I was accepted to several schools in this year’s application cycle, but was rejected by my preferred schools. Is it possible to just accept one of the school I’ve gotten, and then defer admission for a year whilst applying to other colleges during this gap year?
Will my accepted college/the other colleges know? Even so, it doesn’t seem to be a violation of any rules, the penalty simply being lost of my deposit should I withdraw from that college during my gap year. Has anyone tried this before?
@PurpleTitan I am planning to apply to other schools that I didn’t get the chance to apply to this year as well. Assuming I can get a deferral, would this course of action be advisable?
What are your “preferred schools”? In my opinion, unless you have some wonderful plan during this gap year to substantially change your application, it is not worth it.
@PurpleTitan The school I’m planning to accept is Northwestern, but I wish to apply to Duke, Brown, Cornell and Berkeley (didn’t apply to them this year) along with a few other reach schools
@djaz22 Those schools have abysmally low acceptance rates not to mention Northwestern is a fantastic school. I don’t know your intended career but you’re losing a year where you could’ve found employment in your field of study and earned a years worth of wages all for a few schools that have single digit acceptance rates.
Can I ask why you want to apply to these schools? Have you visited all of them and fallen in love with the campus/students/curriculum/professors or something like that? If it is purely because of their names and prestige, it is 100% not worth it.
I visited Duke and Brown only after applying this year, and found that I really like the student body and campus, more than NU (It’s a regret, I know). I understand the chances are slim, but for me the gap year isn’t a loss in anyway because I was planning to take a gap year regardless (personal reasons). Given that I already have an additional year, I was thinking of applying to the other schools.
Here’s the deal. If you are 100% planning to take a gap year after graduating high school, defer admissions and apply to the schools next year. If you are not taking that gap year after high school, do not do it.
Please understand that a visit to the schools does not provide a comprehensive understanding of the student body and whether you will really enjoy it there. It seems to me as if you’re only saying that to justify applying to Duke and Brown next year. Do you understand Brown has an open curriculum? Do you subscribe to that? Duke had an oddly elitist feel to me as well although, again, that is absolutely a personal opinion.
Before you reply to this thread, ask yourself this: how would you feel if every school you applied to next year rejected you? What if? If your answer is indifference, then I think you have your mind set on it anyways.
Thank you, I really value your input! My perspective is that since I’m going to have a gap year anyway, there’s no harm applying and deciding later on. My key worry here is if it breaks any kind of major rule
@Boothie007 OP may have his personal reasons for wanting to apply elsewhere, just because it doesn’t fit your line of reasoning doesn’t mean he’s wrong. That’s just rude.
@djaz22 If you are sure that you are taking a gap year, I’d say go ahead and apply. I doubt there’s a great penalty, except forfeiture of your deposit. My advice: choose a school that you’d prefer, since - like what some alr said here - these schools are all on the same tier. My sister was accepted to both Northwestern and Brown, and she chose to go to the latter and really loved it there because of the open curriculum and the City. Her fellow schoolmate went to NU, doesn’t really enjoy it there, and is now trying to transfer out. Ultimately you’d have to make a decision, so think carefully now that you have another year. All the best!
@djaz22 Since you’re set on it, please make sure and contact Northwestern undergrad admissions before doing anything and ask them about their specific policy in that case. I searched online for quite a bit and couldn’t find any relevant info. Certain schools allow deferral but require you to reapply through a less strict process while other schools may not allow deferring admissions.
many colleges that allow a gap year prior to enrollment require that in return for guaranteeing to hold your place the student agrees not to seek acceptance to other colleges. check with Northwestern to see if they require this. And don’t assume if you don’t tell them they won’t find out…
@PurpleTitan wrote: “Well, there’s no point applying to the ones that rejected you as they will still have your old app on file and almost certainly reject you again.”
I don’t think that’s the case at all. There are many examples of students who took gap years, spent there time productively, and then gained admission to schools that had previously rejected them. I helped one student last year who I thought was a reasonably strong candidate but who got rejected from all his top choices; he spent a gap year focusing on his distinctive EC passion, and got admitted to Stanford, Penn and Duke (merit scholarship finalist) this year. There are no guarantees, but it’s certainly not a given if one uses the gap year productively and can show it on their subsequent re-application.
Whether you can hold a spot by deferring and apply elsewhere is a different question, however. I don’t know the answer, but suspect it varies by school.
I do, however, agree @PurpleTitan that I don’t particularly understand the point of deferring Northwestern to re-apply to Cornell, Berkeley and Duke. They are peer level schools. Northwestern is a very, very good school, and I think the OP would probably be better served by matriculating. He/she can always apply to transfer next year if things don’t work out.
@renaissancedad , I really can’t imagine there are many examples of this happening. Maybe a few. And I have to wonder why OP continued visiting new colleges after completing the application process. I get the sense that OP for some reason doesn’t think NW is prestigious enough. Maybe not enoiugh name recognition on the other side of the pond.
At any rate, I agree that whatever is done in the gap year needs to be worthwhile. Colleges at that level are going to look for something that stands out, more so than just a service trip to an underdeveloped country or a job as a sales assistant. Before leaving school this year, you should ensure you have teachers lined up to write your recommendations. It will be tough to get good recs after you leave. Good luck OP.
As someone said earlier in this thread, I would check that Northwestern doesn’t require you to commit before deferring (meaning, pledge to attend after your gap year). If they don’t publish this info, call the admissions office.