DC shut out from all but one, now wants a gap year

[Anonymous]

This is easy!

1) Have him defer his acceptance,
2) He does his gap year on the farm
3) He either applies t/gets accepted to other colleges or attends the one he got into in the fall of 2024.

[Anonymous]

If the primary driver of this is he doesn’t like the college he got into, better off going there with the intent to transfer. His high school resume is already what it is going to be, and is unlikely to get him into better schools. He
He’ll have more success as a transfer. If he just isn’t mature enough for college, then a deferral makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Totally disagree with those who say working on the farm for a year will make applying to college more difficult. Colleges will understand the maturity this kind of work builds and will value that. He will do better with admissions after a year on the farm, and will have had a chance to clear his head and figure out exactly what he wants.

This is just wrong. Generally, gap years are fine if a student is deferring an acceptance. Colleges have been transparent that a gap year rarely improves an application. Students don’t have enough time between graduation and submitting new applications to meaningfully improve their profile, and getting letters of recommendation, etc. becomes much more difficult. Who will write an updating recommendation to address the gap time? Obviously, the grandparents cannot do this.

The best advice in this thread is to engage a knowledgeable private counselor to do a post-mortem on this application cycle and discuss the gap year plan and it’s implications.

+1
If targets and safeties were picked appropriately, the kid should have gotten into more than 1 of them. So they kid needs a college counselor to help pick a good list. However, with senioritis and possibly lower grades 2nd semester, I'm not sure how the kid will be any more impressive for the next round of applications. Sounds like the kid needs to wrap their head around the fact they targeting "too high" of schools and they might only have more success with targeting "lower ranked schools" and if the kid does not like where they got accepted, they may not like where else they can get into.
Sounds like kid is just upset they only got into 1 school and is making a drastic decision based on that.

Not all gap years are created equal. This one will be much more compelling than many and should help. No, I'm not saying he'll get into the 10 schools that turned him down, just that he'll be a more interesting candidate in general than he was this year. He will approach choosing which colleges to apply to with greater knowledge of himself and what he wants, and this will lead to a better list, hopefully filled with colleges he'll be happy with if accepted.

[Anonymous]

I think he has shown maturity to plan out what his gap year will look like. It's not like he wants to sit at home and play video games all day. I think I would let him do it as long as you and he come up with a plan for the next year that others have outlined above.

Also, in addition to Cornell, there are at least 40 universities in the US that have agricultural colleges. My daughter applied for food science this year which falls in the College of Ag. at most schools. There are so many great majors in the ag. college that someone who has an interest in biology and working on a farm might like. Most schools have indicated to us that they wanted to build up sme of their Ag programs, so may be easier to get into.

Cornell is obviously fantastic but it doesn't have to be Cornell. The following schools also have great ag programs: Virginia Tech, UMass, Penn State, Maryland, Ohio State, U. Delaware, Clemson, Purdue, plus many more in the Midwest and California.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Join the military. Enlist. Should be substantial benefits for college.

Massive opportunity cost in waiting until 22 or older to start college.

If you want to go military, don't enlist out of high school! Find a school with an active ROTC scholarship program and apply there. Paid for while you go, then you come out an officer. You do owe the military 4 years of employment to pay your college costs, but it's a much better way to do it. The kids I knew who did military because they had terrible grades all ended up leaving the military (not always by choice) and one only had a drug addiction to show for it.

College first, then military if that's your desire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Totally disagree with those who say working on the farm for a year will make applying to college more difficult. Colleges will understand the maturity this kind of work builds and will value that. He will do better with admissions after a year on the farm, and will have had a chance to clear his head and figure out exactly what he wants.

This is just wrong. Generally, gap years are fine if a student is deferring an acceptance. Colleges have been transparent that a gap year rarely improves an application. Students don’t have enough time between graduation and submitting new applications to meaningfully improve their profile, and getting letters of recommendation, etc. becomes much more difficult. Who will write an updating recommendation to address the gap time? Obviously, the grandparents cannot do this.

The best advice in this thread is to engage a knowledgeable private counselor to do a post-mortem on this application cycle and discuss the gap year plan and it’s implications.

+1
If targets and safeties were picked appropriately, the kid should have gotten into more than 1 of them. So they kid needs a college counselor to help pick a good list. However, with senioritis and possibly lower grades 2nd semester, I'm not sure how the kid will be any more impressive for the next round of applications. Sounds like the kid needs to wrap their head around the fact they targeting "too high" of schools and they might only have more success with targeting "lower ranked schools" and if the kid does not like where they got accepted, they may not like where else they can get into.
Sounds like kid is just upset they only got into 1 school and is making a drastic decision based on that.

Not all gap years are created equal. This one will be much more compelling than many and should help. No, I'm not saying he'll get into the 10 schools that turned him down, just that he'll be a more interesting candidate in general than he was this year. He will approach choosing which colleges to apply to with greater knowledge of himself and what he wants, and this will lead to a better list, hopefully filled with colleges he'll be happy with if accepted.

I don’t think working on a family farm makes for a particularly compelling application. Op has not indicated that her son is even interested in agricultural studies. Her son’s senior year grades and activities will have much more bearing on applications filed in six months.

