Hi there, sorry for the long post! Please help with this unique problem (or maybe not unique but I couldn’t find anything here) and please be kind, I know we should have known better since this isn’t our first rodeo, but it is what it is.
Our senior daughter has always planned on taking a gap year. She applied to schools this year hoping to find a good fit and defer enrollment, but has no idea what she wants to study and wasn’t all that into the effort of the apps. I’m not sure if that was because she is unsure about her future path, or because she wasn’t able to go on college visits during Covid, or because she knew she had the safety net of possibly applying to a new set of schools.
She is our last child of four. We are a single income family that most likely would fall into the donut hole of making too much for need-based aid, but not being able to afford sticker price very comfortably. We live in a very high cost of living city, are almost at retirement age, and financially (and otherwise) supported a sick parent through a long illness, which is why I had to quit work long ago.
Our older kids either went to the excellent state flagship or received enough merit at a private to make it equal to or below that cost. We weren’t exactly counting on lots of merit for our daughter, but she had what we thought was a bit of a spike in that she excels at music–state and national level awards, lots of performances and other recognition. We also figured that since she was the last one, we could stretch our finances and go above the cost of the state schools if there was a compelling reason to (like an unusually strong music program or something else she couldn’t get at our flagship). At the beginning, she wasn’t interested in our flagship because of the size. So she applied to LACs. Later on, her wish for a small school with small classes became even stronger. Given the kind of kid she is, we agree that an LAC would be the best fit, if not essential for her. Also many majors are now impacted at the state school, so she may not even get her desired major if she were to attend.
Her unweighted GPA is 3.97 and our school doesn’t weight or give class rank. She chose Dual Enrollment over AP, yet another possible “mistake” since we’ve since heard that DE isn’t considered as rigorous as AP or IB. She did take AP Physics this year, but again, another mistake in that she assumed it was the most rigorous but found out later that our school offers the one with Calc–she has had four counselors in four years, and counseling was almost non-existent during remote learning. Her senior year counselor was new to both the school and the state. Typical I guess for a large public. No one told her there was a more rigorous one I don’t think it was even on any form she could look at.
Her main extracurriculars were music with a little sports thrown in before the pandemic shut that down, and a small amount of volunteer hours. We realize now that this wasn’t enough and she should have “found” time to do more, but again, the pandemic made that difficult. So although she has six national level awards for her music, we think the lack of anything else also hurt her.
She applied test optional, which we realize was probably another misstep if we were looking for merit. Her recs were most likely not harmful but not all that helpful because she was remote the last half of sophomore year and all of junior year, and Dual enrollment which is still remote (!). So one teacher had never met her in person, and the other one just knew her for a few months. So except for a glowing rec from the music director, they were probably a wash.
I thought her common app essay was creative, but in hindsight it wasn’t very revealing about her except in a superficial way. Like I mentioned, she had a hard time putting the effort into the apps and also felt like she had nothing interesting to write about. I suggested she not apply this year at all, but she felt super anxious about putting it off. I’m thinking we may enlist a private essay tutor next time around.
Her results:
Rejected at her two reaches, T20s
Accepted at her four safeties (LACS ranked top 50-70) with fantastic merit
Accepted to her matches, two top 40s with some merit but still leaving a big price tag
One of the top 40 schools is a perfect fit in so many ways, but it also would probably take her 5 years to double major in music and academics, making it even more expensive in the end.
She really wants to commit to this school, but her dad wants her to reapply (to this school and a few others) during her gap year and make an effort to make her overall application stronger than it was this year, such as
–take the SAT (with tutoring)
–slightly Increased GPA because of last semester grades
–volunteering that she couldn’t do during lockdown
–better, more thoughtful essay in place of the breezy creative (dare I say shallow) one she submitted
–perhaps a re-worked rec from the AP Physics teacher that now has had her for a full year
–work experience (she didn’t work in HS or summers but has already started at a min wage job)
I’m not absolutely against this plan but it feels like its risky and stressful. My daughter would be on board because she knows the finances are difficult, but it would make her really anxious to risk being rejected from the school she feels is perfect for her. Also I never heard of anyone reapplying to a school they were accepted at, hoping for more merit.
I may have to work in order to send her to this school at the current price tag, and I have serious doubts about my ability to find work at my age, but I really want to make this happenn for her without messing up our retirement. I went to my state flagship (first person in my family to go to college) and really want a different experience for my daughter, plus I feel its the right place for her.
Any suggestions, advice, success or horror stories to share?
Thanks!
What is the problem with four LACs, which she wants to attend, and being offered fantastic merit? I am scratching my head trying to figure out what the problem is. She asks the school if she can take a gap year while retaining her merit, and takes a gap year. Done.