<p>DD is considering the gap year. I am hoping to get some advice on how to best do it. She is intent on going to college for 2015. She was rejected by all her reaches and waitlisted at her match schools.</p>
<p>SAT 2160
ACT 35
Junior year 1 AP class
Senior year 3 AP classes
GPA 3.9 and rising trend
Studies abroad at a boarding school over the last two years to gain international exposure
100 hours of community service
Job at McDonalds
President of MUN at her school
Varsity Volleyball
Coached soccer (elementary school kids)
She had a strong essay on the common app but her essays for the match schools lacked passion</p>
<p>She is thinking of doing research and she found an internship at a local chemical enginnering company</p>
<p>Not sure what hurt her so bad when I look at her application. Any ideas will be appreciated.
My question is:
Could it be that she only had 4 AP classes? and should she take some AP classes at a community college to boost her academic record before applying again?
PG year at a boarding school? does that makes sense?
Or do the research and the internship and hope to have a good experience that she can build on?</p>
<p>Any input is greatly appreciated.
Thank you! </p>
<p>What were her reach and match schools? Is the GPA W or UW. If she applies to the same schools next year, she might get the same result.</p>
<p>Reach were U Penn, Brown, Duke, Yale, U of Chicago and she was rejected from all of them. Match U Mich, Notre Dame and BC and she was waitlisted al the three of them. She was admitted to U Mass Amherst, BU, U of Vermont, and Northeastern but she simply did not imagine to be in any of them. GPA was 3.9 weighted.</p>
<p>Did she not get in anywhere? What did her list look like?</p>
<p>If she already has an internship lined up, that is great. But if her list if filled with schools that all have a less than 20% acceptance rate! she could be setting herself up for another disappointing situation. With those stats, there are fantastic schools all across the country, large and small, that would love to have her. It sounds like her list was too selective, and there’s no reason to expect that by waiting a year, things will improve on that front.</p>
<p>^^sorry, you were answering while I was typing!</p>
<p>Her list was heavy on schools with less than 20% acceptance rate and it was expected that she would be rejected there. The waitlist situation is puzzling though. We did not expect that. But then again U Mich is probably more selective for OOS applicants. We are just very disappointed with this outcome :(</p>
<p>She had strong stats, but not Ivy stats. The problem wasn’t as much in her application but in her list. Why did she apply to schools she couldn’t envision herself at? </p>
<p>Has she visited any of the schools she was accepted to? I know it’s not quite what you are asking about, but next years admissions cycle won’t be any easier, unfortunately. She could take a year off and then be in the exact same position next year if she dozens research her list better.</p>
<p>A lot of strong candidates were knocked out of Mich this year…</p>
<p>I’m sorry she is disappointed. That’s really hard. But the schools she is admitted to all have something great to offer.</p>
<p>Our first child going to college and we really did not do any research prior to coming up with the list. We based it on perception and ranking and she was not a very eager junior who wanted to tour colleges. She just wanted to relax with her friends. We felt reassured she will get somewhere good and did not push it. What happened next was a roller coaster series of rejections. We did not go to college here ourselves so we did not do much research the way the parents on CC do it.</p>
<p>Here is a list of schools that are still accepting students for this fall. Maybe there is a school that speaks to her more than the schools she is admitted to.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/College-Openings/Pages/College-Openings-Results.aspx”>http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/College-Openings/Pages/College-Openings-Results.aspx</a></p>
<p>I can’t overstate, though, that there is no reason to expect next year to be different at the schools she has on her list right now. She can’t raise her grades, and her ACT is already stellar. She could improve her essays, but if she is going to take a year off and reapply, she’ll really need to research and create a more realistic list.</p>
<p>Honestly, if she hasn’t visited some of these schools, and she still can accept her spot, I’d get her out to as many as you can manage, ASAP. Once she is on campus, she may change her perspective.</p>
<p>Good luck. </p>
<p>Thank you @Afg2014 I completely agree. The problem is that she is abroad in her boarding school and she will not not have the chance to visit any of those schools. She is only 17 and we feel that she can defer at the school she deposited at and just get time to breathe and think it over during the summer and make a more relaxed decision. And apply to more match schools that she has a better shot at getting into rather than the safeties. </p>
<p>1-I am wondering though whether she should take AP courses over the summer at a community college and whether that will improve her GPA, increase the number of AP courses completed and give her a better shot??? </p>
<p>2-I am curious as to what people think she should include on her college list in the northeast and midwest ???</p>
<p>She was accepted to schools that are in general she is more familiar with and more accepting of than the NACAC schools so I doubt she will consider those schools. </p>
<p>I realize that she is disappointed but she still has four good options. I would have considered Notre Dame a reach school as opposed to a match. It may be a moot point but I am surprised that guidance counselor did not suggest that her list was top heavy with too many reaches and perhaps she should have focused on more match/likely schools.
