Hey Hal, 

I am back from Brazil! I had a great time in Brazil and my year abroad definitely did not negatively impact my college application process (I got into Dartmouth, University of Chicago, and Cornell and all my interviewers said they thought my year abroad was really cool). 

 

I would say that although going abroad my senior year did make applying to college more complicated, it gave me more time to accumulate AP credits/internships to make my application more competitive.

 

So if a student is looking to apply to really elite colleges, senior year is probably the best time to go.   Otherwise I don't think going abroad junior year would hurt college admission chances at all.

 

I was also able to easily transfer my credits and graduate on time.   

-Megan