<p>But, Fickle, the OP didn’t really express much of a plan for his gap year–except for trying to beautify his applications so he could get into some other university.</p>
<p>I’m a proponent of gap years–my oldest comes back from hers about 48 hours from now!–but I’d contend that taking a gap year so you could go to Cornell instead of UCLA might actually be wasting a year.</p>
<p>I know, but noobcake seems to be under the impression that <em>all</em> gap years are worthless. That may be true in this case, but not necessarily in general.</p>
<p>Alright thanks guys! I had my visa interview today and it was approved, so UCLA it is :)</p>
<p>Oh yeah, this thread is kind of dead but…</p>
<p>From my point of view, your rejection isn’t especially shocking. I’m sorry to say this, but I have friends who seem much more qualified than you, who have been rejected.</p>
<p>A senior friend of mine will also be attending UCLA with you. He was rejected from Berkeley and UPenn. He had a 3.95+ GPA, a 2300+ SAT, and a likely letter for swimming (a real one, from UPenn), as well as his other EC’s. I’d like to see those people who got into MIT with no EC’s and worse scores than my friend.</p>