<p>Is it something that one decides after acceptance? A year off working to save some money and/or travel could be refreshing.</p>
<p>You can do it after acceptance or you can decide take a year off and then apply to college during your year off. </p>
<p>The advantage of applying during your gap year is that you'll have a much better idea of what kind of college would suit you. My S did this. During his senior year, he had absolutely no idea of what field he might be interested in studying. He was interested in everything ranging from engineering to education.</p>
<p>Instead of applying to college, he applied to and became an Americorps volunteer. That gave him a better idea of his interestsand strengths, and as a result, he decided to apply to a liberal arts college instead of to engineering schools.</p>
<p>If you basically just feel the need for time off after senior year, and have a good general idea of what you want out of your college experience, it can be OK to apply to colleges first, and then request a gap year from the college that you accept. Harvard gives all students it accepts info about gap years because Harvard has found that students who take a productive gap year (i.e. do structured travel, volunteer work, work a job, etc.) do better at Harvard than do students who don't. That's probably because they gained more maturity and self knowledge during the gap year.</p>
<p>im thinking of doing this, i will be a senior this yr, i want to defer to study in germany for a year, i told my mom about this and she totally freaked.</p>
<p>As Northstarmom said, this decision can be made after acceptance, or one can wait to apply during their year off. Obviously both of these tactics have advantages and disadvantages. Northstarmom mentioned the very legitimate advantage of having a better idea where you want to go by waiting. Your gap year activity could also be an admissions boost. On the other hand, you might want to apply during your senior year and then defer so that you have security about where you'll end up, and won't have to spend your gap year working on apps, and hoping you get in. Applying while in high school would also make things like recommendations and transcripts easier to deal with.</p>
<p>While a gap year is not something I considered, and I am very thrilled to be beginning college in the fall, I do know people who have gone this route (mostly those who applied in senior year and then deferred their entrance), and I think that it could be a good call for certain students. If you do something productive with your year, there is very little disadvantage to going this route.</p>