Gap Year?

Parents Forum
1

<p>This is my first time posting on CC though have been lurking for quite some time. I have found the information and your collective experience invaluable.</p>

<p>My question- Does anyone have any experience with City Year? My daughter is considering it as a "gap year" possibility. She was either rejected or waitlisted to the schools she wished to go to next year. So rather than simply "settle" for the schools into which she was accepted, she would rather do something productive and meaningful, perhaps take her standardized tests again (they were not what she hoped they would be the first time) and re-apply to her preferred schools next year.</p>

<p>In anyone's experience do colleges frown on this, encourage it, what? Would this experience increase her chances anywhere or put her at a disadvantage? </p>

<p>She is my first to go through this grueling college applications process so we are all new to it. </p>

<p>Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Thank you for all of your help.</p>

3

<p>Many of the LACs strongly endorse a gap year experience and recognize it can bring added maturity that is valuable. I have seen posts from parent's whose kids did CityYear and they were all positive so I would consider it. My son knew he wanted a gap year and did one that was great for him (but not with CityYear) My daughter is a junior and I will definitely support her in that idea if she wants it. Another option to look for programs is International Volunteers for Peace....there is a wide range of programs, many of them not too costly, as long as your daughter will be 18..</p>

4

<p>sceamom- I'm so sorry your child did not find safety schools she liked well enough. While neither of our kids chose to take a gap year, I still have some reservations about taking a gap year out of unhappiness with her choices. Is her reaction the immediately reaction to her disappointment that she might regret later on?</p>

<p>Before May 1, I would suggest she go to the admitted students days at the schools she got into. Just to be sure one of those schools might not fit the bill after all.</p>

<p>You didn't talk about your own feelings, so it's clear your concern is for your D. But I just want to say I sympathize with how agonizing this might be for you.</p>

5

<p>Search CC for other threads that have already been done on this topic</p>

<p>City year? Anyone? </p>

<p>Also...search on Andi....who has an excellent group of posts on her son's experience (although...his situation wasn't that he didn't want to go to any of the schools he was accepted to....he wasn't accepted anywhere.)</p>

6

<br>


<br>

<p>Andison's story was ultimately successful because he didn't just take a gap year and reapply to the same schools that didn't accept him the year before. He spent time during the gap year finding schools that really fit his bill, including a good selection of schools that were less super selective.</p>

<p>In the end he ended up getting into a very selective school after the gap year that he hadn't applied to the first time around. My recollection was that he did not get into any of the schools that had rejected him the year before to which he re-applied.</p>

<p>If your gap year doesn't include a re-evaluation of less selective schools that your D would actually like going to, then I think you run the risk of being in the same spot next year.</p>

7

<p>It looks as though she a lot to think about. Researching other colleges that she either did not know about or did not pursue is an excellent idea.</p>

<p>She is very involved with children during summer camps and at her work so she was hoping to gain even more valuable experience doing something like City Year before pursuing a degree in elementary education. That would give her a year to look elsewhere. </p>

<p>I'm afraid that I am partially to blame for her lack of acceptances as I discouraged her from applying to every single school she has ever heard as many of her friends did. I was completely unprepared for the massive number of both students and applications therefore wait-lists and rejections this year.</p>

8

<p>If money is not an issue, a post graduate year at a good boarding school cold improve her chances of admission. But they are VERY expensive (about the cost of a year of private college).</p>

9

<p>hayden-- Thank you for your sympathy. You are so right. I feel so badly for her right now. I would far rather be going through this for her right now...but we can't do that can we?</p>

10

<p>Where was she accepted?</p>

<p>Could she defer her admission to one of those schools, just in case she does not have a better option next year?</p>

<p>Another option, of course, is to start at a "lesser" school, and transfer after a year if she is not happy there.</p>

11

<p>sm
My friend's dtr was upset about where she was accepted, especially as her twin fared better. She finally went to her school, and studied hard. When she applied for transfers, she had 100% acceptances, including the state flagship U.</p>

<p>I am so pleased with the maturity she gained in past year, and loved knowing that her hard work paid off.</p>

<p>Anyway, your D still has time to decide if she really wants a gap year, or if she can do her best and transfer after a year of college.</p>

12

<p>I second the recommendation to go to one of the schools at which she was accepted, get great grades, and consider a transfer if she is still unhappy. Knocking out a year of college sounds as productive a way to spend your time as any.</p>

