<p>Are there any possible schools with rolling admissions that he could still apply to for the fall?</p>
<p>The list is water under the bridge at this point. Although I’m a huge fan of gap years, I don’t think it’s necessary here unless he is dead set against going to Rutgers. If he can get excited about going, there’s no limit on what he can achieve there. He might even love it. But if he doesn’t, strong grades there will give him good transfer options.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>D1 also applied to Rutgers as her safety. It was a mistake on her part because she really didn’t want to go when it came down to it, but it was her in-state and everyone applied to in-state as a safety.</p>
<p>If your son is to go through this process again, I would have someone carefully review his application, especially his essays. He may also want to look into some LACs. As a boy, it maybe easier for him to get into an LAC. I would look into Colgate, Lehigh, Bucknell, Emory. Did he apply to Cornell? I know they take a lot of transfers if your son is considering transfer later.</p>
<p>OP,
The reality these days is that ANY college which rejects 80+% of applicants is a REACH for everyone who applies. That is the statistic you and he need to pay attention to in the future, because it wont be any different next year. Unfortunately he did apply to all reaches, except Rutgers, not matches. </p>
<p>FWIW: S was in precisely the same position five years ago, had a spectacular experience at the honors college at Rutgers, and had a choice between two six figure jobs at the time of graduation.</p>
<p>An unweighted GPA of 3.7 is low for an elite school. I think it is unlikely that a gap year would help.
Rutgers is respected enough as a university that straight A’s there could make the OP’s son attractive for transfer somewhere–maybe not a top 10 school, but somewhere “better” if that’s what he wants.</p>
<p>Just throwing it out there, but I have heard that transferring into Cornell is not as tough as the other ivies–a perfect or near-perfect GPA would do it. </p>
<p>Rutgers is a decent school and I know that their physics department is amazing. Other than that, I don’t know much about it. </p>
<p>Rutgers is well respected in subjects like philosophy, physics, math, computer science, many kinds of engineering, English, and history. I don’t see why it should be considered an undesirable school for a good student.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses! I will try to answer all the questions…</p>
<p>He wants to study literature and environmental science, ultimately to be an environmental lawyer. Unfortunately does not want to be an engineer (there are many great engineering schools out there!)
AP - Calc
He attends a magnet school and all classes are taught on an honors level, but he does not get honors “credit” towards the GPA.
Also had 800 and 750 SAT IIs (lit and USH)
He applied to USNA but was not accepted.
He loved U Chicago and Brown.
ROTC scholarship is for Navy. No Navy ROTC at Chicago or Dartmouth. I am not positive what major he put for the scholarship but I think it’s biology or env science. </p>
<p>Sport is wrestling. Would like to continue in college, could compete at D3 level.
State U is Rutgers.
Financial aid is important to some extent, but of course it depends on tuition.
Working on that new list.</p>
<p>Why we didnt have this conversation earlier: Not sure the point of that question, we are where we are, but overall we thought he had chosen some schools that were good fits, and our family was dealing with multiple serious medical issues that prevented us from being quite as involved in the process as we would have liked. I didn’t even know about this website until about a month ago.</p>
<p>He is less enthusiastic about doing a gap year than going to Rutgers and transfering, not sure why. He is stubborn and a teenage boy and it is hard to communicate with him about pretty much everything, particularly when he is upset. However, I know he doesn’t like the spread-out campus at Rutgers; also it is close to where we live and he wants a different experience.</p>
<p>We’ve will look again at schools with rolling admissions but I think from what we have seen he would prefer Rutgers over what options are still available at this point.</p>
<p>Thank again for your input.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t waste much time fretting about what might have been - which I think is what a gap year would turn into. </p>
<p>That’s the whole point of a ‘safety school’, an appealing alternative in case plan A doesn’t pan out. Rutgers is a very good school. If he lives on campus, it won’t feel like his home turf. I’d encourage the kid to make the most of the wonderful opportunities it will present him. </p>
<p>@mlfkoenig Don’t give up on UChicago, especially since he liked it a lot. They often like to bring in students who are “against type.” An athlete with strong stats would be an example. Truth in advising: My son attended Chicago. He was not against type at all. But his GPA was about where your son’s is, as were his test scores a (1570 on the two core SAT tests at the time). If your son has any more information about his interest and qualifications (specific awards, championships, recognition, etc.) since he submitted his application, he should send that information to UChicago now.</p>
