I am in a predicament. I am a Senior in High School and applied to colleges for the Fall 2018 year. However, the schools I most strongly desired attending, my parents didn’t allow me to apply to. In fact, they didn’t let me apply to any schools with a January 1st-5th deadline, at the time because of financial reasons (there’s a lot I can elaborate on, but I won’t here). I have a very strong GPA and academic profile, so I was mostly interested in prestigious schools. But, most of the deadlines for these schools are Jan. 1st, right?
Anyways, I ended up applying to 5 colleges overall, none of which I want to attend. I have been frustrated and disappointed this year, as I feel like there is no good option for college anymore. In fact, sometimes I think my best option is to go to community college for two years and transfer, so that I will possibly be able to attend one of the schools I actually wanted to go to (Upenn, NYU, Boston University, Boston College, College of William and Mary, or one similar). The problem is, I am not content with the idea of cc much either… I really wanted to have the full college experience, not just two years.
So, I was wondering if there was a way I could take a gap year, work and earn money, and still apply as a Freshman applicant to these schools for the fall of 2019. As far as I know, it is best to take a gap year after being admitted to the college, right? Would applying a year late hurt my chances of admission? These are my main concerns at the moment. If this is so, I probably will just attend cc. Finally, as far as I know this is not possible, but is there any way to apply to one of these schools for the spring semester?
I think you need to first consider the financial barriers. If you take a gap year and work to earn money, the extra income will go into financial aid calculations and could have unintended consequences. Basically anything you earn beyond about $6500 will raise your EFC by 50% of the amount earned. So if you worked full time and earned $20,000, it would cause EFC to go up by $6750 in your sophomore year – which would also have the consequence of disqualifying you from a Pell grant if you would otherwise be eligible. The more you earn, the worse it gets.
So assume that you take a gap year and get admitted for fall 2019: are you going to be able to afford to attend a school that admits you? If not, then you really need to face up to reality and recognize that for most families, dollars are more important than prestige.
Keep in mind that you also have the option to attend an affordable college that admits you and then try to transfer to a college that meets full need.
What can your family pay annually for you to attend college?
Did you run net price calculators? Can your parents afford the family contribution? In a orvious thread it sounded like there were some difficult times in your family.
Please consider your end goal…to get a college degree.
@happymomof1 had a kiddo who started in the CC system in MD. She can talk to that process.
Are you an instate resident for MD?
If now…what IS your state of residence?
Did you apply to affordable colleges? Really…at the end of the day, your family needs to be able to pay the college bills.
I don’t think that it is possible to give a useful answer without more information.
What is your home state? What can you afford for university? What do you want in a university, and what do your parents want in a university? What is a likely major or what are likely majors for you? What is your unweighted GPA and SAT or ACT scores?
What universities have you applied to, and why don’t you like them?
Is your disagreement with your parents based largely on the cost of university, on the location, or on something else or some combination?
You can do that. However, that is not likely to change your financial situation and you may apply and not get in to these schools. You need to be talking to your parents about the finances and logistics. Don’t go into heavy debt for an undergrad degree. This plan seems short sighted.
Anyway, I agree you haven’t really given enough information to answer fully.
In the thread you started over a year ago, you wrote that your family was struggling financially. Has any of that changed at all? If your parents are struggling, did you ask them to run the Net Price Calculators for the places on your initial list? What results did they get? Are you eligible to file the FAFSA, and did your parents do that with you?
If money is tight, and they can’t won’t file the FAFSA, and you have the profile for admission to UPenn, then your GPA and test scores will qualify you for serious merit-based aid at a number of places. Check the Automatic Scholarship thread at the top of the Financial Aid Forum. See which of those you qualify for, and contact the colleges/universities to find out if the application dates have passed. Think about taking a gap year and applying for fall 2019.
NYU has lousy financial aid except for a few students that it really, really wants, and even then, most are NY state residents who qualify for and are admitted through HEOP. Unless you are HEOP eligible in NY, drop NYU from your list.
BU has a bad track record for aid as well, so you should probably ditch it too.
As for the others, if you cand find the information on their websites, contact them and ask about January admissions.
Generally speaking, a gap year won’t cause any difficulty for admissions. It may affect your aid package depending on need/merit in that package and on your parents income and your income. That is a detailed question to take to the experts in the financial aid forum.