic, repeating high school in the US would be equivalent to repeating… one's sophomore year . Is this truly the ideal springboard for higher education? Are the terms "academic year," used to describe the sophomore year, therefore somewhat misleading?
So don't bother looking in the drop-down menu of our formulas for "repeat a rhetoric year", you won't find it, ever!
Furthermore, from a legal standpoint, if we refer to the US government website that deals with the J1 visa http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/secondary-school-student , we find the following admission requirements:
Participants in US high school
Secondary students must:
- Be at least 15 years of age, but not more than 18 years and six months of age as of the program start date, or
- Not have finished more than 11 years of primary and secondary school, not including kindergarten; and
- Not have previously participated in a secondary school student academic year or semester exchange program or attended school in the United States in either F-1 or J-1 status.
This would mean that all students who finish their rhetoric in Belgium after completing 6 years of primary school and 6 years of secondary school… are NOT eligible to complete a second rhetoric in the United States, because the total reaches 12 years and not 11.
And finally, on the financial side, when you know that neither the secondary school nor the host family is paid, isn't spending between €10,200 and over €20,000 for a year (travel included) a bit expensive to repeat... your 4th year of humanities?
The end of the second year of high school in the US: chronicle of a death foretold?
Due to budget cuts and integration problems for students graduating from secondary school in Belgium who are older than their new classmates in US (and elsewhere) high schools, the quota of places has been drastically reduced, by an average of 40% . Read this article published in Vers l'Avenir, whose title alone sums up the situation well: “Towards the end of secondary school abroad” .
What are the alternatives to repeating the last year of secondary school in the United States?
Don't misunderstand us; we believe that leaving after high school is an extremely beneficial project , and we'll give you five good reasons why here. Furthermore, we know that the United States remains a top destination for many. Therefore, here are some alternatives we propose that are more in line with the core values of Languages & Travel and for which we guarantee better preparation for higher education.
Either by maintaining a school setting:
- In the United States : the " community college ," an institution where Americans enroll after high school to prepare for university and bridge the gap between their education and the traditional university system. It's a more "softer" route to university. Many community colleges have agreements with universities that allow students to progress directly into their third year of undergraduate studies after two years at the community college. More information on higher education abroad can be found here.
- or in other countries :
– Language courses : Languages & Travel selects the best language schools in the world (based on rankings, for example in the United Kingdom). We favor “family-run” schools where the management knows its students and is more involved in organizing courses and extracurricular activities.
– a semester at a College of Further Education in England , such as Chichester College , where the student chooses between English language courses and/or vocational or academic courses. It is possible to combine this semester with a term in another English-speaking or non-English-speaking country.
– a “ Gap Year ” or “ Foundation Year” in the UK, the US or Australia, which our French neighbors call “prépa”: see the Study Experience offer .
Either outside of the school setting:
Working Holiday Visa program . Young people are expected to be self-reliant, with support available on-site. It's possible to combine several weeks or months of language courses at the beginning of their stay with paid jobs that allow them to support themselves. The courses are fee-based, and host families are compensated for their services. The advantage of this program: the cost is 3 to 10 times lower than a second year of secondary school if the student doesn't take language courses. Languages & Travel organizes two free online information sessions every week; click here to register.
The choice is yours!
For further information, here is another article that may interest you: “ Gap year: what to do, what is it for and how to make the most of it? ”