<p>Would considering a gap year a wise idea when you will be 17 on that year.
i'm thinking about a gap year and trying to convince my mom, but she is saying i wont have much enriching opportunities because ill be an underage.
is there many opportunities out there for under 18 such as internships, volunteer, study programs. i was hoping to continue studying a language for two months or so in a country but getting a hotel to stay in would be a problem since i won't be an adult by then. but i would probably stay in my friends house if i could.</p>
<p>any advices? any good short things (no more than 5 months) i could do as a seventeen years old that's related to my field of interests: science, math, some volunteerings.</p>
<p>do generally people take gap year after being admitted into college or after being rejected from college?</p>
<p>I'm going to take a gap year no matter what because i would like to spend some time with my parents, friends, and enrich my experience before college.</p>
<p>what do you think about me applying to one ivy college ED during senior year?
if rejected i would start over again next year with additional colleges.</p>
<p>would the fact that i'm applying to one college have some effect on the admission.
unless you have done anything very significant would reapplying to the college you were rejected be the same?</p>
<p>Have you considered doing a foreign exchange for a semester or a year? You would live with a host family and attend high school there -- it is very common for students to do this after already graduating from high school in the US. If you stay for a full year you will gain fluency in the language of the country where you study - but there are also many programs you could enroll in for shorter periods of time.</p>
<p>Sometimes it's a matter of what the parents are willing to finance.On many insurance policies a young person over 18 will not be carried on the parents medical (or dental) plan unless they are a full time student and gap years don't count.If a young person takes a gap year right out of high school and then applies to college the colleges will still want their high school transcripts.And after a gap in education you may find yourself rusty in subjects like math and physics and limited in what you feel comfortable taking.
The answer usually is,'I will know what I want after a year.' But sometimes it takes several years. One gap year turns into two and two into three.And if a person did not have self discipline before it is unlikely they suddenly acquire it. </p>
<p>I think you have to seriously think about the reasons you want the gap year. Are you afraid of college rejection? If so, brush that aside. There are many colleges who would love to have you and where you can make a difference.Is it college cost? Then look into a gap year program which may give you college money. Or consider the military.
Gap years are not easy. One, you have no medical coverage, two, if you go abroad your parents will be worried silly, three, it may take many years to decide what path to take.My opinion is if your parents are willing to finance any of your education now, take advantage of it. Money has a way of slip sliding away!</p>
<p>bhg, why so negative about Gap Years? Gap Years are easy. Some parents may NOT be worried silly. There is medical insurance. My S1 had medical and travel insurance. He was looked after by the program sponsor.</p>
<p>He had his acceptance in hand before he left and the nine month travelling experirence made him more excited about his field of study. Plus, he did ten weeks of an immersive language and got a year's worth of college credit--saving us $5000. Frankly, those immersive experiences (he did another at the end of freshman year) will allow him to write his own job ticket when he graduates. </p>
<p>Finally, our S's college funds did not slip away while he was gone. </p>
<p>D1 did a gapyear with CityYear- medical ins. a living stipend, training, uniforms,bus pass & education voucher was all included.
She also had a renewed perspective on what she wanted to get out of college at the end of her year, enough so that a school that would have been a clear reach previously, offered her admission with a nice finiad package.
D2 is also planning a gapyear, but she is interested in biology research abroad, so it will probably cost us something, but not as much as a year of college</p>
<p>Sorry cheers but not everyone here on C.C. is rich and beautiful. This site, the colleges it touts and the mystique many represent, are geared towards the wealthy and very bright.However many folks, including myself, have found our way into this site with another perspective. I see the kids who have found their way here who are not wealthy or from a home which can provide much college funds. I see the average kids. My feelings are, and I speak from experience, if the opportunity presents itself for an average kid to go to college, to better one's future, he should take that opportunity and not put it off. Everything is becoming more expensive like, gas, housing, heating, etc. The middle classs is becoming squeezed.A college education is a valuable commodity and maybe money doesn't slip slide away for you but it certainly does for me.Furthermore, I do think that there are underlying fears and meanings for wanting or needing a gap year among middle class kids. And by middle class I don't mean the wealthy who can afford trotting off to Europe. A middle class kid who 'takes a gap year' and gets hit by a bus with no medical coverage will be paying that accident off for the rest of his life. (And I even went to the funeral of a local boy who killed himself because a debt like this happened to him.) Kids should be aware of the risks and possible consequences of their actions. And yes, I was worried silly by my 19 year old son who took his 'gap year' running around Mexico, without medical insurance, doing volunteer work 'for the good of all mankind'.</p>
<p>no backhandgrip i would have to pay for tuition myself no matter what. there's no way my parents could afford to pay when they have to pay for my sibling. At worst, i would borrow money and work.
