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<p>Except for a year of her life.</p>
<p>Maybe if she actually has a worthwhile plan for some gap year activity (perhaps work, but a high school graduate may not get much worthwhile work), it may make sense, but that does not seem like the case here. It is easy to say “gap year” on these forums, but how many college-bound high school graduates really have a worthwhile gap year activity in the plans?</p>
<p>Yes BU is a fantastic school but we are not emotionally there. Once she comes and visits if she is in love with we will all be happy or even defer and go there in 2015 if she wants a gap year to explore some interests</p>
<p>She’s 17… There are plenty of good, useful things to do, learn, discover for a kid who’s been abroad in a boarding school for 2 years. I suggested City Year for instance.</p>
<p><a href=“College Application Results and Final Decision - Admission Stories - College Confidential Forums”>College Application Results and Final Decision - Admission Stories - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Take a look at this student’s fortunes. You can see it isn’t all that different from you DD’s, Cluelessly. </p>
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<p>There is a cost to this. You may not think it’s much, but it is not trivial. Basically, the student will delay entering the work force by a year, and that first year’s salary plus all future compounding on it discounted to the present value is the cost. </p>
<p>Given the low discount rates and low compounding of salaries we’re currently seeing, we can approximate the cost to be the first year post-graduate salary. Let’s say she’s not going into something really lucrative and approximate it at $40,000. </p>
<p>So the cost is about $40K plus the cost of any gap year program. </p>
<p>Give me an example of a school for a student who didn’t get into UMASS or UVm honors that this student will be happier at than BU? </p>
<p>I’m guessing that we’re looking at something along the lines of Skidmore, Connecticut College or Holy Cross as examples. </p>
<p>OP, are these the kind of schools your D would be happy at? </p>
<p>Even if she ends up at BC or UMich, are these choices worth the $40K extra cost?</p>
<p>She could go to BU for a year and transfer to UMich or BC. I’m sure if she does well at BU, she can do a transfer. </p>
<p>I think people throw gap years around willy nilly. If you are wealthy and can afford providing your child with an extra year to grow into the person they want to be, that’s lovely. But to say it has no significant cost, is just plain wrong. </p>
<p>@Erin’s dad: I just checked with her and her GPA is between 3.75-3.8 UW. </p>
<p>@ucbaumnus: She will be working in a chemical manufacturing company and she will collaborate on a project with a similar company abroad hoping to come up with a way for these different but similar compnies to start a relationship that is of benefit to both. It was her idea and she is excited about as it will allow her to use her international skills and link them to her US roots. </p>
<p>My feeling is even if she loses 40 K over her life span, she would gain an experience that might not have the chance to engage in again once she is a college student. I am also hopeful it will give her the confidence she sometimes lacks to start something on her own.
My concern for BU is that in a big school she will be again shy and not willing to try to push challenge herself and distinguish herself as a capable student. Similar to what happened to her in the public school where she kept saying to us “I am just average, why would I try?”.
Once she was in a smaller setting she really blossomed and she herself was surprised by how well she did. </p>
<p>Again we really did not understand the college process well at all and we feel that we failed that experience miserably. So the emotional toll has been incredible.</p>
<p>For someone who now is talking about small schools, why on earth did you come up with the list that you did? Why are you STILL interested in UMich when you now anti BU because of its size? You do realize do you not, that UMich is enormous, probably one of the the biggEST universities in the country. It dwarfs BU. What schools are you thinking about putting on her list for the redo? If UMich accepts her off of the waitlist, which is entirely possible, would she go there? </p>
<p>This is the dicholotmy between us and our daughter. She never visited U Mich and I now realize what a big forst U Mich is. I cannot say I am hoping she does not get it because it has been her dream school since she was 4 but I know it is not a good fit for her unless her passion carries her through and she is inspired by the dream coming true. </p>
<p>I am thinking to tour some LAC this summer and appy to places like case western, Wash U (which also seems out of reach), Brandeis</p>
<p>If you apply to Case Western, just make sure you apply early enough to be considered for merit. They hand out considerable amounts, and a female with a 35 ACT is going to be a prize for them - they’re a little male heavy. Easy school to apply to, it’s free and no essay, and with EA, you’ll have an answer by mid-December. But I’ve also seen them torpedo high scoring applicants whom they thought were just using them for a backup.</p>
<p>Brandeis has a certain vibe - you’ll either love it or hate it.</p>
<p>WashU is also known to love high test scores and will pay for them if they want you.</p>
<p>How can it matter if the school “pays for” high test scores? The daughter is abroad at a boarding school, I doubt there are financial issues.</p>
<p>We have this trouble with my son, that he hasn’t visited all the schools he is targeting, but he has visited a few (like UMBC and UMCP) that he absolutely hated the campus and vibe of and took them off his list.</p>
<p>I would say to concentrate on visiting the ones she was accepted to (although it is late now), and see if any might be a fit. My son is looking at BU and Penn is his target, and he loves both campuses. I don’t think BU is that far off of Penn in terms of campus feel.</p>
<p>As for BU being “big”, Penn has 20K students! I guess 33,000 at BU vs. 20,000 is a big difference? Really, small schools are like up to 2,000 students, medium are 2,000 to 5,000, and large 5,000 to 10,000, and very large over that. </p>
<p>It would be a wise investment to get her to as many of her accepted list schools as soon as possible, and if she really wants one of the reach schools still, working on getting straight As and possible transfer.</p>
<p>I was 17 when I started college, so I don’t see what 17 vs. 18 has to do with it. Good luck and hope things turn out. </p>
