Another update:
I paid my enrollment to NEU. When I called admissions they said that they decide when to allow students to defer on a case by case basis and wouldn’t tell me whether or not they would permit my gap year plan until I applied for deferment.
Here is Northeastern’s Master plan:
http://www.northeastern.edu/masterplan/
The first building, the ISEC, is under construction. While most of this will not be realized in the next 5 years, it is impressive.
Every college has old dorms and in general they go to freshmen.
@TomSrOfBoston Those plans are incredible, but I would be long gone by the time they’re realized.
I do not doubt that within a decade or two, Northeastern will have solved many of the problems it currently has. However, I care about what it will be like when I’m there- not when I’m gone.
I still feel very lost on this.
On the one hand, I worry that a gap year, even if I do well on the SATs again and go abroad, will not change my admissions chances at the schools I would be applying to.
On the other, I love traveling, it would be a life-changing experience, and I don’t think Northeastern is the right school for me.
I would really love any help I can get on this issue.
I am rooting for the gap year, since it sounds like what you really want. Did you request your deferral, explaining what you’d do?
BTW, yes it’d be a life-changing experience.
@MYOS1634 I feel like I am leaning towards that option at this point. However NEU was not clear on whether or not they would let me defer and I still haven’t heard from Tufts.
Tufts is big on deferrals as far as I know, especially if it’s to go abroad.
@MYOS1634 Oh, I wasn’t accepted to Tufts, but it’s the school I’d apply ED to if I was to take a gap year. Part of the reason I want to take a gap year is to have more options.I need to make sure that they wouldnt consider me a transfer student if I took language classes in Spain during the gap year.
I think – because of your denials this year (possibly arbitrary) – that you may be underestimating the fantastic academic options that would be open to you next year.
I wonder if your interest in a cognitive science major limited your college search too early. Even if a college only has a neuroscience major, they will still likely have a faculty member whose specialty is cognitive science. With proper guidance, and select courses in anthroplogy, linguistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy and psychology, plus neuroscience, I think you could acquire the content of a cognitive science major at some colleges you hadn’t previously considered, and which would also be really generally appealing to you.
Btw, when you apply for your deferment, avoid the expression “screw it” on the form. Irrespective of whatever else I’ve commented on, I’m certain about that.
Would you go on your own, as part of a family, or with an organization?
If you want to learn Spanish, get immersed in the society and life people actually live, and not risk anything, check with nacel or afs or yfu (or Rotary? or other groups?) and attend a Spanish high school.
In the meanwhile, watch “L’auberge espagnole” by Cedric Klapish - it deals with junior year abroad for college students but it’d still be interesting. Note that if you’re under 17, it’s rated R.
@merc81 I agree that cog sci limited my search. Since it’s such a rarity, it’s really only in reachy-reach schools and large state schools. I’m really not competitive enough for anything under a 15 percent acceptance rate and large state schools don’t appeal to me, so I was left, really, with too few options. And no worries- I know when to sound professional when necessary 
@MYOS1634 I would go with an organization (API). Courses in Spanish would be at Complutense University in Madrid. The admissions officer at NEU said that since my classes there would not go towards credits towards my majors at NEU, I would most likely be allowed a deferral, but he wouldn’t say for sure.
I called Tufts today and they said they liked my gap year plan and would not hold my plan to take language courses against me in the application process. I applied to defer my enrollment to Northeastern and they will get back to me soon. Once they permit it, I’ll put in my deposit with API and pay to take the June SATs. It’s becoming very real!!
congratulations
568: Offering you my congratulations also. I’ll look for your further posts here and post my comments if I think they can be helpful. I may even offer you a reading list for your gap year … starting with a book from 1980.
Do any of you know whether or not colleges I apply to during my gap year will be able to find out that I deferred enrollment at NEU? Is it wrong/against the rules for me to defer and apply to different schools? I’m just a bit worried about this. I know that NEU cannot make me go, but would schools I apply to during my gap year reject me if they knew I deferred enrollment at a different Uni?
Did NEU officially approve your deferment?
No, colleges won’t know and won’t care. You’ll be abroad on a gap year. That’ll be your status.
Some deferrment conditions are that you don’t apply to other colleges, but not necessarily and typically there is no negative consequence if you find another college you like better (colleges are used to summer melt… I assume there’s a sort of gap year melt factored in). Interests change during a gap year and colleges that grant it hope that you’ll stay with them. The issue of course is less of a problem with Princeton than with some other schools.
^my last sentence meant: some colleges are big fans of gap years because their students always or mostly return (matured and more experienced, autonomous, less burnt out…) Other colleges are less fans of gap years; while there’s no term such as “gap year melt”, it’s a real phenomenon that colleges are well aware of, even if they themselves aren’t affected by it.
NEU sent me yet another form of request for deferment to fill out, but I don’t want to go all the way until I knew for sure that what I was doing was okay.
In terms of ethics, I think about it this way: If you are accepted for deferment at NEU, you are then an NEU student. On the surface, this seems like an ethical commitment or obligation. However, in becoming a student, it seems as if you should have the same rights as other NEU students, one of which is the right to transfer or, in your case, “transfer.”