<p>I'll have about a 3.5 by the time I apply to transfer (as a junior transfer) and could get a 3.68 by the end of the year (I was thinking of taking a year off and using the higher GPA to apply during that year). I'm at the University of Colorado at Boulder. </p>
<p>The reason why my GPA is so low is that for a while I was convinced I had to be a doctor to please my dad (I felt I owed him something for sending me to boarding school (a GOOD boarding school, by the way)). So I took physics and chemistry for majors, and did decently, but not well. Is that worth writing about? I have since decided that I'm going to be an English major regardless, and I'm really very good at it...my courses this semester should reflect that.</p>
<p>I'm interested in NYU (Gallatin), U Chicago, Barnard, UPenn (A&S), Cornell (A&S), maybe Georgetown, and maybe Boston University. My ECs are pretty good and I think I can get good recs. So what are my chances, and should I wait and do the year off thing?</p>
<p>Doing a junior transfer to UChicago would be tough. It would be hard to complete the core and the rest of your requirements in two years. Look into it before applying.</p>
<p>Thanks! So, Isleboy, you're saying definitely do the year off? Or should I apply now, and again if I don't manage it (would that hurt my chances?)?</p>
<p>Greenblue, this is going to make me sound so spoiled, but having to spend more than four semesters at UChicago if I managed to transfer wouldn't be a problem for me (did you mean that they might not admit me because of that?).</p>
<p>I should probably also say that my grades at the boarding school were pretty average until my senior year, when I was on the honor roll all three terms. Also, though this makes little difference now (maybe), I got a 1420/1600 on my SAT 1, and 670, 700, 800 (writing) on the SAT 2s.</p>
<p>I'm saying if you are going to do something worthwhile with the gap year, then go for it, if you are not, then don't.</p>
<p>Apply now if the only reason you're going to take a gap year is to increase your chances, and will not be doing something constructive during that time.</p>
<p>Apply during your gap year, if you want the gpa boost and will be involved in, say, help kids read in South America, volunteer in an inner city school, do research, help build a water system in South Asia, etc...</p>
<p>The time doing something like the above will not only help you clarify what you want, but it will help others, and give you a boost when you apply to college.</p>
<p>I should have asked earlier, but if I were to get into one of my lower choices this time, take a year off, apply to a school I wanted to attend more, and got in and went to that school - is that horribly inethical? (Provided I had first agreed to go to the school I got into first, and asked them to let me defer for a year.)</p>