Near shut out - Gap year or transfer?

Parents Forum
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<p>My son received word that he was rejected from his last option today. He was accepted to an honors program at his safety school and was rejected at all (10) others, including his match schools. He is on the waitlist at 2 schools, which of course we are pursuing but are not counting on those working out. In hindsight, we realize now that he should have applied to more matches and fewer reaches (first time as parents going through this process). Going forward, though, we don't feel he would reach his potential at his safety and are trying to decide whether he should take a gap year or go to his safety and try to transfer to a better fit for him next year. He has excellent stats (2310 SAT one sitting; 3.7 GPA; top athelete at his HS, nationally-ranked academic team and more). </p>

<p>Looking for advice and feedback from others who have had or now have similar situations. Thanks!</p>

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<p>It may be his GPA that holding him back. Unless you have some good plan for gap year (e.g. a job related to his future career), I would suggest to get good grades at the safety and look for transfer next year. I’ve met some students that initially thought to take a gap year but ended up never going to college. </p>

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<p>we need more info- such as what is his safety school? and where is he WL’st and where was re rejected?
You DO need to realize that it is generally MUCH HARDER to transfer “up” to more selective private colleges- simply because there are so few openings for transfer students.
The # of openings for transfer students [ again at private colleges] is determined by the number of students who decide to leave that college… Colleges view high graduation rates as very important and will generally try to help students not to transfer, if they can . </p>

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<p>safety: Rutgers
waitlist: UChicago, Dartmouth
Rejected: Berkeley, Northwestern, various ivies</p>

<p>Whether he took a gap year or tried to transfer, we would focus on match schools rather than reach schools. I agree with you both, billcsho and menloparkmom, that good grades at safety may help but it may also be harder to transfer than start the process over…hence the dilemma. I don’t think there is a risk that a gap year would result in his not attending college at all though.</p>

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<p>Also received an ROTC scholarship and is a National Merit Scholarship finalist (still waiting to hear if selected). Unfortunately he was not accepted at identified ROTC school (Berkeley).</p>

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<p>Rutgers is a very good school. Honestly, if it were me, I would attend Rutgers freshman year and then consider my transfer options.</p>

<p>As someone above said, unless I had something specific in mind for the gap year, I would fear that the gap year would get me “off track” from going to school. </p>

<p>Also, don’t give up on your waitlist schools. Send them both letters letting that know you really want to attend and provide them any additional info from senior year that could sway them. Work like a dog these final weeks of senior year to get A’s in the remaining classes. Some people are taken off the waitlist as late as July. It may be a slim chance, but it’s still a chance. You never know.</p>

<p>Best of luck to him! </p>

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<p>If money is an issue, a gap year is better than a transfer. Aid for transfers usually is not very good.</p>

<p>His profile would have landed him a bunch of automatic full tuition/full rides, and made him competitive for some others. Show him these two threads. He might find something that he likes better than Rutgers that will make waiting a year worthwhile.
<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Meanwhile, have him pay a visit to the honors program at Rutgers. It may well be full of students who are his true peers, and be a great opportunity for him.</p>

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<p>I hope you both realize that if you start the process over, he WILL have to get new LOR’s from his old teachers as well as his HS Counselor. It may be harder than you think to getting them again from teachers that haven’t seen his face in the classroom for many months. Their first priorities in addition to teaching, will be writing LOR’s for their current Seniors.
Uless he has gap year plans that will DAZZLE college admissions officers, I strongly suggest he enroll at Rutgers and make the most of his time there. </p>

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<p>How is the GC at his school? I have heard stories of GCs being very helpful in dealing with waitlist schools, particularly in the case of a kid who’s been shut out by most. As to whether to go to Rutgers or take a gap year–I’d say let the kid decide. I wouldn’t worry that he might never attend college–seems like an unrealistic concern since he’s a strong student. As a parent I would support the gap year as long as it was what he wanted and there was a clear plan on how he would spend it productively. My daughter has a dear friend who was in the same situation, took the gap year and will be attending a school that had waitlisted her the year before. (This time she applied ED.) I know of other kids who have gone to safeties and thrived. There’s no one right decision.</p>

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<p>OP.<br>
IMO, those are all reach schools that you have mentioned that your S was waitlisted/rejected especially since his UW GPA is a little bit on the low side. I hope he won’t do the same mistake if he takes a gap year.</p>

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<p>What’s wrong with Rutgers? For most purposes, Rutgers won’t hold him back, and he should be able to find plenty of peer students there, given that it is a state flagship university. Since he applied there in the first place, it must have been a school that he liked well enough to apply there.</p>

<p>If he wants to be a military officer through ROTC, aren’t there Army, Navy, and Air Force ROTC units at Rutgers?</p>

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<p>There is nothing wrong with Rutgers nor did I mean to imply that there is. I went to graduate school there and had an excellent educational experience. That also makes me familiar with the school though and don’t think it is the best atmosphere for him. I think he will do better at a smaller university with a more confined environment. I would be making the same argument for Berkely but he really liked it there, so…</p>