<ol>
<li>Here’s advice if he’s fine with going to Rutgers: Get over your own disappointment and let him go to college with his age group. The worst case scenario is that you pressure him into taking a gap year he doesn’t want and he develops an attitude that is reflected in his next go-round of applications.</li>
<li>Advice if he doesn’t want to go to Rutgers: Have him take a gap year rather than transferring. Doublecheck, but my understanding is that admission rates and financial aid packages tend to be higher for freshman than transfers and I think fewer schools are need blind for transfer students. Getting waitlisted at Chicago and Dartmouth is not too shabby! Since his GPA is not stellar, those waitlist results suggest that he presented himself very well in his application and that he is likely to meet with much success if he applies to some schools just one or two rungs down. Of course, he needs to be prepared for the possibility that things won’t work out that way.</li>
</ol>
<p>You say:</p>
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<p>I don’t think he is being stubborn. He wants to move on to the next phase of his life. He was not a good candidate for many of the schools on his list and a gap year will not change that. He does not want to put his life on hold for a year to make you happy. </p>
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<p>Perhaps he wants to get on with his life instead of putting it on hold for a year while working in a typical high school graduate job?</p>
<p>What about a prep school, for a year? </p>
<p>I cannot imagine why a good student would want to repeat a year of high school over going to a good university like Rutgers.</p>
<p>I would vote for going to Rutgers and seeing how he likes it. I know two kids in their honors program who love it - the impression I get is it is a little bit like a small school within the college and therefore he might do well there. After a term at Rutgers he can decide if he wants to transfer or not and pick schools to transfer to at that point. However, he needs to go in giving Rutgers a fair chance - join the ROTC or whatever he likes and try being a part of the community. It is never good to go anywhere with the attitude of I am just passing time until I can transfer out of this place.</p>
<p>I would not go to prep school. It will look odd; I think the only reason it makes sense to do this is if the candidate had an atrocious record and wouldn’t get into any decent schools.</p>
<p>Proudpatriot, I’m not sure why you would say “He does not want to put his life on hold for a year to make you happy.” This is not about me, he is disappointed with his situation and I posted here to try to find out the best way to get him where HE wants to be. Maybe he will listen to my advice and maybe he won’t, but at least I can tell him the pros and cons, once I know them, of the various options.</p>
<p>If he were to do a gap year, I think it would be best for him to gain some real-world experience in a field he thinks he may want to major in, like an internship in a law firm doing environmental law. At least then he would have a better idea if that is really what he wants to do with his life, before he spends years studying for it.</p>
<p>I have also gotten the impression that the honors program is like a small school w/in the college, that definitely is a major plus. </p>
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<p>Given the glut of lawyers these days, you may want to research how realistic getting such an internship is as just a high school graduate, when the law firms can have their pick of unemployed lawyers desperate for any way into a law job.</p>
<p>Another vote for Rutgers and transferring if he decides he wants to later. </p>
<p>Doing very well at in the honors program Rutgers would put him in a very good place when applying to grad schools. I can imagine that a student of his caliber would be able to find mentors and cultivate professorial relationships that would be important for recommendations for grad schools, summer programs, and even jobs after college.</p>
<p>The problem with trying to get internships during a gap year is that most companies require that the students also be enrolled in a college or university, as the law doesn’t allow companies to "hire"someone for no pay unless they are being compensated with college credits. He could try to get a job, of course, but it would be pretty tough to find something that would challenge him with no college under his belt.
At Rutgers, he could explore a lot of classes and really spend the time solidifying what he would like to major in. He could also find summer internships and work experience through the college, as an enrolled student. </p>
<p>Personally, it seems a shame to pass up the opportunity to move forward just because he didn’t get into more prestigious colleges. </p>