re-applying to a new college during gap year

Applying to College
1

<p>hello all!!</p>

<p>i was supposed to start as a freshman at case western reserve university a few weeks ago, but because of last minute hesitations with my dad, due to conflicts ive had with him and finances, he is making me take a gap year. </p>

<p>i have deferred admission to case for a year, but i really don't like case at all. i applied to A LOT of schools last year, 17 to be exact, and case was my very last choice. i got into about 10 of these schools, but case was the only school to give me enough scholarship money--22,500 a year (the only other scholarship money i got was from Ohio university and university of miami in fl, and it was only 5,000 from both) . i also got wait listed but later deferred by others. i applied regular decision for all of these schools.</p>

<p>i was only going to case originally because of the scholarship money, and i was going to transfer out later if i didn't like it, and i was pretty sure i wouldn't. however, now that i have to take this gap year, i'm thinking about reapplying early decision to some of the schools i got into/ got waitlisted by.</p>

<p>i graduated a year early last year, and im a bit sad because i feel like all the work i put into graduating early is wasted.</p>

<p>my gap year activity options are limited, my dad is very strict and we live out away from any real establishments (its a suburban area that is just neighborhoods for miles--the closest thing to us is a grocery store with a few other stores around it, and its like 12 miles away) im 17 but cant drive, and don't have any friends in the area. my dad is making me see counseling because of our conflicts. he also said i could volunteer, but transportation is an issue, and because of a lack of transportation i can't get a job.</p>

<p>my bottom line is--i want to apply to schools during my gap year, and i want to know about how to do it and about getting more scholarships. because i wont be able to do anything crazy like backpack through Europe, im not sure if my application will be very strong--i probably wont do anything interesting before i send my applications since im applying early desicion. i will try to retake the sat and work hard on my essays. my gpa was a 3.8 uw, and my sat was 1910. i will be reapplying to schools i got into and got wait-listed by. i will be majoring in bme. here they are:</p>

<p>schools i got into already
university of Miami, fl
Ohio state university
Ohio university
Georgia tech
Penn state
Emory university
furman university
drexel university (for second choice major)
unc chapel hill
and of course case western</p>

<p>schools i got waitlisted and later deffered by:
university of michigan
tulane university
wake forest university </p>

<p>tulane is my biggest hope in terms of scholarship, admissions, and a school that i love. i loved emory but their emory scholars program rejected me so i got no scholarships. georgia tech would be great if i could get scholarship money.</p>

<p>any other suggestions? do you think tulane will be a good idea for scholarships? any NEW schools you would recommend that would give me scholarships, especially for my major? any suggestions for adding to my application, essay writing, or applying for scholarships?</p>

2

<p>Pre med girl: this is your opportunity to get into a school that you will feel comfortable attending. Apply to those schools who had questions about you and work a little and volunteer at a food bank. Good LUCK!</p>

3

<p>thank you aunt bea!!</p>

4

<p>One word of caution: does your deferral agreement w/CW prohibit you from shopping around? After all, they are holding a spot for you and likely, some Fin Aid money for you for next year with the expectation that you’ll go later. Ethically, you might need to formally withdraw from CW before re-applying to other colleges. Of course, this jeapordizes your Fin Aid. Good luck.</p>

5

<p>I’m not sure what you mean when you say you were waitlisted and then deferred. Being deferred and then waitlisted implies an early application reconsidered in the regular decision round and then waitlisted (before ultimate rejection as that list closes).</p>

<p>I think there is a problem with your strategy here. Your list of acceptances is very impressive given your SAT scores. The reason you had an issue with this past admissions round is because you did not receive as much merit scholarship money as you apparently need to attend. You are telling us that there is nothing you anticipate to occur during your gap year to make you more attractive to those schools other than essay re-writes or an SAT score bump. You need to look at significantly less selective schools that will give you merit money because you are much better than their typical applicants.</p>

<p>It is nice to “love” schools like Tulane and Emory but an admissions without adequate merit aid has no more value to you than a rejection. Work hard on improving your SAT scores and search this site for threads about merit aid (or repost in the financial aid section) to get a broader range of schools including ones where you would currently fit into their top deciles based on GPA and SAT. Good luck.</p>

6

<p>Premed girl. What about SUNY’s? Their rates are reasonable for OOS and they have decent med school access. You probably could get a decent amount of funding.</p>

<p>Get your license, get a job and work on improving your test scores :)</p>

7

<p>i will definitely look at the SUNY’s aunt bea. </p>

<p>by waitlisted then later differed, i meant to say waitlisted and later declined, sorry–i was put on the waitlist after applying regular decision</p>

