Question about gap year..

<p>I applied cornell ED..but my GPA is super low like 3.2 cumilative..that's becoz i slacked off sophomore year....I m just wondering..what if i take a gap year...
the circumstances...
my sophomore year GPA 3.1, junior year GPA 3.35.... (cumilative 3.23) and I know I am probably gonna get a GPA 3.8 with 4 APs end of senior year which would bring my cumilative up to 3.5..... (I go to one of the 7 most prestigious NE boarding schools btw).....so if I dont get into cornell early or my top choices school...would it serve me better to just take a gap year and apply again next year with that 3.5 cumilative?? If you had completed high school do colleges count your senior year???</p>

<p>then consider the second choice...what if I only get into my safety school..can I pay the deposit..ask the school to defer enrollment for a year (so I dont have to worry about safeties) and apply to reach schools again next year...If i get in...good..if i dont, I will just enroll at the safety.....</p>

<p>pls comment on both</p>

<p>bumop bump</p>

<p>someone maybe</p>

<p>bumpbumpbump</p>

<p>That's a good question.. My parents were suggesting that too because I can probably boost up my GPA with my senior year. Hope someone answers this soon.</p>

<p>Plan #2 won't work. After you've been offered admission by a school, taken them up on the offer and asked for a deferral, you CANNOT apply to another college. You've agreed to go to the college that has accepted you and from which you have asked for a deferral.</p>

<p>well but wouldnt that be like paying the deposit agreeing to go thenmoveon to a waitlist school..wouldnt u be doing the same thing in this circumsance anyway?</p>

<p>however, pls dont turn this thread into an ethic discussion...pls stik with the original question</p>

<p>I wasn't intending to turn your thread into an ethics discussion. What I was saying was not that what I described is morally wrong, but that it is expressly forbidden in the same way that if you apply to a school binding early decision, then you are bound to go to that school. That's the pact you've signed with the school. That's the rule. Is it ethical to follow the rules? Well, yes. I wasn't preaching ethics; I was informing you of the rules. I, personally, wouldn't want to break the rules--both because I'm a moral person and because I'm sure there could be consequences.</p>

<p>At any rate, I'd go for applying twice: now, and, if you don't get accepted by any of the colleges you actually want to attend, after the gap year. (I think the gap year is a fantastic idea, by the way--so long as you do something worthwhile! If you do something worthwhile, then I imagine it could boost your chances quite a bit if you apply during the gap.) I wouldn't accept any college's offer of admission if I intended to reapply to any colleges the next year. It is okay to apply to the same college twice (there's usually a little box where you can indicate if your application isn't the first one you've submitted to the college).</p>

<p>honestly, i think that gap year will hurt you more than help...im applying to transfer right now, and the admissions office said that they frown upon post-high school "gap years", whether its before or after you begin your first semester of college, unless you're doing something wayy amazing (think saving starving AIDs orphans in africa)...
you're GPA doesnt sound low enough (a 3.5 is not bottem of the barrel...i had a 3.5 applying, and i got into good engineering schools...if your crap grades are in subjects that dont apply to the school you're applying to, they'll take that into consideration...plus, a tough school and tough courseload will add brownies points as well...i slacked off my junior year and im fine at a top 30 engineering school)
maybe you should modify your list and apply to more schools that are slight reaches, because you never know...then, just keep up your first semester college grades, and enjoy cornell's somewhat decent transfer rate
my vote? dont skip a year...go to the best place you get in (that you like ofcourse) and heck, you might even want to stay, and if not, cornell has a nice transfer rate</p>

<p>I asked the Dartmouth director of admissions what he and the other admissions officers thought of gap years, and he said that they love seeing students take a year before college to do something interesting. I assume other colleges feel somewhat the same way.</p>

<p>i have a 3.2 right now ...that's wut i m saying..i m saying if I finish senior year then when i apply next year it will be a 3.5..but as of now(the time i m applying)..it's a 3.2, which sucks at all the top engineering schools</p>

<p>Harvard encourages students to take time off:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/time_off/timeoff.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/time_off/timeoff.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>bearcats, you know your school is REALLY rigorous compared to other high schools in the country, so a 3.2 would be probably be much ihgher at a normal high school. Cornell knows that because they probably get a ton of applications from schools like Hotchkiss, Andover, SPS, Deerfield, Groton, etc. each year. Don't sweat it.</p>

<p>i had a 3.3 something when i was applying...if they see an upward trend, they'll take that...plus, they might even WL you, wait for final grades, see the improvement, and accept you...i had a 4.21 every quarter senior year, and thats what helped me out...im hopin it'll help me out, even with a 3.5 HS GPA and 3.5 college GPA to get into UVA</p>

<p>"what if I only get into my safety school..can I pay the deposit..ask the school to defer enrollment for a year (so I dont have to worry about safeties) and apply to reach schools again next year...If i get in...good..if i dont, I will just enroll at the safety....."</p>

<p>It depends on what school you want to defer enrollment from. Some schools (probably private ones) will do this only if you state that you definitely will attend them the next year. More than likely public schools would not be as adamant that you commit to attending them the next year because most have problems with having too many students anyway.</p>

<p>If you would plan to reapply to schools that rejected you, I doubt that a gap year would help you. A big reason: Until about 2013, college admissions is expected to get increasingly competitive because of the rising number of college-bound seniors.</p>

<p>UJust look at what happened to Andison (check the archives in the Parents Forum), an outstanding student who was rejected everywhere, then took a gap year and reapplied to some schools, adding some others to his list, too. I believe that all of the schools that initially rejected him rejected him again, though he did end up getting into some very competitive schools.</p>