<p>I am still shaking my head on this one. An acquaintance with whom I work out regularly has a senior who has good grades - 3.9 GPA and good SATs and seems to be very responsible. But she somehow bunggled her college apps submissions. The parent was not directly involved in the process so is just relaying what the child has reported. </p>
<p>Aside from looking at schools with rolling admissions, what are other possibilities? The student decided to attend a cc and apply next year but won't she lose her incoming freshman status? Won't she be considered a transfer and need a min number of units? How about a gap year? It that something to consider? </p>
<p>There are often colleges still left with spaces to fill after the regular application season has ended. Check the National Association for College Admission Counseling site for their Space Availability Survey in May. Some of them even had financial aid left available last year. Here’s the link to the site:</p>
<p>Hmmm… sounds suspicious to me. Was this really a snafu, or did this young woman semi-intentionally sabotage the process? Maybe she wasn’t ready to go away to school and deep down would prefer the cc route? I just find it strange that one snafu (rather than an extended period of not paying attention) would put her in this situation.</p>
<p>gap year is what I would think she would want for all the reasons you mention, unless she just really wants to expedite getting through college, or wants to get even better grades and higher colleges for transfer – but maybe there are behind the scenes reasons the family just doesn’t want to get into, as well.</p>
<p>Ouch, I can understand how this can cause a lot of stress and tears in the house. What do they think went wrong; was the list too top heavy, does she hate the safety, are there no financially feasible options?</p>
<p>If she has good grades and scores she could benefit from doing a gap year and reapplying. This way she does not lose her first time freshman status and she will still be eligible for merit aid ( if she qualifies). Parent and D must really take a bottoms up approach to make sure they have some financially feasible safeties that D would be happy to attend lined up. They need to have the money talk to discuss how mush parents are willing to pay it borrow. She should definitely look at some rolling admission and early action schools. This way she will have some admissions under her belt. If D needs to do a SAT/ACT retake, she should consider doing it in June </p>
<p>“did this young woman semi-intentionally sabotage the process?”
katliamom, I thought the same thing. I know the parent doesn’t want the child to go “far”. The kid is a close friend of my friend’s kid. They were both excited about applying and hopefully attending the same college. According to my friend, the kid had filled out all of the apps online but may have made a mistake in posting a payment to submit them.</p>
<p>Either way, what’s done is done and I want to suggest to this person that it’s time to get more information and move on. </p>
<p>“If she has good grades and scores she could benefit from doing a gap year and reapplying. This way she does not lose her first time freshman status and she will still be eligible for merit aid ( if she qualifies).”</p>
<p>sybbie, that’s my thought. If, in fact, this was a real mistake, that may be the best way to go. Distance and money are an issue.</p>
<p>Yes, depending on the university, the definition of a transfer applicant can range from 1 post-HS college course to less than a year of full time college. They need to go to the college websites to find out specifics for each school.</p>
<p>In addition to possibly lower acceptance rates for transfers (mostly at selective colleges), need based FA may be limited and merit scholarships are fewer and generally for lesser amounts.</p>
<p>“In addition to possibly lower acceptance rates for transfers (mostly at selective colleges), need based FA may be limited and merit scholarships are fewer and generally for lesser amounts.”</p>
<p>A lot depends on what the SNAFU was. If the student didn’t submit parts of the applications or neglected to do a portion of the application process, that would be different than if she didn’t get accepted because there were no safety/sure thing schools in the application list.</p>
<p>If the family needs this child to be eligible for need based aid or merit aid that is on,y awarded to incoming freshmen, then a gap year would be in order.</p>
<p>Does this student WANT to go to a four year college? Maybe she wants to attend the CC.</p>
<p>Like thumper, it depends on the nature of the “mistakes” and if the kid would like to try an appeal process at some of the schools applied. That is, if she actually wants to go to some of them.</p>
<p>If they are not terribly selective and the kid is a capable student and they have room, your friend might be able to finagle her way in – because in that case, the college would love to have another high performing student paying tuition. Bottom line: is the mistake worthy of an appeal and does she really want to go to that original batch of colleges?</p>
<p>Yes, at many universities, taking college courses after graduating from high school will cause the student to be treated as a transfer, though each university’s threshold for this can be different. The main disadvantage of transferring versus entering as frosh is that merit scholarships are less common (though starting at CC is usually low cost for the first two years), and some (usually private) universities are much less friendly to transfer applicants for both admission and need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>While a gap year (with no college attendance at all) is commonly suggested on these forums, the most common type of gap year would be working (or multiple gap years in enlisted military service).</p>
<p>From what the OP is saying, this student did NOT submit the payment for her applications (is that correct?). Without payment, the applications actually were NOT submitted…well, not completely.</p>
<p>I wonder if the student received any emails or other correspondences about this SNAFU? Or were the applications simply NOT processed at all?</p>
<p>Very often there are public universities within a state where a student can matriculate later in the admissions season. </p>
<p>If money is going to be an issue, she and parents need to figure out how much they are going to spend (application, submitting test scores, CSS profile fees can all add up very quickly).</p>
<p>If the application fee is going to be a problem, she can appeal directly to the school for a fee waiver (she will no longer be fee waiver eligible front he high school once she graduates) If she had a copy of her SAT scores submitted to the school, the school and sign and put the school seal on the test scores and mail them in for her.</p>
<p>definitely start running numbers through the NPC at the school’s website so that she has an idea of what she is working with.</p>
<p>It sounds strange that the parents and guidance counselor were all so hands off that this happened. At this point I’d think about: 1) asking the guidance counselor to make some calls to appropriate schools and see if they would look at her at this late time or 2) taking a gap year to work or do a program and reapplying as a freshman for next year. 3) attending a CC – but that may make things difficult if merit aid is needed as transfer students typically don’t get much in the way of merit aid (it us usually allotted to incoming freshmen).</p>
<p>Depending on the targeted schools, this might not represent a full year of delay. If the school has a Winter of Spring admission window, the student could reapply in a few months. It is also possible that taking a few courses at a local CC might not jeopardize the application as a freshman if the grades are not in by the time one applies. </p>
<p>For instance, UT Austin starts classes in January and the application is due in October. The student should be able to apply as a freshman and eventually transfer the grades from the CC for credit. I happen to think that most states will have similar admissions cycles. In the end, the student might be able to join friends in the same class of 2018. </p>
<p>UCBA, around here, gap years do not necessarily consist of working full time. Some students opt for things like Americorps, or do some other kind of structured program at least during part of their gap year. Yes, some students do work full or part time. Some also volunteer part time. </p>
<p>I have to say…when I think of a “gap year”, I do not think about military service.</p>
<p>I can see how this could happen if no one was looking over the kid’s shoulder at the submission process on the Common App… one of my kids is super flakey (love her dearly, but is 100% the absentminded professor type). This is exactly what would have happened if she had been doing it all on her own. Not sure she would have known to expect confirmation from the school with portal info or to follow up if the school hadn’t downloaded the app, either. The Common App isn’t the most intuitive vehicle ever, and if you add flakey kid on top of that. I don’t know if the GC can see enough to know that the kid’s submission is complete, either. And at a big high school, they might not notice or check even if they did have access.</p>