<p>Guess I should be included here - orgininally from Croatia, but went through HS in United States (an all-boys private boarding school to boot), applied to colleges last year and got rejected everywhere...that seems to be the recurring theme here unfortunatly :(, but then went on to Australia to do a gap year. Currently I teach/coach/dorm parent at a private school here in Adelaide...and got into Bates, first choice all the way.</p>
<p>That's a long story short, I guess</p>
<p>where r u doing your a-leevels alyssa? im msian too. go read ur msgs.</p>
<p>thank you lefay8...i'm doing a-levels in taylor's. how bout you?</p>
<p>I'm on my gap year. Similar situation to Alyssa (I totally empathise, btw) but I did get into one of the schools I applied to and didn't take it because I didn't get into Princeton. Applied again ED, got in, and have had a great time in China learning Chinese.</p>
<p>testing:</p>
<p>gap is 閪 lol</p>
<p>ooh cevonia...you mean you applied to Princeton for the second time? and got in? isn't that very rare?</p>
<p>hopefully not too rare to accept previous rejectees...cuz im doin the same :p</p>
<p>well i read somewhere that re-applying to the same colleges that rejected you is gambling with a 90% chance of failure, because "if we didn't accept you last year, why should we this year"? </p>
<p>i'm going to acheh sometime in july. anyone wants to come with me? :p</p>
<p>One year can make a lot of difference, esp when colleges look for bombastic awards etc..</p>
<p>I also took a gap year. The result: I was accepted by several amazing schools among which are Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.</p>
<p>I can only recommend it. Just make sure that you don't hang out. Make something meaningful. Work, or devote yourself to something you are very passionate about.</p>
<p>It worked for me. It will work for you, too.
Good Luck!!!</p>
<p>mariela, can i ask if you were rejected before your gap year, then accepted; or you just took a gap year and then accepted at first try?</p>
<p>alyssa09, i first took a gap year (i had several reasons to do that, one of which was the bombing of my sat1), and then i applied to colleges.</p>
<p>but this should not discourage you. a friend of mine applied to a lot of colleges, and got rejected everywhere. then she took a gap year and this year she was accepted to bowdoin, which is a great school.
another guy i know applied last year, and got into several good schools, but not into his 1st choice Harvard, so he decided to take a gap year and reapply. He was accepted after being rejected last year.</p>
<p>I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!!</p>
<p>Im seriously considering doing a gap year. I BOMBED the SAT I (1350) and did the same on the SAT II (680, 690, 640), gonna retake...and apply ED princeton, EA Harvard. im curious on knowing what you have to do when you apply again in terms of the essays and recs...</p>
<p>sp - you can't do both. harvard EA is single choice, and pton mandates no applying early anywhere else if you're doing ED.</p>
<p>essays - i think getting started on them early this year is the key, instead of the rush jobs at least i did ;) i really want my essays to be better this time.</p>
<p>cops, you cannot apply ED to princeton and EA to harvard at the same time! you WILL get booted out from both schools, and risk making it into the blacklist of other schools.</p>
<p>mariela: i sort of lost faith in the ivies after they accepted an arrogant someone from my country with NO community service record and NO work experience. perhaps i sound like a sour grape case, but several teachers and ex-schoolmates mourning his acceptance definitely says something about it. but i will try for one ivy next year, just so i don't regret a few years' "what if" question. </p>
<p>oh and can i ask what did you do during gap year?</p>
<p>Well, the guy would not be the first or (probably) not the last arrogant someone accepted by Ivies. I know or have heard of others.</p>
<p>Even this year there was some guy accepted ED to Emory and RD to MIT....</p>
<p>Future gap-year-taker over here. Taking it due to several reasons, one of them being me realizing too late that I want to go to the US. I'll be using the next year taking courses in the open university (kind of like community college, I suppose) of Helsinki, possibly working on the side and devoting my time to an organisation I'm a part of. And possibly joining a campaign for a presidential candidate, still undecided on that one :).</p>
<p>After commiserating over taking a gap year, I do feel like it will benefit me in the end, not only with college admissions but also with my personal growth. This is the time I can really sample what I want to do and learn about myself. Who knows if the courses I'll be taking at the open university make me want to change my intended major? But I digress, it's going to be a great year and I plan to take everything out of it while stressing over college apps. ;)</p>
<p>alyssa09, a lot of things... I worked, volunteered, continued with my ECs, and most important took a lot of time to get to know myself and what i want from life, college, etc. This helped a lot afterwards when I was putting together my application and writing my essays, especially the motivational ones. It just showed to the admission people that I not only know from where I am coming, but that I also know where I am going and how their college will help me to get there.</p>
<p>about losing faith in the ivies...i understand...i learned a lot of things during the last months and one of them is that the admission process makes absolutely no sense...they reject great people and take arrogant bastards (sorry!).</p>
<p>The most important thing right now is NOT TO LOOSE FAITH IN YOURSELF. I wish somebody would have told me that a year ago when I was in your situation. I was so afraid. Almost nobody supported me. Everybody frowned when I told them that I will take a gap year. A lot of people tried to convince me that I was making the biggest mistake in my life. I was so so scared, but I knew what I wanted and held on fast to my dream. And you know the outcome...</p>
<p>Just listen to your hearts, people, think with your heads,and work your you know what off, and next April you will shed tears of happiness when you open the fat envelopes!!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
A lot of people tried to convince me that I was making the biggest mistake in my life. I was so so scared, but I knew what I wanted and held on fast to my dream. And you know the outcome...</p>
<p>Just listen to your hearts, people, think with your heads,and work your you know what off, and next April you will shed tears of happiness when you open the fat envelopes!!!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You could not have said it better, Mariela!</p>