<p>Hi, looking for some advice for a friend. Aid fell through for her student and now she wont be going away in the Fall to her dream school. She dreams of one day working for the UN or the like. Any suggestions for a meaningful gap year?
She's a great student, hard worker. </p>
<p>What about the non-gap year option of starting at a low cost community college, then transferring to a low cost state university, if that is affordable?</p>
<p>What may also be relevant is if the student has high enough stats to get admitted to schools that will provide enough financial aid, or which will offer large enough merit scholarships. I.e. would a gap year to retry frosh admissions be worthwhile compared to moving on (starting at community college with aim to transfer)?</p>
<p>The other question they need to ask themselves is why the financial aid fell through, which may affect whether they have options with need-based aid, merit scholarships, and/or low list prices.</p>
<p>What does ‘fell through’ mean? I have never heard of an offer revoked unless it was verified and they supplied wrong info. Sounds like she needs to work.
<a href=“http://www.coolworks.com/”>http://www.coolworks.com/</a></p>
<p>It sounds like she didn’t get the aid she had hoped for.</p>
<p>What are her interests? It’s hard to suggest ideas when all we know is what she wants to do in the future.</p>
<p>I would suggest getting a job. Then look for ways to volunteer her time in an area of interest.</p>
<p>IF the school is not affordable this year, what will happen in a year to make it affordable next year? </p>
<p>Your friend’s dream school should not a financial nightmare. </p>
<p>She needs a paradigm shift about the dream school concept and move on from this school. The reality is her parents are first in line to pay for her education. The school looks at what it thinks the parents can afford to pay and not what the student or her parents feel that they could/should pay. Your friend needs to sit down with her parents so that they can be on the same page regarding how much they will realistically pay or borrow for school. They need to run the net price calculators in order to come up with a list of affordable options and reapply to a different set of schools.</p>
<p>She should also go to the financial aid forum and look at the threads for automatic merit money an low cost schools.</p>
<p>And she should spend time NOW getting her applications ready for more affordable schools, and submit those. Many with good scholarships have early deadlines for applications.</p>
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What about the non-gap year option of starting at a low cost community college, then transferring to a low cost state university, if that is affordable?
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<p>I dont think that is a good idea if the aid fell thru after the school determined need was less after verification. that student would likely get worse aid/merit as a transfer student.</p>
<p>the student shouldnt take any classes this year, unless her stats and her efc would never get her the aid she wants so all options involve commuting.</p>
<p>tell us more …what happened, what are her stats and home state? Major? do what for the UN?</p>
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<p>However, if the student does not have the stats for a large merit scholarship or admission to a good-financial-aid school, then starting at CC and transferring to an in-state public university may be one of the lower cost options.</p>
<p>Of course, all of that depends on details that have not been revealed about the student in question.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies. I dont have ALL the details, this is what if can add.</p>
<ul>
<li>Student was top 2% of her graduating class, lots of ECs.</li>
<li>This was ED school she is backing out on ( I know this is bad)</li>
<li>Parents mistakenly thought a tuition reduction would come through (them working for a school with reciprocity)</li>
<li>They would like a Gap Year that would be useful for International Relations</li>
</ul>
<p>I wish I had been able to talk to them earlier in this whole process… I am finding all of this out late in the game. They are nice people, I am just trying to help them have their child not waste a year. </p>
<p>So they will get a reciprocal price break next year (assuming the jump through the hoops in time) or they will start over looking for schools where they do get a reciprocal price break?</p>
<p>So the school does not have reciprocity or paperwork was not done in time? Are test stats high enough for other options when taking a gap year? Has student determined where going to school after the gap year? Where is student located and is there meaningful opportunities there? Need more info…no way to salvage? Wonder if options have been explored, or if explored and come to gap year conclusion.</p>
<p>Student committed to ED school.
Mom thought she had a job with a different university with reciprocity ( 80% tuition reduction) That job did not pan out. They now cannot afford ED school. I know… it’s a mess. </p>
<p>They are trying to salvage the next 12 mos…by then hopefully have a reciprocity job for her original ED school. I have no idea if this is even possible… She may have to totally readjust her thinking and attend somewhere else.
