Who considers a Gap Year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just attend community college and then apply to college as a transfer? Is cc a bad word in this group. I attended a top 5 SLAC and they admitted a handful of kids from cc each year.

Because none of those “handful” were rich and white. This isn’t a viable path for most kids from DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are considering a gap year for DS who will be 18 next month. He has EF issues and we hope the gap year will give him time to mature. He does have admission into a few schools and we'd defer admission at one of more of those schools for a year. I don't think it's a good idea to apply for college while on your gap year.

It won’t. It will just hurt his mental health and make him feel awkward being the older student and getting thrown out of his class cohort. Don’t do it.

[Anonymous]

My DD got rejected by all Ivies in '23, that was expected, got accepted to UNC, so she decided to take a gap year because she wasn't sure about UNC. She spends her gap year in Marco Island and plays Pickleball with retirees in the condo community. One of the players is a retired Dean of Admission at an Ivy and they quickly become friend and PB partner. The retired Dean encouraged DD to apply again but with ED and made a few phone calls on DD's behalf. DD got accepted at one of the Ivies and will begin in Fall '24.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering a gap year for DS who will be 18 next month. He has EF issues and we hope the gap year will give him time to mature. He does have admission into a few schools and we'd defer admission at one of more of those schools for a year. I don't think it's a good idea to apply for college while on your gap year.

It won’t. It will just hurt his mental health and make him feel awkward being the older student and getting thrown out of his class cohort. Don’t do it.

Have you heard of this happening? Or do you think that's what could happen?

I know of someone's DC who said would take a gap year, and a few years later, still not in college

[Anonymous]

Our DS graduated in 2022 and now attends a NE LAC. My husband had a harder HS to college transition -- I went directly to college. I was very concerned about losing momentum. As a family, we had differing views. Even before COVID and as our DS was entering HS, my husband thought a gap year would be good. DS is a "highs stats kid" (whatever that means anymore), a few solid ECs that he went deep on vs getting involved in everything to build a resume, takes his academics very seriously, is also on the younger side for his class. DS applied to 2 colleges while in HS, with a plan to apply to more during his gap year. Got into the school he wanted and deferred...the school has a process, and requested a short essay at the mid-point. For the gap year, we asked our son to create a plan: do something larger than yourself (he worked with Catholic Charities at the border) travel (within a defined budget), work part time, apply for scholarships (since he didn't need to apply for colleges). He ended up working through his plan with mixed success, but also learned he loved exploring on his own museums and the Library of Congress. Bottom line --the summer before he moved to school, he said he was ready to go and appreciated the academic break. He has a level of maturity, independence and confidence that I did not expect -- As/A minus his first semester, so he did not lose his "academic chops" which was my fear. As a side benefit during his year at home, he learned what it takes to run the house. The things that magically happened while he was at school. He periodically did the grocery shopping, planned/cooked meals cars serviced, waited for service people to come to the house, etc...He was transparent on college applications about taking a gap year and what he hoped to achieve. This transparency was a surprising point of controversy with college counselors (ie, why give a college a reason to reject you). Bottom line -- I'm a convert to gap year, have a plan -- it does not need to be through a very expensive program.

[Anonymous]

Before our daughter took a gap year my husband was highly skeptical. She was exhausted from four tough years and wanted time to work on her art. What he and I didn’t expect was how she would also mature as a person - she was so busy and focused in high school it was almost like she didn’t have time to grow in other ways. She entered college more confident and now, in addition to being a very strong student, she is social and well-liked in ways she wasn’t in high school.

Husband is now a big convert. We are both encouraging our second child, who was accepted early, to take a gap year. In this case he would focus on his sport, which he plans on continuing in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering a gap year for DS who will be 18 next month. He has EF issues and we hope the gap year will give him time to mature. He does have admission into a few schools and we'd defer admission at one of more of those schools for a year. I don't think it's a good idea to apply for college while on your gap year.

It won’t. It will just hurt his mental health and make him feel awkward being the older student and getting thrown out of his class cohort. Don’t do it.

Have you heard of this happening? Or do you think that's what could happen?

I know of someone's DC who said would take a gap year, and a few years later, still not in college

There are gap years, and then there's not starting college and calling it a gap year. There should be a pretty clear and finite plan to avoid the latter. I know lots of kids who took gap years and started college successfully on time.

[Anonymous]

While on on deferral from a college, can you re-apply to other colleges? That wouldn't be allowed I guess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gap year and taking a deferral are two different things.

Why? Explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While on on deferral from a college, can you re-apply to other colleges? That wouldn't be allowed I guess?

You have to pay the enrollment deposit to defer, so you'd lose that. But if you're willing to take that risk, I think you could re-apply, though I'd definitely do it very quietly. If you had something new to share/show colleges, it might be worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering a gap year for DS who will be 18 next month. He has EF issues and we hope the gap year will give him time to mature. He does have admission into a few schools and we'd defer admission at one of more of those schools for a year. I don't think it's a good idea to apply for college while on your gap year.

What will your son do during the gap year? - not op

Don't know yet. This is us parents thinking and exploring options. DS wants to go to a Big10 type school as far away from home as possible, which we don't think will work for him. There needs to be a meeting of the minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD got rejected by all Ivies in '23, that was expected, got accepted to UNC, so she decided to take a gap year because she wasn't sure about UNC. She spends her gap year in Marco Island and plays Pickleball with retirees in the condo community. One of the players is a retired Dean of Admission at an Ivy and they quickly become friend and PB partner. The retired Dean encouraged DD to apply again but with ED and made a few phone calls on DD's behalf. DD got accepted at one of the Ivies and will begin in Fall '24.

If true, don’t plan on this for your GAP year. I would assume the kid had to at least make up something productive for the GAP year, unless accepted as a pickleball recruit.

[Anonymous]

My kid is seriously considering taking a gap. She is currently going through the college application process and has been accepted to her school of choice (which includes Honor's College and the highest merit). However, she just wants to take a year to work a bit before getting into the college grind. She currently has a job (i.e. retail job), but she is also planning on taking some drawing classes at NOVA or going through animation mentor. While she has a pretty strong portfolio, she wants to keep improving on her skills. If she takes a gap year, she will most likely defer acceptance - but she needs to figure out if her honor's college admission and merit scholarships can also get deferred. Also, I think some schools have restrictions on taking college classes during the gap year - so need to make sure that she is allowed (before signing up for art classes at NOVA). There is a gap fair on Tuesday evening (I think at Marshall High School).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD got rejected by all Ivies in '23, that was expected, got accepted to UNC, so she decided to take a gap year because she wasn't sure about UNC. She spends her gap year in Marco Island and plays Pickleball with retirees in the condo community. One of the players is a retired Dean of Admission at an Ivy and they quickly become friend and PB partner. The retired Dean encouraged DD to apply again but with ED and made a few phone calls on DD's behalf. DD got accepted at one of the Ivies and will begin in Fall '24.

I love this story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD got rejected by all Ivies in '23, that was expected, got accepted to UNC, so she decided to take a gap year because she wasn't sure about UNC. She spends her gap year in Marco Island and plays Pickleball with retirees in the condo community. One of the players is a retired Dean of Admission at an Ivy and they quickly become friend and PB partner. The retired Dean encouraged DD to apply again but with ED and made a few phone calls on DD's behalf. DD got accepted at one of the Ivies and will begin in Fall '24.

She was accepted at the Ivy where her PB partner worked or a different one?