<p>Somebody told me that Swarthmore does not admit students who are taking a gap year after high school. Is it true? I have been searching their website but didn't find an answer. I really like Swarthmore, but I did the mistake of not applying during my last high school year, and now it seems to be too late. Please, help me figure it out.</p>
<p>I know at least four students in the freshman incoming class ('12) that took a gap year - then again, they were accepted and then deferred. There's certainly no harm in trying, though, especially if you've had a meaningful experience during your gap year so far. :] To unequivocally reject students who've taken a gap year seems ridiculously un-Swarthmore to me.</p>
<p>That is absolutely not true. At our school we get a lot of kids applying to Swarthmore and they are among the group of kids who tend to take gap years. I personally know of a handful who have done this.</p>
<p>Now you may be confusing the term "gap year". In my experience, that means a year that you take off AFTER you have been accepted to college. You need to request that your chosen school will let you take off a year instead going immediately into your freshman year the following fall as most kids do. Swarthmore and other LACs of its type seem to be very generous in granting permission for this sort of thing.</p>
<p>However, if you are talking about applying to Swarthmore after taking a year off from school after high school graduation instead of applying as a senior in high school, I don't know how schools take that situation. I can see where it has its advantages for a kid who could use another year's worth of good strong grades. Our school discourages this because of the loss of momentum in not doing your apps with your peers, having to go through the trouble of reconnecting with your high school, getting recs, etc, etc. I don't know what impact this has on the acceptance rate from schools overall; most certainly not specifically for Swarthmore.</p>
<p>I have heard the rumor. And I say rumor, because I have never had it substantiated that it is unlikely to get into a given selective school if you have already been rejected by the school, and this is your second try. I don't know if this is true. I've just heard of individual attempts where kids went through the reapp process and were accepted to schools where they were "fresh" material and were accepted to those, but rejected by schools where they had applied before when they were of the same selectivity. But this is just an observation on individual cases and may well be nothing. </p>
<p>I agree with Forgetmenots, that it would not be like Swarthmore or like any school of its type to unequivocally reject students who have applied after taking off a year. I also think it would be ridiculous to unequivocally reject kids just because they applied before. It may be that they scrutinize such apps to make sure there is good reason to accept, but you know, when you are talking about such low accept rates, the chances of getting rejected are unfortunately high. Just the way the numbers go.</p>
<p>NO! swarthmore LOVES gap years. jim bock, their dean of admissions, made a speech a few weeks ago about the advantages of taking a gap year - swat's actually more open to them than most colleges. so definitely go for it.</p>