Through many years experience, which has made Rotary's Youth Exchange Program the largest in the world, we have found the following general qualifications useful:

1. Above average academic qualifications. (This does not mean the top of your class, but the upper third);

2. Applicants should be good ambassadors for their town, for Rotary, and for Australia. During their year abroad, they may be called upon to address many groups. They must, therefore, possess a good personality and have the ability to communicate with other people and to express themselves clearly;

3. Applicants should possess well-rounded personalities with an ability to think through their problems and the stresses of living in a foreign environment;

4. Applicants should have an inquiring mind and be actively interested in their own environment, in the world in general and in world problems;

5. Applicants should be students who are active in their community through sports, hobbies, youth activities or church affairs. The successful students are invariably those who lead busy, active lives in their communities;

6. Applicants should be well-adjusted, particularly in their family relationships. The student who cannot adjust to his/her own family may well find it impossible to adjust to more difficult family situations in a foreign environment. The best students invariably come from happy, united homes where the parents are 100% in support of the student's participation in the Program;

7. Applicants should not be older than 18½ years old when leaving Australia.