<p>If a student is applying to colleges but seriously considering a gap year after acceptances are in, do they need to inform colleges beforehand? </p>
<p>Are there certain colleges that don't allow gap years? How does one find out?</p>
<p>In particular, I'd like to know about Stanford, Caltech, and MIT.</p>
<p>Would love to hear any btdt experiences.</p>
<p>Many thanks.</p>
<p>After acceptance you tell the college you’ve decided on you will be doing a gap year,
They will either ask you to reapply or more likely have you remind them mid year which qtr you want to begin.</p>
<p>So, some college are not ok with it if they ask you to reapply.</p>
<p>Is there a way to know for sure that a certain college is ok with a deferral/gap year? </p>
<p>I’m searching around and I found a document from 2009 that indicates Stanford is very ok with it, but haven’t found anything recent. I’m almost positive MIT is ok with it and in fact, encourages it.</p>
<p>Should a student ask admissions and be upfront about it before he/she applies? I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, particularly if student isn’t sure they want to do a gap year.</p>
<p>Well, no one says that when you call the school to find out their policy, that you have to identify yourself. This seems to me an easily solvable thing. Call the school to find out and don’t give your name.</p>
<p>My son took a gap year before beginning his studies at Brown. He had to submit a short essay of what his plans were for the gap year and got approved for deferred acceptance, as long as he did not apply elsewhere as a degree-seeking student (taking a class or two as a student-at-large was OK).</p>
<p>I think most of the top schools look favorably upon a gap year request. One can easily Google “[school name] gap year policy.” Here’s what I found regarding MIT:</p>
<p>[On</a> taking a ?Gap Year? | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/on_taking_a_gap_year_2]On”>On taking a ‘Gap Year’ | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>Stanford:
</p>
<p>[Stanford</a> University: Common Data Set 2012-2013](<a href=“http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2012]Stanford”>Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications)</p>
<p>Caltech:
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=706[/url]”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=706</a></p>
<p>MIT
</p>
<p>[On</a> taking a ?Gap Year? | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/on_taking_a_gap_year_2]On”>On taking a ‘Gap Year’ | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>Armed with the knowledge that it’s OK at all three schools, I think you’re safe in calling them and asking for particulars about when and how they need to be informed.</p>
<p>The schools that asked my daughter to reapply were public schools & they did not retain files on students who were not attending from year to year, we did not have any indication they were bothered by it, in fact two of the schools, one in state & one out of state, offered her merit awards when she reapplied the next year.</p>
<p>Public schools seem to be better organized now, the schools her sister applied to 8 yrs later didn’t ask that she reapply, although it took a few emails to get things going again when she returned.</p>
<p>I’d wait until after acceptance and then seek information about a deferral. It is pretty common.</p>
<p>Indeed, ask colleges and universities their gap-year policies now. Most will allow you to defer your enrollment for a year, but some don’t, and often terms and conditions apply. And none of them will keep track of the fact that you asked and somehow hold that against you. </p>
<p>But don’t tell them that you plan a gap year until after you’ve been admitted and chosen the school where you plan to study. Because none of the others need to know. </p>
<p>When my daughter took a gap year before college, she did have to tell them what her plans were, but they were happy to let her defer her enrollment for a year. The university did have a deadline, though, so don’t delay too long arranging things at the school that you select.</p>
<p>Some colleges, like Harvard, actually encourage students to take a gap year. Harvard’s acceptance letter says they find student’s who take time off do better. I took a gap year there way back in the early 70s and they didn’t blink then.</p>
<p>You may also want to ask about the effect of deferred enrollment on scholarships–in other words, will the package offered at the time of admission stay the same at the time of matriculation?</p>
<p>Some schools have merit awards that are $X per year for four years. Some begin that four-year clock at the time of the award, and deferring means losing a year of award. Most don’t. </p>
<p>I imagine need-based aid would be re-assessed based on each year’s financial data, but perhaps the school can give information about whether the “package” (loans vs grants, percent of need met, etc) would be likely to stay about the same.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You mean like Bill Gates? ;)</p>
<p>He could still go back…but he’s not likely to score much financial aid.</p>
<p>I actually did graduate with a man who’d entered Harvard 8 classes ahead of me. He used to say that he’d gone to Harvard “on the four-term plan: Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan.”</p>
<p>Thank you, all! You’ve been very helpful and I appreciate it.</p>
<p>The student may also want to ask if a gap semester is possible, if s/he does not want to take a whole gap year.</p>
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<p>Not likely at the top schools: when you take a gap year, someone gets off this year’s waitlist and one less is accepted next year.</p>
<p>Plus it would likely be a huge hassle with moving, etc.</p>
<p>My youngest would have liked to have taken the whole year to travel, but she needed to work for at least half of it.</p>
<p>Given that fall semester is typically enrolled more than spring semester, some colleges may not mind a spring-start student for the purpose of enrollment balancing. Indeed, some schools offer spring-start admission to fall applicants for this purpose. Dartmouth’s D-plan is another way of reducing fall enrollment.</p>
<p>I was thinking of after they had already started school for some reason, probably because Ive known students who take a year or a semester off after sophomore year to study abroad or do an internship.</p>
<p>But several schools do admit students for the 2nd semester, so taking just gap semester would work perfectly.</p>
<p>Hi sbj:) I don’t know if you remember but my S took a gap year 2012/2013. He would say it was the best decision of his life, and was life changing. For the right kid it is fantastic. My S hiked the Pacific crest trail for 4 months, hiked some high peaks he had been dreaming about, got his Basic and Wilderness EMT, and then worked as an EMT the rest of the year. He is now at college, deliriously happy and doing really well in his classes. He got accepted to his college, wrote a letter explaining his plans for his requested gap year, and a few weeks later they approved it. We did have to send in his deposit, but all of his merit scholarships and grants were held for him until he started this year. We did have to resend our current tax returns, but that was it…easy peasy. </p>
<p>I would like caution that a gap year is a loooong time. It could get pretty tedious if you don’t have a set plan with not much down time. Remember most of their friends our gone already, and my S’s gap year was from May 19th 2012 thru August 2013… </p>
<p>Also, my S did apply to a few schools that would let you take a gap semester. He didn’t get into any of these schools, but after further research, we would have decided against him doing it. Look into research on gap semester kids… there can be challenges.</p>