<p>also, what is unethical about shopping around? case western holding a spot for me was going to be my back up plan if i don’t get into another school at the end of the day. I was looking to apply because it serves as some silver lining to being stuck at home forced to take a gap year. i was rushed into the application process because i graduated early, and i do feel like if i had enough time i could have done better in terms of school choice. </p>

<p>my gpa was a 3.9 or 3.8 unweighted (never got a copy of my final transcript so im not sure) and it was on a 4.0 scale, and i took a couple honors courses. my entire senior year i took college dual enrollment classes at an accredited university, which was why i was able to graduate early. if i get my sat up to like a 2010, how will i be not a competitive applicant? and also, i won’t have much time to do much before i apply ED or EA. ill be applying in a little over a month. </p>

<p>i wouldn’t mind applying to lower level schools, it’s just that ive never heard about any smaller lesser private schools that were reasearh institutions that had good engineering/pre med programs</p>

<p>any recommendations on such schools?</p>

8

<p>All I’m saying is please read the deferral agreement you signed with Case Western. It may have language there about not applying to other schools.</p>

9

<p>Pre med girl, I agree with T26^. Go to the Case Western web site and make sure you’re not obligated to them and that you’re clear to check out other schools. Read any committals you received from them, then go out and check out other schools.</p>

10

<p>i checked the website and didn’t see anything in particular, but i will email my admissions counselor just in case.</p>

<p>however,my fear is that i don’t want to give the office of admissions the wrong idea and have them cancel my scholarship just because i showed an interest in applying elsewhere. </p>

<p>if they find out i might be thinking of applying elsewhere (even if i have not officially done so) could that put me at risk of loosing my scholarship too? should i ask questions anonymously and not give out my name?</p>

11

<p>Check your email for correspondence from them. </p>

<p>I agree that you don’t want to risk losing FA. </p>

<p>Maybe other posters could help? I’m not sure. But while you’re waiting, check out some of the other schools.</p>

12

<p>This is a question I have been wondering about as well. It would be good to have a more official answer from something like “Ask The Dean”.</p>

<p>It is clear during the application process that a student can not accept more than one spot at a time. If someone is accepted ED, then applications have to be withdrawn from other schools. Once accepted, someone can not accept more than one spot.</p>

<p>A deferral for a gap year is accepting one spot, and this spot is not available to other applicants. Is it up to the college, or is this situation handled like the ED agreement? It’s important to know.</p>

<p>It may be a good idea to sit down with your dad now that you have gotten advice here. It may be that attending Case Western is your best option for the best price. Loving other schools does not help in the long run when it comes to finances. On the other hand, you can use the gap year to improve yourself. You don’t have to go to Europe- that does not impress schools. Using the year to commit to a volunteer job or paid job may lead to an interesting outcome and researching more schools may open other opportunities. Pre-med can be done at almost any school.</p>

13

<p>im currently looking at the SUNY schools and i like them. any other reccomendations on lesser schools?</p>

14

<p>How much money is your family truly ready, willing, and able to pay for your education? For example, if this year goes badly, will your dad pull the plug again next fall, or is he firmly committed to chipping in $XX,XXX each year no matter what? That is where you need to start. Get a solid figure.</p>

<p>That figure plus what you can borrow in a Federal/Stafford Loan ($5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, $7,500 junior year, and $7,500 senior year) plus whatever it is you can make with summer jobs and part-time jobs during the school year is your baseline budget. Subtract $12,000 from the baseline figure for a guesstimate for housing, meals, books/materials, personal expenses, and transportation, then use the remaining figure to search for colleges and universities with tuition and fees no greater than that price range.</p>

<p>Once you’ve got the list that is in your price range, search that list for the major that you are looking for. Almost every college/university in the country offers the courses that comprise the pre-med series so that isn’t a problem. Your issue may be finding affordable institutions for engineering. </p>

<p>Your GPA is good, and would put you in the range for merit money some places. However, the really big money is reserved for people with that kind of GPA and tip-top ACT/SAT scores. Spend a bit of time in the Financial Aid Forum and look at the threads on guaranteed merit-based scholarships. Some of those might work for you.</p>

<p>As for not knowing what your final GPA is, well pick up the phone and call your high school and ask them to send you a copy of your final transcript. While you are at it, call the university where you completed those dual-enrollment credits, and find out what you need to do to get a copy of your transcript from that institution.</p>