She can either make a decision to attend one of the four schools, work hard and apply to transfer to another school or she can look at the NACAC list to see if there is another school that might be more appealing. She can also have guidance counselor or college counselor reach out to schools where she is waitlisted to see what new information can be offered… any new awards received and what are realistic chances of moving off waitlist. If she selects one of the four and they are all good schools, she still should embrace the decision to attend and seek out the best in that situation. Good luck.</p>
<p>She was admitted to some very fine schools and it’s doubtful her chances will increase by that much. I suggest picking among the options you have, and not risk more heartache and wasted time by going through the entire process again. If you do decide to reapply, don’t apply to any of the same schools that rejected/WL’d her, and pick reasonable safeties and matches.</p>
<p>A word of caution…</p>
<p>Most schools will not allow you a year deferral if you take that time to apply to other schools. That is not their intent in allowing you to hold a spot on their campus. They expect that you will work/intern/volunteer…not take classes at any other institution or spend the year prepping to apply somewhere else.</p>
<p>Make sure you have read the fine print…</p>
<p>We will make sure to check with the school regarding the deferral before considering applying. She did not apply to the honor program there and we were told that she will have to apply next year for it if she chooses to do that. That is another reason for our consideration for the GAP year. In addition to allow her to turn 18 and be a bit more mature and confident in her choices.</p>
<p>My D will also start college as a 17 year old. Sometimes that year makes a big difference.</p>
<p>And, if she does decide to reapply, I wonder if taking (and acing) a couple SAT Subject tests would help. Our school doesn’t offer AP, so others could give better advice about those.</p>
<p>Lastly, it doesn’t sound like she has a College Guidance Counselor at her school overseas. Or, not one who is up to date on the current state of admissions in the US. That means more research on your end. CC is a good source, and for every school you are interested in, you should look up their common data set to get the real scoop on their stats. Google “common data set -NAME OF COLLEGE HERE- 2013”. I mostly skip to section C, which has the admission rates, etc.</p>
<p>Favorite guides: the Fiske Guide, the book “Acceptance,” by David Marcus, and “8 First Choices,” by Joyce Mitchell.</p>
<p>And about CC…go to the pages for the schools she might be applying to, and look through the threads where the students are ousting their admission stats. You’ll see how wonky, unpredictable and tough it is. It might make your D feel better to see that she is not alone, not al all.</p>
<p>Lastly…a lot of posters will help you with suggestions for schools. I’d probably start a new thread and ask for exactly that. But you will get asked quite often why she applied to any school she wasn’t interested in going to. Be prepared for that and know that the schools she did get accepted to are reach schools for others. </p>
<p>Good luck, and hey (!) maybe she will get off he waiting list somewhere. Last year, both BC and Mich took 80-90 each. ND took none, but took about 80 the year before.</p>
<p>Sorry your D didn’t select any safeties. A safety should be a college the student is assured of being admitted, is affordable and the student will be happy to attend. To answer a couple of your questions - you can’t take AP classes at a college. Those would be college classes and may make her a transfer rather than a freshman applicant. And going to Boarding school for a gap year makes no sense. She is ready for college; she doesn’t need finishing. </p>
<p>I think she’s a strong contender for a gap year, especially since she applied from abroad, presumably without a knowledgeable guidance counselor and without parents’ guidance (but you learned from your mistakes and you now have this community.)</p>
<p>Your daughter CANNOT take community college classes after graduating high school. Doing so may disqualify her from applying as a freshman in some states and in some states that means no application until 60 credits have been earned in a community college or elsewhere.
She is allowed to take non credit classes though (CPR and first aid, community education, etc.)</p>
<p>Yes, acing subject tests would help. She should only submit her ACT (unless required otherwise).</p>
<p>What is her unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>First focus of the gap year: finding safeties she LIKES. => find one among Insider’s Guide, Fiske Guide, Princeton Review (or all three) plus Colleges that Change Lives. Then, disregarding rankings entering class stats, ask her to find 10 schools she likes.
Her safeties should have an admission rate of at least 40% if not 50%. Don’t mistake admission rate and selectivity: these can be synonymous but not necessarily, as some applicant pools are self selective: ie., women’s colleges, Grinnell, Reed… These colleges appeal to a specific type of students and since they don’t draw from the whole gamut of applicants they “look” less selective than they are. Grinnell is a great example.
In addition, no school with an admission rate of 25% or less should be considered a match. A match is when odds are even that she’ll get in or not. If the rates are so low, there’s too much uncertainty due to the pool’s competitiveness for it to be considered “50% odds”.
But first thing first: finding safeties she LIKES and that you can afford.</p>
<p>Seconding the recommendation that you look on the thread about schools still accepting (there are some surprising ones). </p>
<p>If she takes classes anywhere she may not be a “freshman” anymore. Also is FA needed or sought? </p>
<p>@TempeMom it’s unlikely we qualify for financial aid unfortunately. Not that we do not need it. But that was again something we did not look into or apply for.
@MYOS1634 her weighted GPA is 3.75 which is I think her weakness</p>