<p>I’m not at a point where i have strict lines of what constitutes large and where the gray areas are, but there is NO gray area in saying UMich is big. It’s one of the biggEST. For the OP to say that BU is too big and how the smaller schools are where he things his DD will bloom teh best, and then UMich is the dream school? I get the distinct impression that if the UM WL ship comes in, the OP’s DD will be there to hop on it. The thing is that BU just doesn’t float her boat. Nothing at all to do with size. The same with UMass and UVt. And, yes, Penn is big too, but I’ll bet that would have been overlooked. '</p>
<p>I see this so often. If a kid likes a school, never mind if it’s nothing that s/he said s/he wanted in a college. And IMO, it’s perceived prestige that trumps it all, in this case, particularly as the OP’s DD has not seen the schools and really looked at them carefully in terms of what she wants. But small and UMich are exclusive of each otehr. </p>
<p>To spend the year doing something else, maturing and looking at the schools more carefully, being knowledgeable of the process, getting the apps out early, might be a worthwhile use of a year’s time, though frankly, I think she could go to college and transfer to UMich just as easily and get that year of college under the belt The risk is that she might not do well in college in which case a transfer will not likely happen. A lot of kids do get stuck that way. Think they will transfer but the rigors of college, the discipline needed to do well, the distractions are too much for them, so that option is out. A gap year would preserve the strong high school and test scores that this OP has , and if she has a year of activities that look good, it could well enhance the applications. Though her reaches will so remain. Those schools are always reaches.</p>
<p>Want to add, that just because one’s stats fall within the mid 50% or even that top 24% range of those schools with low accept percentages, it does not make those schools matches. When you are looking at schools with a less than 1/3 accept rate, and further examination shows that you are definitely not a favored prospect, those schools are reaches. Absolutely reaches. When defining a match as a school for which one has a 60% chance of acceptance, be well aware that means that on average that means you will get into 2 out of the three school you apply, (really less of a chance than that) That means that 5 kids apply to a match school for them, two of them are not likely getting in. Those are not such terrific odds for admissions. </p>
<p>And the way reaches work, it doesn’t even mean that if you apply to enough of them the math dictates you will eventually get into one of them. That average % may have nothing to do with your app, and you might well be a 1 in a hundred for chances or literally have no chance at all. That’ s how tough it is to get into these schools when you are not in their upper echelons and you don’t have any hook at all. It’s a reality that I have to remind myself when I think about my wonderful son who is really such a great kid, a strong student and really someone anyone would want…but not in the selective college arena. </p>
<p>^OP indicated her daughter is not mentally ready to start at BU. Paying full costs for a kid who’s not ready is also arguably not a good use for $60,000.
This is an international family who didn’t know about colleges and the college process. A year will make a lot of difference for the way they approach the search, find information about each college, and look at financials. It does not mean the daughter will get into a higher-ranked university. It means she will get into colleges she actually wants to attend, giving her time to visit, research her choices, understand how it works, etc, as well as mature.</p>
<p>We would be very happy if she just goes to a school that she fully understands and feels like she belongs there. Small seems to be the safest choice in a mother’s eyes. U Mich seems to be very popular internationally and kids seem to love it. I know it is strong and prestigious but I am very weary of its size.
@MYOS1634: Thank you for understanding where we are coming from. It is our first college experience in a country that we love dearly and we feel we did not get it right. And it is refreshing to know that there is always a second chance :)</p>
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<p>That’s exactly the right “eyes wide open” attitude then. Good luck. </p>
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<p>As I said earlier, Lawrence University, a very fine LAC is still accepting applications. There are a few other ones that are notable (Hendrix, Knox, Mills, etc). Wheaton is in Norton, MA and is still accepting applications. </p>
<p>There is still time to attend a quality LAC for the fall if that’s what she wants. </p>
<p>I understand where you’re coming from though. Perhaps the gap year makes sense. </p>
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<p>This sounds great – is it a full-time position? Is this the area she wants to go into? (sorry if you mentioned this and I missed it)</p>
<p>I disagree with the calculation of “she’s losing a year of potential income.” What is she, a teenager or an investment vehicle? This is about getting her ready for the rest of her adult life, not about maximizing her earning potential as soon as possible. If a year in between high school and college enables her to go into college with a clearer idea of what she wants to get out of it, it’s the right choice. She might reconsider her choice of major, she might come to a better understanding of the type of school she wants – all things that will help her get the most out of her college years.</p>
<p>All that said, I think a gap year makes sense only if (a) this job (internship?) is as impressive as it sounds, and (b) she wants to apply to different colleges not because she thinks she can get into more prestigious schools if she tweaks things a little, but because she genuinely believes, based on realistic assessments, that she would be a better fit at schools that are about as selective as the schools she was accepted to this year but that are fundamentally different in some way (small LACs, significantly different programs, etc.).</p>
<p>She may not be “mentally ready”, but she has a 35 ACT. She can do the work, even if it isn’t her favorite place. Me, I would tell my kid to go to BU and give it a year. If she is unhappy at the end of that year, then consider transferring. I would not torture her by going through the process again, and possibly not get any better results. </p>
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<p>No disagreement that she MIGHT benefit from the gap year. The only disagreement I have is with the claim that there is zero cost. The parent understands the cost. If the kid does too. Kumbaya. </p>
<p>DD was accepted from the waitlist to BC. We could not be happier. It is the perfect school for her and she is thrilled. She will enroll this fall and what a relief! The issue with her was the right fit and we feel this is it. Thank you all very much for your thoughtful feedback and for your help. This has been very valuable to us.</p>