15

<p>Keep in mind that freshman recruiting scholarships are only for freshmen. If you take any classes at the college level during the gap year, you would be considered a transfer. The dual enrollment classes won’t count towards this since you took them before you graduated. I think in this case, the transcript you would send to college is the high school transcript, with the dual enrollment classes on there counting towards your high school GPA. I am not sure if you need to send the other one or not- best to ask your GC.
What is your state of residency? Pre-med can be done at most schools, and small schools may have opportunities for research as well. Some smaller schools also have engineering. Some of the “colleges that change lives” give merit aid as well.</p>

16

<p>SUNY Buffalo</p>

17

<p>thank you soo much to everyone who has replied so far. i didn’t expect this much of a response! </p>

<p>my next question is, what should i say to colleges i apply to? what i wanted to tell them is “i am a gap year student who had the original intention of attending Case western, a school that offered me a large sum of merit aid. but due to (maturity, change in ideas, disliking the school ect.) i have come to the realizaion that it is not the school for me. that is why i am applying to your school.” --something along those lines. how should i go about explaining my situation? then, later on, if i did get in, i would talk to the office of admissions and tell them that in order to attend their school i need more merit money than was given to me by Case. is that a good idea? should i tell them that i am already commited to another school? if i get in, can i use the amount of money case western gave me to negotiate for more merit aid?</p>

<p>also, i was advised by tulane to chat with my admissions counselor to tell her about my situation and ask her about scholarships and the reapplication process. what should my approach be when emailing her? should i tell her everything about the situation, including my need for merit money? i will try as much as i can to show enthusiasm about the school and how it is currently my top choice in my re-application process. what questions should i ask to help myself in showing that i have a lot of interest, enough to catch her eye and remember my name when she sees my application? </p>

<p>how should i approach my essay writing?</p>

<p>and most of all, if it comes down to the wire, how DOES one ask for more merit money? how do you talk to them, and what word choice should i use to sway them (if indeed they can be swayed)?</p>

18

<p>also, i want to know what my chances are at schools i was accepted to in the previous year. since i was already accepted, do you think reapplying a second year shows a lot of interest in the school? what about the schools i was waitlisted by? will this effect how much scholarship i might get?</p>

19

<p>Merit money is awarded to students that the university wants to recruit. It is different from need based financial aid. Before FA is discussed, the student must be accepted to the college. IMHO, I would not discuss it up front, but seek out colleges that award merit aid and apply for any merit scholarships you may qualify for.
Qualifying for merit aid is different than getting accepted into the college. The college awards it because basically- they want you there as they believe you add something desirable- above and beyond the other applicants- to the school. As you know, the Ivy’s don’t award merit aid- why? because they don’t need to and every applicant is a top student. Another school that wants to recruit more top students may offer merit aid to the top percent of their applicants.
Your chances at the same schools may be approximately the same, and so is the chance of getting merit aid. Why? because this is where you stood in the applicant pool and that probably won’t change drastically from year to year. If you apply to them, the financial picture may be similar (unless something changes- either your need, or you scores go up for instance).
Read some of the threads here regarding merit aid. Some schools have automatic criteria for aid, others award it to the top applicants in each year- and they don’t have set criteria as it could change slightly.
IMHO, I would sit down with Dad and try to get on the same page. Even with your conflicts, he can see that you have done well academically and it seems he wants you to go to college. Settle on what he is willing to pay. It’s also important to try to repair your relationship with him and his idea of counseling may be a good one. There are always two sides to each story and the neutral counselor may help you both come to better terms.
I don’t think it is useful to discount another college in an essay. Each college has value, and the other colleges may think that if Case is not good enough, what is? The other issues here are finances and your relationship with your dad. That may not be appropriate for an essay either. If you do not get a job, taking up the topic of finances may backfire- they may think why should we give her money if she won’t earn it? When discussing this topic with Dad, you could bring up the fact that finances are an issue and that maybe the best way to help is to get a job. In this case, he may be willing to help with transportation or at least agree with the idea. It can be any entry level job(s)- either at a fast food, or babysitting, and even tutoring. If you can’t go far- babysit, pet sit, house sit, or anything else that can be done in your neighborhood. Tutor kids in your house after school. Note that any money you earn will be considered in any need based aid assessment, but the maturity and money you gain will hugely offset what is discounted. In this case, the essay could be about taking a gap year to earn some money for college.
You are pre-med, so it is important to save on the total costs. Depending on what your Dad is willing to pay, this can be done at your in- state college (s) (which give little aid or are cheaper) or private colleges that will give merit aid. Remember, you need to be at the top of the applicant pool for this.</p>

20

<p>I think you need a better gap year plan. What about AFS or other student exchange programs where you can attend high school in another language and country?</p>