i'm still a junior but with great grades and mediocre ECs (some sports, some tutoring, some foreign language study). previously i lived in a different countries where there was no clubs/ etcs offered in the school. lately i'm catching up on all those ECs and volunteer things. and i'm preparing for the AMC/AIME.
I dont think i'll do a recognizable work this year but if i continue i would have a really good chance for qualifying for USAMO next year.
but i realized things that will be considered for admission could only be untill february. which means from now i have about 14 months to do things. but since i'm new to life here, i dont think i could make a good achievments like leaderships/ awards during that time.
right now, i'm encountered with all those new things i could do (college classes, ecs, jobs, APs) but i feel like i'm limited in time.
so i'm just skeptic if i could get into schools i want to get in like princeton, MIT. test score wont be a problem for me, but my ECs will be lacking.</p>
<p>so i dont know if taking a gap year and applying is a good idea or not.</p>
<p>and just another question, do you recommend me continuing a foreign language i stopped learning a year ago. now i'm in the states, i would like to coninue through online, but does knowing an uncommon language but not fluently be significant?</p>
<p>BHG, I am sorry that you have not had good experiences with the "gap year" idea... but this is one area where we are not talking about something reserved for the wealthy. I have a modest income but was able to send my kids to high school foreign exchange programs - which cost a lot LESS than college. It cost me less than $10K to send my daughter to Russia twice over a period of about 7 months -- it will probably cost me a minimum of $18-$20K a year, with financial aid, to send her to college. When my son quit college after his second year it really gave me a much-needed (and appreciated) breather in terms of supporting him - so financially it was the best thing for our family. He earned $25K his first year out, and saved $10K. When he returns to school we will all be in much better financial shape. He also is far more employable than he would be if he had simply stayed in school, and I think he will get more out of his education when he finishes as a more mature and focused student. </p>
<p>"City Year" and Americorps are not programs for rich kids -- on the contrary, many middle class kids opt for those programs precisely because they include some modest benefits in terms of educational funding. </p>
<p>I think that kids who are more mature and have lived on their own for awhile before college are far less likely to get carried away with drinking and partying when they get to college, and far more likely to take their education seriously and focus on studies. With my own son I told him that I would pay for 4 years of education - and that he had 5 years to take me up on that offer. That left room for taking 1 year off at any point. He ended up letting the time elapse, getting only 2 years of parent-financed education. The 2+ years that he has been out of school, working is probably far more valuable -- I sent an immature teenager away to college and for 2 years running an immature teenager came home in the summers... but it only took a few months of his working and living on his onw for him to turn into a very mature and capable young adult. There are life lessons to be learned in the real world that can't be gained in the sheltered environment of a college campus. </p>
<p>I am sorry that you ran into problems with medical coverage for your son. My son was able to get health coverage through his employer so that wasn't a problem -- but I also know that young people in good health can also purchase individual coverage at rates that are far less than what we older people pay. Often the rates given for individual coverage are less than what is being charged on a an employer-sponsored plan - you just have to shop around. I'd recommend that parents concerned about coverage look into a high deductible health savings plan for their kid -- the rates can be low and the money that would meet the deductible can be banked in a tax sheltered account. Again, if you opt to pay for health care for your kid and nothing else, that is still a lot less than the cost of college. </p>
<p>It seems to me that you are projecting your fears and resentment concerning your own son onto others -- just because it didn't work out for you doesn't mean that it isn't a good choice for others. There are "risks and consequences" for young people who go to college when they are not emotionally ready, too -- a lot of kids get into trouble with alcohol and drugs, and there are plenty of kids who find out only too late that their dismal grades from a first year spent partying will undermine their opportunities for graduate school. I think it is a very big mistake for a parent to push a reticent teenager into attending college -- and a definite waste of valuable tuition dollars. I mean, when it comes down to it I spent about $40K so that my son could get drunk a lot and take an array of interesting courses that don't fit into any specific major -- a liberal arts degree was not really going to qualify him for a job.</p>
<p>fl02 -- I really don't think you have to worry about your EC's. The reason there is such a large emphasis on ECs for American students is that is all there is to distinguish one high performing student from another -- that is, at top colleges all the applicants have high test scores, and they pretty much have the same or very similar high school courses -- so the only way that some kid can stand out is by having strong ECs as well.</p>
<p>With your background you are in a different category -- you already stand out, so your life experience will make up for weak EC's for any of the competitive schools you are thinking of. However, I think what you should really do is broaden the scope of colleges you are considering -- Princeton and MIT are extremely difficult for anyone to get into, and a gap year in your case probably won't help (you already have the broad range of life experience that students might get during a gap year). There are probably many excellent colleges that you can easily get into which may also be a better fit for you.</p>
<p>I admit that I originally was concerned-about having my daughter take a year off before college- neither my husband or I attended college and we were worried that she would lose "momentum".