But in the meantime she has 12 mos. to put to good use, Gap Year or CC. </p>
<p>“Bird in the hand vs two in the bush” - counted chicks before eggs hatched, so to speak. Sure thing that was not a sure thing. </p>
<p>Gap year is safer if reciprocity job for original ED school does not pan out and merit at other places is feasible. Maybe she will have some great opportunities, make lemonade. </p>
<p>Are there more affordable schools for this family? If the parent is switching jobs, she may not HAVE that tuition reciprocity benefit at all the first year…or longer. I think banking on this uncertainty is not wise.</p>
<p>It sounds like this student needs to take a gap year and apply to affordable schools given her family budget. </p>
<p>so, the situation is that last fall (ED) the mom thought she was getting a job at a school with an 80% tuition deduction to the dream school…but months and months and months later they realize the mom didnt get that job???</p>
<p>So, the D can never attend the dream school, right? Not even after a gap year. right?</p>
<p>so, she needs to find an entirely different school. Is that right? (was this georgetown?)</p>
<p>I think the goal needs to be more than finding appropriate gap year activitiesl she needs to find a new app list.</p>
<p>Well, she needs to make a realistic assessment of what affordable (need-based aid or merit scholarship) schools she can get into, and whether they are more desirable than starting at the local community college and transferring to a state university (assuming the latter option is affordable).</p>
<p>I.e. she needs to make a new application list anyway, then decide whether those schools (particularly the affordable safeties) are more desirable enough than the community college option that she is willing to do a gap year. Of course, if she does want to do a gap year, she needs to do something, like find a job.</p>
<p>Is the daughter multi-lingual? If not, can the family afford to send the daughter abroad for a year? It may still be possible to get in on a foreign exchange program like Rotary, AFS, or YFU which arrange homestays. The most valuable asset that the daughter can have for a possible UN career would be fluency in a different language, preferably one of the official UN languages - (Arabic,Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish) - and the best way to gain fluency is to live in a country where the language is spoken, preferably in a situation which forces the person to use the language of the host country. There probably aren’t many internships that she could get as a high school grad that would be directly relevant, but she certainly could work now to build up her language skills – and a gap year probably presents an excellent opportunity to do that. </p>
<p>Take the first couple months of the gap year for application process and THEN focus on the international relations gap year stuff. Don’t go to a CC since that will risk freshman status/freshman scholarships and stop betting on reciprocity. Luck is a lousy financial strategy.</p>
<p>Calmom… I think you have the answer! A Gap year with AFS,FYU, etc. It would accomplish both… buy some more time to figure out freshman year and give her some International experience. Brilliant. Thank you!!</p>
<p>There are many, many possibilities for a gap year. She can certainly apply to some programs that will enhance her profile, such as what Calmom suggests, or perhaps her highschool has some exchanges programs. She can do community service, take some non college credit type language courses, find a job, etc. </p>
<p>My concern is that the process starts again rather soon, and this time, as she is no longer in high school, things may not proceed as automatically as they did for her last year, especially as she had a very short process hitting the ED bulls eye. </p>
<p>Your friend has a lot of work to do. Hopefully, she and her mother have learned that one cannot count on getting a given job. Tuition benefits have undergone drastic changes in the last number of years, and many colleges have changed the rules so that getting those benefits is much more difficult. There are waiting periods, often a year, even for actual school for which a person working before the benefits kick in. Reciprocal benefits are not the way it used to be either. I have many friends in academia so bemoaning this. One close friend who always thought her kids would get free tuition at a school is now having to deal with a flat rate benefit, I believe $12K a year, as the revised benefit which doesn’t do a whole lot in reducing the cost of many private school costs,not as planned, anyways. Other schools have pools and one has to come up with matches and swaps which is not easy. I have friends who are paying full freight because they simply could not use the benefit. </p>
<p>So your friend needs to figure out what she and her family CAN afford each year for college, and how much she would be expected to pay at any number of schools. SOme of that she may already know,especially if the ED school is a full need met school, which might be the best she is likely to get in terms of aid packages. She may need to go after merit money, look at local state schools to which she can commute. She needs a sure thing school in case the money does not work out in situations where there are no guarantees in place. </p>
<p>So finding something to do during a gap year is not so much the issue as getting herself in position to do this college app thing right this time. If money is an issue, working is probably a good idea, and avoiding programs and thngs that COST money.</p>