After this recent round of college admission, I ended up with lots of waitlists/rejections from my top choices, and I was wondering if it could be beneficial to take a gap year and reapply.
I was waitlisted at Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and Duke and I am right now planning on attending USC in the fall, which was one of my least favorite choices. BUT, because I feel like I was so close to being admitted to some of these places (because of the waitlists), will I have any better chance if I reapply? It would likely be a less competitive year, and although I don’t have many additions to my application, I have a few new awards and activities. I am happy to answer any questions and would love to hear your thoughts.
You can always try and reapply. You need to maintain a high GPA and continue your interests and/or develop new ones. However, I would not recommend entering university with the idea of transferring. You will limit your openness to people and programs at USC. You may find that by the end of the year, you would rather be there than anywhere else due to friendships made, courses taken, profs known, etc. I would go into your freshman year-open, eager, and excited, and then see what happens. You also can go to one of those universities later for grad/professional school if you do well at USC. My nephew recently graduated from USC and had a great experience there. He now is a MD/PhD student at Penn, probably among the top 3 med schools in the U.S.
What will change that will make you a better candidate next year ? No you should not reapply. Usc is a top school. Why did you apply if you were not interested ? The big mistake people make is applying to schools they don’t have interest in attending.
USC is wonderful. Go in with the right attitude and be glad you are in.
I don’t think your chances will be better if reapplying, certainly not if you do so mid-first year, as not much will be different from last year’s apps. I don’t necessarily think this year’s cycle will be any easier….so many schools are overenrolled, and depending on the school, that may impact this year’s admissions.
Since you asked about a gap year – not transferring – what are you planning to do during that year that is going to make such a big different to your application? If you have something amazing lined up, maybe your strategy could work. But if it’s doing something more "ordinary " and reapplying, it’s less likely. Those schools are not likely to have dramatically different admissions profiles next year.
It’s impressive that you were WL at all those schools. Is it possible that a bit of serendipity could have changed just one of those WL to an acceptance? Yes. Is it likely that reapplying will bring you that serendipity? No.
Anecdotally, several years ago, a friend’s D was accepted at a number of schools including Yale. She wanted to transfer for her sophomore year (with an excellent record.) Several of the schools that had accepted her before accepted her again. Yale, however, did not. It’s easy to think that if you were on the cusp, it’ll change for the better. But that’s not always so.
You are better off starting at USC and giving it your all and trying to transfer if all your best efforts show it to be a terrible fit. Know, however, that few of those schools take many transfers.
Do not take a gap year and reapply. You are very unlikely to get in, unless you have some additional, extraordinary achievement in the interim. Move forward with your life. Go to the best college that you got into, study what you love, do your best, and if for some reason you are unhappy there, consider transferring to a school where you think you would be happier.
Wait lists are not an indication that you “almost” got in. They are usually a soft rejection. Yes, more students were taken from wait lists by some schools in spring/summer of 2020 because some schools were looking to get paying students to fill the slots of those who chose to take gap years instead of starting during the pandemic. That’s unlikely to happen again, barring extraordinary future circumstances. There will be a whole new crop of students to for schools to choose from next year. Your chances will be no better - in fact, they will likely be worse.
Everyone here said it - but let me be more clear. Getting on the wait list is the same as getting rejected.
The wait list is a hedge for the school. Colleges are businesses. They need revenues so they need to put butts in seats. They don’t want to hit the wait list, especially the elite and few did this year - because it denigrates the class that they desired.
It doesn’t mean there aren’t great students on the waitlist or even rejected because there are. But the colleges have to make a decision as to who they want - and that’s what they do - find what they perceive are the best and using their yields, go with that.
Also, there are great schools everywhere. USC is unbelievable. Look at one you’d never think of - Alabama. They give so much aid to top students - guess what - they over enrolled by thousands - they have no dorm space. They got more really smart kids (yes, many turning down Ivy) due to the aid they offered. My point- you can get a great education anywhere. You are clearly a prestige seeker (and USC is prestige) but prestige will not bring you success in life - you will bring you success!!
Do you really think it’s smart to take a year off for no other reason than you didn’t get into the school you wanted. And then when you don’t get in next year - and you likely won’t - then what.
For anyone reading - please ensure all schools you apply to - especially your safeties and USC is a safety for no one - but please make sure you can see yourself at that school - or don’t apply.
The other thing is - so many have their dream school and they get there - and it’s not a dream. Bad roommates. Professors they struggle with, etc. Just because it’s great on paper and on a visit doesn’t mean it’s great. On the other hand, you can go to a school because your “hand was forced” and find wonder extracurriculars, make great friends, and have an awesome experience.
Get your mind in the right place and go in and get that awesome experience. There are kids at USC getting rejected at Northwestern, Rice, Cornell, etc. It’s an amazing school and you should be proud.