We really felt like all the sacrifices we had made over her K-12 years were focused on her going to college/finishing college</p>
<p>However- by the spring of her senior year and she had been admitted to all her colleges- we also knew that she wasn't jazzed about college the way that we ( and she) had hoped.
Taking time off- focused time- either in a Americorp program, or studying/working abroad- seemed to be a bargain- and give her some space to find the next path for her life.
If she hadn't been accepted to Americorps, there are also programs that are very low cost- partly because they are in countries with much lower cost of living than U.S. and partly because they involve work- for instance she had friends who got their divemasters off the Great Barrier Reef but they also lived and worked on a sheep station which covered their room and board +
Not so many at her college, but I do know other students who are taking a year off in the middle or after graduation, some changing paths totally, others just refocusing a little. But the age from 18-25- kids change so much- and they have so much to process that it doesn't bother me at all if they take 3 or 6 years to finish their degree.</p>
<p>I think that it makes a lot of sense for low income- middle income students to ease into college- and once they have graduated nobody is going to seperate out those who took 9 years to get their Ph.d from those who took 3.</p>
<p>If you are concerned about the money for foreign exchange, I just found out the Rotary International has scholarship money available for HS students to go overseas for 6 weeks or a year. Check their website, contact the local chapter and apply! They also have ambassadorial scholarships for college students wanting to go overseas to study. Very few ever get claimed so they are lookin gfor kids to apply. The problem is you must apply your freshman year for your junior year abroad. Check into it if you are a freshman - the deadline is drawing very near. Many kids with FA at college don't apply because their FA covers this, but what a boon for parents of middle or upper middle class kids who receive little or no FA - they scholarship is 25k for the year. The key is it is the ambassadorial scholarship - focus being on how well you do in the interview so they know whether or not you can act as an "ambassador" for the US overseas.</p>
<p>emeraldkity, do you have any info about the program your D's friends went to Australia through? Or did they just arrange everything independently? I'm curious.</p>
<p>fl02,bhg, by all means, you should heistate to go on Gap Year if you cannot figure out a way to insure yourself, through a program or otherwise. That does cause a worry for parents. My brother self-funded a Gap Year when he was a young teenager and he went without insurance or transportation (hitchhiked). He made it home alive--but only just.</p>
<p>The Gap Year tradition started in the UK. I'd say the majority of those kids self-fund their Gap Years. All of the UK/Australia boarding schools offer Gap Year positions to willing appolicants. Historically, it is NOT an experience for the rich and famous.</p>
<p>btw bhg, your personal digs were unwarranted. I can afford to send my children on Gap Year--courtesy of money I earn. They get an automatic Gap Year because they graduate in November. Lucky them.</p>
<p>Many group health and dental policies cover dependent children until the end of the calendar year in which they turn 19 regardless of FT student status. Coverage is then usually extended to age 23 or 25 (depending on policy) if proof of FT status is submitted. Anyone considering a gap year should consult their individual policy. Many of these kids will still be covered.</p>