Can you postpone applying to college for a year?

I’m curious if D could postpone applying to college for a year?

The reason I ask is that she is not ready for this process due to serious life-threatening medical issues she’s been dealing with from 9-11th grade. She missed a lot of school due to her illness. Her thinking regarding college is more in sync with that of a junior not a senior (not sure if that makes sense),

She is finally healthy, and wants to go to college but stated over the weekend this is the first time in her high school life that she isn’t living day to day, and is finding the whole process/idea of college to be very difficult for her. She said she wished she had another year to get her applications pulled together and some perspective on the last few years of her life.

She’s applied EA to two schools, got accepted to one, waiting for the results for the other.

We never had much opportunity to look at schools, due to costs (medical bills). I find myself wondering if maybe there’s a great fit for her that we haven’t seen.

Is it an option to take a year after she graduates to focus on this whole process? Or do you take a gap year only after applying and accepting to a certain school?

If she accepts to one of Her EA schools, could she then take a gap year, focus on her applications to apply elsewhere, then see how that turns out? Doesn’t seem fair, so my that’s probably not the way to go.

She is very smart but her grades don’t reflect this, mainly because she often had to teach herself the material missed in class. She has a 3.6 UW, 1360 SAT 21/24 essay.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

She can take a Gap year and reapply as a Freshman if she does not take any college courses during the year. She could also accept one of the colleges and ask to defer a year before starting. Some schools may not allow her to apply to other schools during the deferral year and some will. Need to find out each school’s policy.

Thank you! You’ve made this idea seem very feasible! I was getting too bogged down with it all, clearly it’s not that complicated.

If she decides to take a gap year, discuss it with her high school guidance counselor. Make sure in particular that she has recommendation letters from teachers and the school can save them for submission next year.

I just wanted to reinforce Gumbymom’s advice about not taking any classes during the gap year to maintain freshman status. If your D were to take even a couple of classes at a CC just to keep her study skills sharp, some colleges would then consider her a transfer student, and she would not be eligible for the same financial aid as an incoming freshman.

Thanks so much everyone! I’m so appreciative of your posts. I’ll check in with her college counselor today.

You’ve helped us see that it’s at least feasible to do something like this.

Perhaps just taking a bit of the pressure off of her will be just what she needs to not feel so pushed by it all.

One of mine had a similar history and had months at home. Honestly her medical issues actually worsened the first year of college, until her docs found a treatment that worked. She went directly from high school to college, with accommodations, had a couple of medical leaves and after another year of health challenges (from and accident) went directly into a PhD. She applied while still in a wheelchair.

It can be a matter of personality.

My kid is a happy camper and doesn’t feel she has lost too much in the long term, overall. The medical leaves meant that she first was graduating with one class, then another, and then a third, but she had a good attitude about it.

Perhaps your kid’s health issues are resolved in a reliable way. I would caution that it is a long long time between now and September, all her friends will be going away, and if she is in any way left behind it may compound feelings of loss due to illness. She may also have recovered from the emotional stress of what she has gone through and actually want to go.

This time in senior year they are a mess- all of them- whether they show it or not. It is natural to want to bow out. But your child has an EA and maybe two in hand and the stress will be over.

I would encourage her to leave her options open for a few months. She may really want to go by fall. That said, I would also tell her it is fine to take a gap year, defer, or say no- whatever she wants. But wait a bit.

Thank you @compmom for your additional input. I agree with everything you all have suggested/posted, and will add your suggestions in to our conversation about how to move forward.

I do agree that there is a long time between now and next fall, and that she may feel much more ready by that time.

PM’ed you!

My son had a health problem that accelerated in HS. He was exhausted in his last couple of years of HS. He took a gap year, had surgery, did lots of other interesting things, applied to college during the gap year, and life worked out fine. I think the gap year activities enhanced his college application by the way — in the introductory meeting where the head of Admissions welcomed the incoming freshman class, he (she? can’t remember) described the very interesting people in the incoming and used my son as one of the examples.

He got into quite a number of good schools, went to one of the top LACs, started a company while there, left it to do grad school at probably the best place in the world for his field, had another surgery for the same basic condition as the first surgery during grad school. He is now finishing grad school and is starting another company. Hopefully, his health holds. He has raised several million in venture capital money and is finishing his last quarter of classes.

Not applying until the gap year enabled my son to retain top grades while not really being up to speed physically. He not only applied but took SATs/ACTs that year. It would have gone worse either for health or grades had we done it another way.

@Mimi2018

if money is an issue then she could focus on raising her ACT/SAT during her gap year. the higher she scores, the more freshman scholarship $$$ she could secure at places like Ole Miss, Alabama, UAH, and other schools that offer automatic merit scholarships for freshmen based on GPA + ACT/SAT. for example a 30-point bump to 1390 SAT would get her full tuition at UAH.

i agree with other posters, that if you want to shoot for big freshman scholarships then she cannot take any community college classes after HS graduation, as she would no longer have freshman status.

of course if she does not want to take a gap year but still feels unprepared for a 4-year residential university, she could just plan to attend community college beginning Fall 2018, and transfer after 2 years.