FAQ

We believe host families are an important component of a successful study abroad experience. Ayusa ensures each student's safety through a comprehensive screening process. All host families are carefully screened and interviewed by Ayusa's overseas partners. An Ayusa representative visits each prospective family's home to meet all family members and ensure quality living arrangements. Typically, host families are volunteers whose decision to host an American student is based on a genuine desire to participate first-hand in the international exchange experience. Once we have approved a family to host, the family will review the relevant application materials of the students whom we have accepted into our program for that country. Our host families then select the student that they think would be the best match for their family, based on the student’s stated personality and interests.

While Ayusa Study Abroad does guarantee placement in a student’s first choice country, we cannot guarantee specific locations within each country. You can mention your preferences in your application materials, but part of being an exchange student is embracing the host family and community that ultimately chooses you. With that said, some of our programs do enable students to request placement within a particular region for an additional fee. Please check the country specific information for more details.

There is no average or host family – they vary across racial, religious and socio-economic lines. Families may be large or small, they may have young children, grown children or no children at all; however, all Ayusa host families are excited to be part of the cultural exchange experience. Our primary goal is to find you a safe and supportive host family. Our host family selection process places students with host families that match their personalities and interests, families in which we feel students will be successful and have a rich and comfortable experience.

If you already know of a family that would like to host you, this is known as a direct placement. We try to accommodate direct placements, but it is not always possible. Because this is an immersion program, and we want our students to meet new people, we generally do not place students with family members in their host country.
Direct placements are also contingent on the following:
• There must be a local representative within a certain distance of the host family’s location.
• There must be a school within the area that accepts exchange students
• Even if the family is familiar to the student, they must undergo the same application and screening process as other potential host families.

A direct placement does not affect the price of our program.

As an exchange student, it is your responsibility to be flexible and adapt to your host family's lifestyle and rules, even if they are different from what you are accustomed to in your American home. Your local representative will assist you with this adjustment process and will attempt to resolve any problems through discussion and mediation. If after exploring other options, a re-match proves necessary, we will make arrangements to move you to a more suitable host family.

Every Ayusa Study Abroad student has a bilingual local representative who is their primary contact in the host country throughout the program. In addition to placing you with a host family and helping enroll you in school, the local representative is "on-call" for the duration of the program to answer your questions, offer guidance to you and your host family in matters of adjustment and language difficulties, and help with any emergencies. For our summer programs, the local representative also chaperones all group outings. Your Program Manager in the United States provides assistance to your parents while you are abroad.

Our programs are designed to help students fully immerse themselves in another culture as they become more confident young adults. Part of this process involves adjusting to new surroundings and getting past homesickness. We have found that visits from parents or friends in the middle of the program are very disruptive to the acculturation process, and students often regress back to earlier stages of adjustment. For this reason we do not allow visits mid-program. You will have regular contact with your family and friends through email, letters and phone calls, and we encourage families to visit their son/daughter at the end of the program.

Most summer students will be taking language classes appropriate to their current ability level, based on the placement exam they took upon arrival. Long-term students will be taking a full load of courses at a local high school. Classes vary by school and we will not know what school you will attend until after you apply to our program and are matched with a specific host family and school. Your class schedule will be determined after your first day of school. A school administrator will help you to register for classes based upon your language ability and academic background.

While there is an adjustment period, you will be amazed at how quickly your language skills will improve when immersed in another language. We find that students who have studied the language for our required number of years are readily able to adapt to our immersion program. Whatever your language ability is currently, we are confident that if you meet the minimum language requirements and make an effort to study and speak while abroad, you will succeed in your host country.