13

<p>scea, I'm sorry to hear that things didn't work out for your daughter. This is an extraordinarily stressful event during a period of her life that should be joyful. In addition to Andi's son a few years back there was another boy, Nopoisonivy's son, who successfully reapplied after rejection. The former never was admitted to his dream school, but he did matriculate at a school that is just as good or even better. The latter beefed up his resume and was admitted to his number 1 choice. So it can happen.</p>

<p>What I'd suggest to your daughter is that she take a three pronged approach.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Hope -- work on getting off the waitlist this year. There are threads devoted to this topic. Or she might retain a counselor to help her. Chances of turning a waitlist to an acceptance are variable and unpredictable, but it does happen.</p></li>
<li><p>Accept -- Take another look at the colleges that she was admitted to.Do an overnight. Ask some questions on this board. Without knowing specifics it's difficult to comment here, but as a general statement, most colleges and universities offer the opportunity to excel. At some you just have to be more aggressive. Then there's always the option to transfer. There have been PLENTY of success stories of kids who either ended up loving their safeties or were able to transfer happily after a year's effort.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>If she's not convinced she could do this, at least follow nngmm's advice and find out if she could defer a year. Then she'll have her ace if plan 3 doesn't work out.</p>

<ol>
<li>Retool -- Gap year's are tricky. They can be wonderful experiences for motivated kids, but long and lonely for students who choose them because they have no other options. </li>
</ol>

<p>It's best to break the year -- which is really 15 months -- into segments, bearing in mind that she will need to focus on the application process in the Fall and that anything that's considered as a "resume booster" needs to be accomplished before December.</p>

<p>Programs like City Year are excellent (though I don't have specific experience with that one) because they offer an organizational structure. In addition to community service, some travel, language study, athletic training, cultural exploration and menial work to pay for it all are also ways to fill up the year.</p>

<p>Colleges do like interesting kids that do interesting things and gap years are excellent ways to gain meaningful life experience. I'd be interested in hearing more actual success stories. My guess is that getting admitted after a rejection is rare, but getting admitted to a different but equal college is doable.</p>

<p>Good luck and let us know how you both do!</p>

14

<p>Be sure that the family health insurance will not lapse during a gap year. Some policies drop, and do not allow re-eligibility, at age 19 without documentation of full time student status.</p>

15

<p>mominva raises a great point. Something to be very careful with.</p>

<p>Sceamom, would you mind sharing the waitlist & accepted schools so the readers could speak with more information and make more constructive suggestions? Maybe it's just your screen name that's leading me to this assumption, but I'm betting the schools your D was accepted to were in fact pretty good schools. It would be a shame if her distress and disappointment lead her to make a decision she might regret on May 2nd.</p>

16

<p>We are lucky that health insurance is not a problem. My policy covers her until she is 23 regardless. (I am very fortunate)</p>

<p>She will be paying her enrollment fee for the school so that will leave her one viable option should nothing else open up.</p>

<p>That being said, I am quite familiar with this college (I work there AND went there) and I can't say that it is a grand match for her. While one can never say never, I don't see this school "igniting any fires within her" socially or academically...so to speak. But of course one never knows.</p>

<p>We will see how all works out. I am a firm believer in "what is supposed to happen will happen" as long as one is on the correct path...It's finding the path that is the challenge. Perhaps her path will be the "road less traveled".</p>

<p>Thanks to all of you who have reached out to me during this. It has been an enlightening, traumatic but hopefully life-changing event...this applications process... and all will hopefully work out in the end...whatever that end may be. I only want my daughter to be happy and confident as she can be that she made the best choice possible.</p>

<p>Guess we'll see</p>

<p>BTW- scea are my daughter's initials...</p>

17

<p>Sceamom, I do not know how applicable it is to your daughter's situation, but here are my 5 cents:
1. I would suspect that the chance of admission into schools that already rejected you is not high. Does she have other schools she likes better than her safeties? It only looks like there are plenty of schools. For my daughter - of the top 20 schools she applied to ALL schools she was REALLY interested in. That was 7 or 8 schools. She was kind of interested in 1 or 2 more, but that's it. And no interest in LACs. So basically if she were told to develop a non-overlapping list for next year, she would probably conclude that her safetties are pretty good options.
2. Did your daughter dramatically improved her resume this year? Mine was applying to colleges, taking SATs, interviewing. She maintained ECs and grades, but there were no MAJOR things.
3. Is there a chance that her resume will get MUCH better after summer? She needs RESULTS of this gap year before December.
4. Do you suspect that her essays or recommendations were a problem? Or maybe SAT or GPA? This could be the reason to try again.
But overall I would suggest to go to a safety and try to transfer later.</p>