<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>