<p>So I applied to Yale last year SCEA and was deferred then denied. I had decent grades and scores (all within the ranges and whatnot), but it was definitely a fairly long shot. Anyhow, I moved on with my life, enrolled at another university and got a scholarship to spend a year abroad, at the high school level, before starting college.</p>
<p>The university I got into is definitely a great school by all accounts (I say that with the fake grin of forced happiness, but it's true), it's just my family's alma mater (and I mean my WHOLE family's). I'd be fine and happy and well adjusted there eventually, I would just love anywhere else a little bit more. Plus Yale has much stronger programs in the two fields I'm considering and a fair amount more opportunities. It was my dream school for a reason.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I'm looking at my options now and could actually reapply this year as a first year student again. But I'm weighing the cost of time, effort, and money vs some tiny chance of acceptance. Would the gap year experience significantly improve my chances? Would double applying make me seem dedicated or, conversely, delusional/obsessed? A penny for your semi-expert opinions?</p>
<p>BTW, it's totally legal for me to cancel my enrollment at the other university at any time, I asked.</p>
<p>I’m going to be attending a high school in Germany, living with a German family, and more or less continuing my education and becoming patently fluent in German.</p>
<p>I’m almost positive that, at the very least, I’ll switch in-state institutions (assuming I get readmitted, fingers crossed) and two schools really isn’t that much more work than one since they both use the Common App. I figured why not try? Of the several universities from which I was rejected last year; Yale was the only one that I legitimately cared about. With another year of thought and a lot less high school stress, it’s really quite obvious to me what I want.</p>
<p>"There are exceptions to everything, I guess, but I don’t think I have ever heard of a student being successful reapplying to Harvard or Yale a year after being rejected or waitlisted there. The OP should probably accept that Yale is off the table and concentrate on other colleges (and other means of financing college).</p>
<p>Years ago, there was a famous thread on CC about “andisson”, a top student who somehow managed to get rejected everywhere he applied, including what he thought was his safety school. He had a very productive gap year, and also did a great job analyzing what might have gone wrong with his original applications. He applied to a broader range of colleges the second time around, and received a number of admissions offers; he ultimately went to one of those colleges that goes by a single initial here on CC and has an admission rate to match. </p>
<p>But . . . not one single college of the colleges that had rejected him the year before accepted him when he reapplied. With his new-and-improved application and great gap year, he was accepted by almost all of the colleges to which he applied for the first time, and rejected by every college to which he reapplied.</p>
<p>So, reapply if you want, but don’t give up any real opportunity to give your reapplication a better chance, because your reapplication probably has no chance no matter what you do."</p>
<p>Aside from the fact that this thread pre-dates the other, I appreciate your attempt at input, Gibby, but it really didn’t add anything and the situations are rather different as are the expectations of the OP in that thread and myself. I’m fully aware that I won’t get in and it’s what I’m expecting, but as was noted above, there is no harm in trying. I’m reapplying to another well respected institution, which I’m sure I will love. So if I’m rejected by Yale; I’ll still be happy. Even if I am not readmitted, that’ll be just too bad, because I still have a place in the Class of 2017 (admitted 2016) at another Top 30 college where I will yet still be happy. There really isn’t a way that I can lose in this situation; I was just curious. I didn’t take my gap year to get into Yale, or anywhere else for that matter; I am abroad to achieve a life goal of fluency in a foreign language, to enjoy life, and to stop killing myself with school related stress. So far I’m succeeding.</p>
<p>JHS, who has many more years on CC than either you or I, was very clear . . . s/he has never read about one student being accepted after being rejected. Never. Ever. Not one. At either Harvard or Yale.</p>
<p>That said, you could be the exception. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>FWIW, I do know of a student who was rejected by all of her ivy choices (hs class of 2011), was accepted to a couple of schools she wasn’t as interested in, took a gap year in China, reapplied to Harvard, and…got in.</p>
<p>So it does happen. I’m sure you have to demonstrate significant growth in some element of your application, but I think it’s worth trying.</p>
<p>Why not? It doesn’t seem like there’s any downside. And there is a potentially HUGE upside…</p>
<p>Wow, mig. Very generous of you to assume the role of the unpleasant, condescending know-it-all in that conversation, and leave gibby the part of the gracious one.</p>
<p>FWIW, I was waitlisted at Yale for the class of 94, spent the next year as an exchange student in Germany, and was admitted early decision to Yale class of 95. So it does happen, or did 20 years ago. But I’d initially applied as a high school junior, planning to leave high school early without a diploma, so not a typical situation.</p>