I’m taking two gap years with the intention of starting my freshman year in the fall of 2020. When I was a senior applying to colleges, the decisions weren’t really my own but rather my parents’ since I didn’t really know what I wanted, and as a result, I was accepted to University of Maryland, College Park. I graduated the summer of 2018, and I took that acceptance from UMD and applied for one gap year since that’s all they said was allowed. At the moment, I’m still in my first gap year and I’m enrolled at UMD. I’ve made the bigger decisions regarding my future. I want to withdraw completely out of UMD so that I can apply to the colleges I truly want to go to, and since, to my parents especially, this all involves a lot of risk, I’m wondering about a few things:
- How does being a year removed from high school affect my application (I would apply winter 2019)?
- What would colleges want to see from me? (I know a big one is travel, whether or not it's to volunteer, what else?)
- How should I spend my time in the gap years leading up to applying, and then in the subsequent time leading up to the start of classes? (Right now the biggest things I am doing are a full-time job, learning Romanian, practicing piano, and working out every day, what else should/could I do?)
- What should I do regarding letters of recommendation and guidance counselor letters since I’m somewhat removed from my high school’s faculty? (what if I can't go to them for good references?)
- Will my application be weaker than that of a high school student taking no time off and going straight to college? If yes, how do I fix that.
- If I don’t do internships or volunteer during the gap years, will it undoubtedly make my application weaker? Can I do other things that substitute that?
Thank you so much for your time helping me out 