Has anyone on CC taken a gap year before starting their freshman year at Penn? How does one arrange that with the school? Can you share your experience and any advice? D is considering it.
There’s an option in your portal to select a gap year. You must then explain why in a short essay and then they have to approve your request. I won’t be doing that (I’ll go straight to being a freshman), but I’m sure there’s lots of people who have done it!
My son is on a gap year and will start at Penn in the fall. It was easy to arrange and easy to get approval. He hasn’t done anything earth shattering during his gap year-mostly just work as a cellist, take some game design classes and grow older.
Thanks so much for your responses!
sbjdorlo: Do you think the gap has been a positive experience? Any advice would be much appreciated!
The gap year has been necessary, and in that respect, it’s been a very good thing. Positive experience? Well, he had planned to work as a game tester, but was never able to get one, though he interviewed three times with Sony. It’s worked out ok; most importantly, it’s given us more time to pursue care for his health and disabilities so that he’ll be better prepared when he goes to Penn in the fall. Time is what he really needed.
The down side would be that most of his friends are not around, so he’s spent too much time playing video games and not enough time creating his video game. We tried to find a structured Unity class for the summer, so he could get a prototype done, but couldn’t find any, so we’re planning on his taking a class at UCSD that will transfer to Penn. They said he could take one this summer, but we need to confirm that it’s a transferrable one.
Many students travel, do programs, etc., on their gap year, and those seem to be great experiences.