I want to take a gap year. Will it help/hurt my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I am currently a high school senior getting ready to finalize (or not) college decisions and wrap up my last quarter of high school. I have a few college acceptances from fairly average colleges (definitely not bad, just not “wow”). I am not necessarily disappointed by my options since these schools will all allow me to “get the job done”, (I would like to go to medical school after college) but none of them make me think that I need to jump at the opportunity to attend immediately. I think that I’ve convinced myself that I am going to take a GAP year to volunteer in either Nepal, Morocco, or India for 6-9months. I think It’ll be an invaluable experience and make me more worldly, informed, and allow me to make a meaningful impact. I have the funds saved and figure that no time is as good as now (next year) because the longer I wait, the less likely I will ever be able to take a trip like this.

In the apps I sent out I had a 1990 SAT (700CR/660M/630W), and a 3.5ish GPA due to a poor junior year(1 C, 3 B’s, 3 A’s). I have taken mostly AP and honors classes since freshman year (AP Chem, AP Physics 1, AP USH, AP Comp, AP Calc AB were my 5 APs from junior year). I didn’t apply to any big name academic schools initially due to my mediocre scores and poor GPA, but I am curious if after my trip, and when considering my senior year grades, and maybe updated test scores, I might have a shot at some more competitive schools. My senior year course load looks like this: AP Bio, AP Physics2, English 4 Hon, AP Calc BC, Honors Engineering, AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Computer science and I will finish with straight A’s, bringing my cumulative GPA up to about a 3.67. My intentions are to study all summer, take the SAT in September or October, (bringing it up to 2100+) and then head off on my trip. Do you guys think this volunteer trip(pretty solid EC/Hook?)+the oppourtunity to add my senior year 4.0 to my GPA+the oppourtunity to improve test scores+ the inclusion of my AP scores from this year (assuming I get all 4’s and 5’s) will give me enough ammo to gain acceptance into a better university? I am most interested in Boston College, NYU, Rice, Williams, Bowdoin, Midd, Cornell, USC, UCLA, and UVA. (my Teacher Recs are pretty stellar and I have pretty good High school ECs including 4 year Varsity athlete, Volunteer tutor, and member of a Anto-Gravity CubeSat research team that was chosen as the only High school, along with several colleges and coorperations, to have our experiment flown on a suborbital craft).

I would really appreciate you guys sharing your thoughts. Thanks!

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Its possible but you would really have to raise your SAT score (2250+) if you’re trying to offset your low gpa.

Not quite sure if volunteering 6-9 month will be a hook but it will certainly differntiate you from other applicants.

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Sounds like you loaded up on APs in junior year and saw a grade drop? That’s tricky. If you’re thinking pre-med/stem, the related hs classes need to be your strongest grades and those AP scores need to be strong. The trip can only be icing when the foundation is right. You’re looking for an admit and the adcoms are looking at how you’ll do over the four years at their college. Have you considered an intensive gap year at home, doing something equally worthy, and maybe taking a local cc or college course(s) to make up for the B’s and C? Where’s home? Even stellar residents of VA have trouble getting into UVa. Rice is unpredictable. Williams, Midd and Cornell are highly competitive. Etc. You can look up the stats of matriculated kids to get an idea where you stand.

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@lookingforward

Junior year was obviously a bad year academically but a large part of that had to do with my Chemistry teacher who could not have passed that AP Exam with a 2 or higher to save her life. I’m not exaggerating. In the last 5 years, no student of hers has passed the AP exam without hiring a private tutor. And more than 50 % of her students fail grade-wise. I had a C and that was the second highest grade out of all of her classes… Yeah, BAD. But I realize this wont gain me any favor with admissions committees so, oh well. But in general, yes, my grades were not up to par but it had much less to do with my academic capabilities and more to do with immature study habits and out of whack priorities (I made some unwise time commitments to having a girlfriend vs. doing school work). Up until junior year I had never really needed to work outside of school so I kind of got punched in the face without even recognizing it. Nonetheless, this year I am taking an even more arduous course load with more extra-curriculars and I am going to end up with straight A’s. Do you think that this trend might put admissions committees a bit more at ease?

Do you think it is possible for me to bring my SAT score up from a ~2000 to a ~2200 in one summer with a significant time commitment? I haven’t spent more than 5 minutes combined studying for CR or W yet so I think I have significant room for improvement in all areas.

I have thought about spending my GAP year in other ways, but my primary reason for taking it in the first place is so that I can experience a totally new culture/way of life in addition to gaining worldly experience and making a difference. The suggestion of taking courses at a local college or community college is a good one though. Since the only science class that I have ever done poorly in is AP Chem, if I took Chem 1&2 over the summer at a local college (and got a decent grade), do you think that might help dampen the blow that that C has on my GPA if I can prove that my deficiency wasn’t with the material? My B’s from junior year were in AP Lang (my teacher screwed me over because I had to leave before the end of the semester for work and he told me I wouldn’t miss any assignments, but he ended up giving a quiz to “Boost Grades” and since I wasn’t there to take it, It pulled me down from like a 91 to an 89), AP Calc AB (tough class. not a huge math person. Hopefully an A in BC will be a plus), and AP USH (no excuse. Just couldn’t get excited about history). BUT hopefully, since none of those classes are stem related (besides calc and chem) they wont beat me up too hard. I don’t know, I’m probably being too optimistic.

Okay, so Cornell, UVA, Midd may be off the table, but what about BC, CMU, Tufts, Swarthmore, and/or Williams? I would possibly be a recruited athlete at Williams if that has any bearing on the outcome.

thanks for the replies!

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If you’re thinking pre-med/stem, the C in chem will be noticed. You need to realize they don’t just look at gpa. They look at the transcript. And, they’ll see that, as soon as you loaded up on the rigor of 5 APs, your gpa dropped.

The colleges you mention will also see the B’s. You have to realize that CMU, Tufts, Swat, and Williams are among the toughest schools to get into. A ton of kids apply with 4.0 (or darned close,) and rigor, high scores, incl AP, plus solid ECs, great attributes. You haven’t just upped your list a bit; you’re going for schools with top expectations, a huge leap, it seems.

Yes, you would take chem again, to prove you can master the material. But it still leaves you with a slew of B’s (I suspect, including some B’s in 9th and 10th-?) The wise advice on CC is to think about all this realistically, drop down a notch or more.

You need to research any school you “want.” Look at the kind of gpa and scores their students had.Find colleges where you fit the upper 25% in stats. Understand what they value and look for, beyond stats. It isn’t “gaining worldly experience,” at a high price, half way around the world, as a replacement for the academic strengths.

One option is to stick with the schools that did accept you and see if you can delay admissions, take your trip, and grow. And then come back and go to one of those that accepted you now. You can do well in college and look higher for grad school. I know this is harsh, sorry. But you have to go into this with “eyes wide open.”