Gap year to get into dream school?

Applying to College
1

So i’m not doing so hot in high school right now I just started my second semester and i’m thinking that if I pull up my grades for my last 3 semesters then I can take a gap year and apply to schools. But i have a lot of questions since I just heard about this like

  1. if i take a gap year what do I even do? and how can I use it to impress colleges?
  2. How is this going to look on an application?
  3. does this mean i’m starting my freshman year in college late?
2

I don’t see how a gap year would help you much. Your grades will be no better after the gap year than before. I suppose you could work on your standardized test scores. But if you are an international who needs a lot of aid, then there are very few schools that will work for you in the US, and I can’t think of much you can do during a gap year to overcome poor grades. They only really take top students with a lot of achievements and strong test scores if you are international needing aid.

3

It helps because his or her senior year grades would be part of the GPA - assuming he or she brought them up. Right now, the GPA only includes grades through junior year. Of course, if the grades don’t improve, it won’t matter.