[Anonymous]

I also agree with those who say you need to hire a college counselor. So I would:

1) accept and pay the deposit

2) hire a counselor asap to review previous applications and discuss implications of a deferral vs. withdraw (e.g., I'm not even sure he would be allowed to apply to other schools while deferred form the first)

3) With more information, re-evaluate. If kid really does not want to go to first college and understands that they may end up somewhere worse, their gap year plan sounds fine. I personally would not force them to start college. But that is my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is easy!

1) Have him defer his acceptance,
2) He does his gap year on the farm
3) He either applies t/gets accepted to other colleges or attends the one he got into in the fall of 2024.

Didn't read the whole thread, but it seems important that this is his choice and great that he laid out a plan. I'd ask for more details on the plan, e.g. seeing them write out a timeline for when and where they would be applying to see if the options are in a reasonable range--and having a meeting with parents and the guidance counselor to go over this plan.

I'd also ask them to consider community college courses or at least on-line courses over the year. Even just one course at a time can help keep study skills sharp. Math skills may be especially important to keep up.

The extra time to mature and also to spend time with the grandparents could be a real gift.

[Anonymous]

Why did it go so poorly for your son, OP? Why did he only get into 1/11 colleges applied to? He needs to figure that out, what went wrong. Did he just get spectacularly unlucky or did he only apply to reaches? I’m not just asking about his stats compared to the average stats of admitted students at the schools he applied to but his overall application.

If he doesn’t figure this out, he probably will have similar results next time he applies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Defer from the accepted school for a year - do not decline (say its to help grandparents on the family farm, should be fine).

2. Let him go work on the farm! He will mature and do manual labor and spend time with grandparents - win/win/win.

3. He applies again, writing his essay about helping out on the family farm, which lead him to apply to different schools.

4. He gets in at new schools, or, he attends the one he deferred. Make it clear that these are the only options, he can have a gap year on the farm, but he has to go to college after that

Agrred. . Right now this comes across as an emotional decision as opposed to a well thought out plan, so the deferral of the actual acceptance is ideal. Also, it sounds like he is unclear about his major etc so it actually may be wise for that reason for him to figure it out and do a bit more growing.

[Anonymous]

I didn't read all the comments, but can he defer for one year, and then still apply to other schools, to see if he has better luck next year? It seems risky to just walk away from an acceptance.

I don't think a gap year is problematic, unless you think your particular kid will just decide not to go to college altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Totally disagree with those who say working on the farm for a year will make applying to college more difficult. Colleges will understand the maturity this kind of work builds and will value that. He will do better with admissions after a year on the farm, and will have had a chance to clear his head and figure out exactly what he wants.

This is just wrong. Generally, gap years are fine if a student is deferring an acceptance. Colleges have been transparent that a gap year rarely improves an application. Students don’t have enough time between graduation and submitting new applications to meaningfully improve their profile, and getting letters of recommendation, etc. becomes much more difficult. Who will write an updating recommendation to address the gap time? Obviously, the grandparents cannot do this.

The best advice in this thread is to engage a knowledgeable private counselor to do a post-mortem on this application cycle and discuss the gap year plan and it’s implications.

+1
If targets and safeties were picked appropriately, the kid should have gotten into more than 1 of them. So they kid needs a college counselor to help pick a good list. However, with senioritis and possibly lower grades 2nd semester, I'm not sure how the kid will be any more impressive for the next round of applications. Sounds like the kid needs to wrap their head around the fact they targeting "too high" of schools and they might only have more success with targeting "lower ranked schools" and if the kid does not like where they got accepted, they may not like where else they can get into.
Sounds like kid is just upset they only got into 1 school and is making a drastic decision based on that.

Not all gap years are created equal. This one will be much more compelling than many and should help. No, I'm not saying he'll get into the 10 schools that turned him down, just that he'll be a more interesting candidate in general than he was this year. He will approach choosing which colleges to apply to with greater knowledge of himself and what he wants, and this will lead to a better list, hopefully filled with colleges he'll be happy with if accepted.

I don’t think working on a family farm makes for a particularly compelling application. Op has not indicated that her son is even interested in agricultural studies. Her son’s senior year grades and activities will have much more bearing on applications filed in six months.

+1

He will begin applying 3 months after graduating HS. Will have to include senior year grades and ECs, wont have the full gap year experience to write about. So not sure how he will be "much more interesting". Ideally he needs a new list of colleges to apply to. Someone with a good list should have gotten into a few targets and a few safeties, not his lowest safety that he doesn't even like. However, if he didn't like his "lowest safety" (that's what it sounds like he got into), he may still not be happy with his choices come next April. I don't see how this year will make much difference. But go ahead, hire a college counselor to help with the process if you take a gap year, you will need it to help make him an attractive candidate this fall.

[Anonymous]

How about community or online college while working on the farm and then transfer to 4 year university next year?

[Anonymous]

Seems like the posters recommending deferral have not read the entire thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did it go so poorly for your son, OP? Why did he only get into 1/11 colleges applied to? He needs to figure that out, what went wrong. Did he just get spectacularly unlucky or did he only apply to reaches? I’m not just asking about his stats compared to the average stats of admitted students at the schools he applied to but his overall application.

If he doesn’t figure this out, he probably will have similar results next time he applies.

+1

If your targets all have acceptance rates of 25%+ and your kid is at 75%+, he should have gotten into a few of them. Same for safeties of acceptance rates of 50%+ and your kid is at 75%+. If you follow those "rules", you should not get shut out. You should get into several in each category. I find when people get "shut out", they really only had reaches, not real targets and safeties.