<p>Here is my situation:
I am a high school senior who has been accepted and has deposited at a school ranked just within the top 25. However, I am very indecisive and really don't know what I want to study or if this is even the right school for me.
My question is, would it possibly be appropriate for me to take a gap year/defer and re-apply to several colleges in the top 20 this Fall? This would give me an opportunity to study for the SAT, improving my score from the 98th percentile to the 99th percentile. I would study for a few subject tests and take them as well. I already have a unique EC that acts as a hook. I had a 4.0 UW GPA in high school. Therefore I would be eligible for perhaps any school in the country. During this gap year I would have adequate time to consider what I really want to study and decide where I want to go. My backup would allow me to still attend the school I have already deposited at, if something went wrong and I didn't like the options presented to me. </p>
<p>The downside of this course of action would be financial. I have a sibling who has 2 years of college left. If I take a year off, that would mean this sibling and I would only be in college simultaneously for 1 year, therefore increasing college costs and reducing financial aid I would otherwise be receiving (with them in it looks like an EFC of 20k. Out, it looks like 40k). This is obviously sizeable, and if nothing changed and I were to still go to the college I have already deposited at, that would be quite a bit of wasted money. Alternatively, I could get into a school with a larger endowment and better financial aid, and even with having my sibling out of school, would break even financially because of generally better aid from a richer school. </p>
<p>Am I ludicrous for even allowing a thought like this to cross my mind? I'm interested to see what you all have to say and if you see any huge holes in my plan.</p>
<p>If you take a gap year you better do something more meaningful than studying for the SATs. Unless you do something spectacular with the gap year, you are probably better off going to college next year. Sounds like you got in to an excellent school and have the means to pay for it so consider yourself fortunate. College is what you make of it. You can find great classes, activities and friends wherever you go. Unless you feel you made a terrible choice in schools for you personally for some reason, I would not spend five minutes trying to move from a top 25 school to a top 20 school. If you do well at any of these schools you will be in good shape for any career/grad school you want to pursue.</p>
<p>What do your parents think of this? I don’t know if it is worth taking a gap year to go from the 98th percentile to the 99th, and this will cause a larger financial burden to your family. You also have no guarantee of getting into a higher ranked college since many of them have low acceptance rates. I think this is something your parents should have some input into since they would be paying for it.
I don’t know your family values or how much you are invested in the top schools, but there are many good ones outside this range. The college you are accepted to may be perfectly right for you, but you don’t know that yet. If it is unacceptable to you or your family, then perhaps you can’t give it a fair chance, but if it is, you could go with a good attitude, get your general education and pre-requisite classes done, and you may find you are happy there. If not, there is always the chance to transfer. However, since your parents are footing the bill for your plans, they should have a say in this.</p>
<p>Are you also going to defer admission, and then apply to other colleges? I have seen it discussed that this may not be allowed. Some schools ask you to not enroll in, or apply to other colleges during the gap year if they grant a deferral.
I don’t know the rules about this, or what your current school requires. You should check on this. Also if anyone can clarify whether one can or can not accept a position, defer admission, and then reapply that would be useful information.</p>
<p>I was a lot like you-- my stats were solid, excellent ECs… everybody thought I’d be headed to an Ivy.</p>
<p>No dice. Didn’t get too many acceptance letters. Ended up committing to a great university. From the moment I arrived, I loved it. I’m getting more out of this school than I ever could have imagined. </p>
<p>DON’T DON’T DON’T take a gap year just so you can study harder and get into a marginally better school (if that…). Here on CC, kids get overly hyped over who has the best stats, who’s “smartest” based on what school they get into. It’s a bunch of bull. You’d pause your life for a year, for what? A US News and World Report Ranking?</p>
<p>Take this opportunity and run with it. Getting into a “better” school wouldn’t have made you any more sure of what you wanted to study. Use your freshman year to figure that out. Though it may not seem like it after all these years of prepping, there’s a WHOLE lot more to life than college admissions.</p>
<p>IMO, rankings are silly. Check out the top 25. Do you really think Emory is THAT much better than Carnegie Mellon? Or that Rice is THAT much better than UC Berkeley?</p>
<p>These are all good schools, and as nice as it’d be to quantify which will do the most for you, you can’t. Go to school, and transfer if you’re unhappy. But give it a shot, and try to go in with a positive attitude.</p>
<p>Do you know for certain how your aid package will change? Most institutions don’t meet full need. Run the Net Price calculator from your college, and see how close the results are to your current aid package for next year. If it is right on target, then pick up the phone and give the financial aid office a call to find out whether or not having your sibling in college has affected your aid, and what you can expect once he graduates.</p>
<p>If you are concerned about the cost of college, use your gap year to find some that would give you big merit aid because if your stats.</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned, this is a great reason to take a gap year! Frankly, if you were my kid, I’d much rather you take a gap year than waste my money at college when you don’t want to be there and don’t know what you want to do.</p>
<p>But you’d darned well better use that year for something worthwhile . . . either get a full-time job or commit to a full-time volunteering position. Because I definitely wouldn’t want to pay for you to take a year off to travel, study for the SAT, or just kick back and relax . . . you’d find yourself paying your own rent if you pulled a stunt like that!</p>
<p>And discuss the financial implications with your parents. If they can afford the extra $20k for you to take a gap year, that’s fine. If they can’t . . . well, then your decision is already made.</p>