<p>First of all, CONGRATS to anyone accepted RD at Harvard this year! I am so excited for all of you, I'm sure you deserve it!
Unfortunately I didn't make the cut this time around, at Harvard or any other school that wasn't a safety for me. I have been playing with the idea of a "gap year" for some time now. I was wondering if anyone has experience re-applying to a selective school? (Harvard or Williams are my top choices, but I'm also considering several other NESCAC schools as well)
Harvard was certainly a reach for me this year (I'm an East Coast middle-class white girl, with 2100 SATs. Good but not great. I may have had some help from a coach, although I really wasn't banking on it and I'm not sure how important that is to Harvard admissions anyway)
Assuming scores go up, does getting rejected once hurt or help my chances? I've gotten mixed messages about this - my counselor told me that many adcoms see it as persistence, although I have friends who did what I'm trying to do and came up short both times.
I know that what you do with your time off is incredibly important as well. I'm planning to live in out west and train for my sport with a different program, while working and taking community college courses. And doing community service!
Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>If you were my kid, I’d say move on with life and excel at the safety that you like the most. As you said, Harvard was a reach (Williams too). Your thought is to delay one year of your life – for what? Another 6.8% chance? I’d say it’s even lower given that you weren’t even offered a spot on the Wait List. That indicates that your file wasn’t unique enough to be counted in the next grouping above the admittees.</p>
<p>Plz don’t take this as dashing water onto your fire. This is the advice I would sincerely give my daughters if they were in your similar situation. Best of luck to you</p>
<p>I say…do a gap year if you wanted to do a gap year anyway, but not to help admissions. I know how you feel and I thought the same way, but in the end it won’t be worth risking that chance.</p>
<p>If you took community college courses that weren’t for the purpose of HS joint enrollment, I don’t think you could apply later as a freshman - you’d be a transfer applicant. The accept rate for Harvard transfers is only about 2%.</p>
<p>You have to give the AdCom a compelling reason why the decision they made the first time was incomplete and wrong. That is a high bar to clear. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, but it is not easy at all. </p>
<p>If you do not like the schools to which you were accepted and you would have something to do with your Gap Year, then do it–and one of your tasks during the year is to explore other colleges both selective and not to which you would be happy to attend.</p>
<p>If there are no such schools, then either–you are not cut out to go to college or you haven’t reached a level of maturity to deal with the tough decisions life forces upon adults. Perhaps a stint in the armed forces or Peace Corps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps or some such organization for a couple of years will provide you with a fresh perspective.</p>
<p>I don’t want to tell you that you have no chance–and I know of people who have made it on their second try (although much more common in England with Oxbridge)–but don’t do it because you think you will have a decent chance if only you could increase your SATs to 2300 for example.</p>
<p>Admissions isn’t random. You can’t just apply again and hope for a better outcome. If you take a gap year and reapply, you had better do something remarkable to prove that the admissions officers were stupid the first time. Like an above poster said, it’s a high bar to clear.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much, I appreciate the responses. I did not realize that community college courses could jeopardize my chances at undergraduate admission… definitely something to be aware of!!
The tough thing about all of this is that I am an athlete, right on the bubble of getting help with admissions from a coach. Last year there were many talented athletes in my sport who wanted to go to my first choice school, but the year before there wasn’t as much interest. I’m currently at a level where I’m certainly not the star recruit, but many coaches have been willing to give a little nudge with admissions. The catch? That I apply ED (or ED2, as one coach was trying to talk me into). I didn’t do ED anywhere last year, but I would feel a little more confident applying in the smaller pool.</p>
<p>It is probably too late, but if you can, find a prep school to give you a PG year-- it is the time-honored tradition for jocks who need that little extra to make it (like the coach for the NE Pats who did a PG year at Andover…). There are two almost parallel tracks in admissions (the AdCom folks will deny it-- they are fibbing…) one for recruited athletes and the other for the rest of the pool–so in YOUR case, a do-over may make sense-- </p>
<p>Also be very very careful with community college courses, not just for admissions committees but the NCAA. Check their rules (very detailed and bizarre) carefully so that you don’t mess yourself over in terms of eligibility…Not at all kidding here…</p>
<p>if you are close to being an athletic recruit for Harvard (a D1 school) the odds are very-very good that you could be an athletic recruit on which a coach would use an athletic admissions slot at a D3 school (which all NESCAC schools are). Was the recruiting interest from Harvard or the NESCAC? What sport?</p>