<p>From what we read, he would have ranked in the top 20-25% of applicants based on SATs and GPAs at at least some of the schools he was rejected from. He also has other honors (AP courses etc.). That is why I called them match schools. Certainly not a slam-dunk but I would say not exactly a reach either.</p>

<p>However, my intent was not to discuss the merits of a particular school or even whether he applied to the right “level” of school, it was to get some insight into the relative merits and drawbacks to taking a gap year as opposed to transfering. I appreciate any input people may have in the matter.</p>

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<p>If he were my kid, and enthusiastic about a gap year, I would do a very systematic analysis. I would have him make a list of 5-10 good-match, realistic schools (and some safeties) that he would apply to next time round. Then I would look at the difference in the admit rates for freshman vs. transfers. If freshman admission is generally far easier, and he doesn’t think Rutgers is the right place for him, then I’d vote for the gap year–as long as he spends it productively and he is realistic in where he applies for the next go-round. Not to be sexist or anything (!) but in general I think gap years can benefit many boys, regardless of their admission decisions.</p>

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<p>You might want to read the famous (on CC) story of andison: here it is: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kid-s-story-a-year-later.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kid-s-story-a-year-later.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;. Quick summary: kid got in nowhere, took a gap year, had a much more realistic college list second time around and was accepted at several schools. You’ll have to scroll down a bit to find what he did for his gap year and his approach to college applications the second time around.</p>

<p>I think this story will be helpful to you if you decide to go for the gap year. Also, if you go for the gap year, I recommend that you engage the CC parents in helping your son build a reasonable college list. I understand that you don’t want to do postmortem on this year, but it might be helpful to understand what you did wrong to figure out what to do right next time. And because I can’t help myself: it really looks like his list was top heavy with reaches and no matches – you need to figure out what is really a match for your son, and not base it on where his stats put him.</p>

<p>What does he want to do? </p>

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<p>How does your S feel about Rutgers? From the way you are writing it seems you are the one with cold feet, and if so it shouldn’t have been on the list. I would recommend the next list have more than one safety. Unfortunately NMF may not be a boost next year since I believe it only applies the year you graduate. I agree with others that transfers have a hard time going up in the perceived levels (fewer spots available, similar people competing). What does he want to study?</p>

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<p>What school is his in-state public? Is it Rutgers or UCB?</p>

<p>He has a great SAT, What where is AP courses/scores? Which sport?</p>

<p>Is the ROTC for career military? Which branch? what was he looking for service selection?</p>

<p>Is that 3.7 weighted or unweighted? what was his weighted GPA? </p>

<p>His sport? Did he want to play in college?</p>

<p>Do you need financial aid for him to attend? Or that ROTC scholie? Or merit? Or both?</p>

<p>What school did he really see himself at? Sounds like smaller…his major?</p>

<p>What did he put for his major for his ROTC scholie? If he gets off the wait-list can he switch his ROTC to that school? Do they have room for him at the ROTC offfice? I ask because sometimes if the CO will take him at that school they can call admissions and have some say. Sometimes.</p>

<p>Depending on your answers, I might lean to that gap year. ROTC scholie’s are only awarded to some of the best students and not just scholars but leaders. How does your son feel about Rutgers?</p>

<p>My middle son also had ROTC scholies, NROTC to MIT, AFROTC to p’ton and AROTC to Yale. They were movable if he wanted to attend a different school and there was room for him at that office.</p>

<p>Don’t know if Chicago or Dartmouth has which branch and which one he was awarded.</p>

<p>Again, if it were one of my boys I might have him do a gap year and re-do that list. Add Vandy, Duke, maybe UNC, their ROTC office can be very influential. Which ivies did he apply to? Any engineering schools, GAtech, VATech, RPI, RIT?</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>Another thought…if he was awarded an ROTC scholie did he consider the academies? </p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>Safety is not just a school that would accept you. If he never think of attending there, it should not even be on the list. Also, you are right that the list was short for matching schools. UCB is known to be competitive for oos although his SAT score is good. I would consider it a high match because of the GPA. It seems you just have the opposite balance of match and reach schools.
Any transfer should be an upward transfer, otherwise, there is no point to transfer unless for a financial reason. Ivies are hard to get in one way or the other. Also, one may consider those prestigious schools again in graduate school.</p>

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<p>Re: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kid-s-story-a-year-later.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kid-s-story-a-year-later.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I would caution about taking too much from this story. The student had no safeties either time, but got lucky the second time. Had he been shut out the second time, it would have been even more devastating.</p>

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<p>What does he think about Rutgers? If he likes a big university like Berkeley, then wouldn’t Rutgers be fine in that respect for him?</p>

<p>More importantly, why didn’t this conversation happen last summer or early fall, so that the application list could have had a safety that you and he would be pleased with if it were the only school he got admitted to?</p>

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<p>If money is a really big issue, there is another option, since he is interested in a military career: Enlist in the desired branch of the military. After a number of gap years equal to his enlistment contract, he can apply to colleges, with both veterans’ benefits and no longer needing parental financial information for college financial aid. While in service, he can also apply to the military academies.</p>