<p>From Swarthmore’s website</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree that you’ll probably be okay if you only take a few courses at Vanderbilt, but note that it’s NOT a foregone conclusion. </p>
<p>Another issue: I know you think you’ll get superb grades in your Vandy courses, but what happens if you don’t? I think you could really diminish your chances of getting into another top college. </p>
<p>Then we simply ignore the matter. What they don’t know, they don’t know.</p>
<p>What you do NOT realize is that there is a nationwide database , the National Student Clearinghouse, </p>
<p>“The National Student Clearinghouse is the nation’s trusted source
for education verification and student outcomes research.”
<a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/</a></p>
<p>which gathers and complies records of ALL students who have enrolled in any college class anywhere in the US.
And, when you appy for admission to any college, the application asks " have you attended any other college’? if you lie about that, and that lie will be discovered, as colleges DO check you SS" # against NSC info,
you will be kicked out of that college.
So your "What they don’t know, they don’t know. " premise is based on nothing but hubris and false assumptions. </p>
<p>Are you kidding me with 'what they don’t know?"–you are going to start your career with dishonesty? No wonder politics is your interest, what they don’t know won’t hurt, eh? That is a deal breaker and when discovered will put a cloud on you. This is a serious matter and you would risk getting kicked out. Ethics are nothing to you? </p>
<p>Are you really so unhappy with your good results? Why did you apply to colleges you don’t want to go to? You tried some reaches with a little lower gpa than your peers and it mostly worked out for you. Are you sure you want to give up those colleges because you will have to decline them to apply in the next cycle. Unless you are following your shady ethics and we can in that case hope you are left high and dry.</p>
<p>It seems like your best chance will be at colleges you didn’t previously apply to. But you have your GC word that you have a shot at the previous denies, give it a shot, no pain no gain. Don’t forget to report back so we can be admonished if wrong. </p>
<p>First time posting:
My DD is thinking about a gap year and reapplying. She was rejected from her reach schools, waitlisted at what we thought her match schools and she is accepted to several safeties that she is not interested in attending. Her ACT is 35 and her SAT is 2180. Her GPA is 3.7 UW/4 W. 5 AP classes. A couple of leaderships, volleyball varsity and a couple of volunteer jobs. It was not what we expected for her. We feel that her passion for one particular college or field of study was not palpable and we might have given her a bad advice by applying to 3 ivy leagues and 3 very competetive universities.
I am wondering if a gap year doing an internship in a high tech company will be benifit her. The goals will be to gain personal maturity, apply to a list of more match schools after thoroughly exploring them and her GPA in fact is rising so she will have an even higher GPA when she applies next fall.
Thank you to all those who have been posting. It is very helpful to read similar stories and I have been trying to find some guidance or predictions to help with this decision.
Thank you!</p>
<p>^ She sounds like a good gap year candidate. When constructing the list next year start with a safety she is HAPPY to attend, otherwise it’s not a safety but a waste of admission $. Everything after that is a bonus.</p>
<p>Thank you Erin’s Dad. She is planning to defer at the best option out of the safety schools. We checked briefly with the school to see if there is an issue with applying again as a freshman to other schools and to this particular school (honor program) and the answer I got that the worst thing that will happen is that we lose the money we paid for the deposit. I heard some comments about the ethics of this approach and I am curious to hear more about this particular case. </p>
<p>I’m assuming the school in question is a large public university. They have so many kids that one won’t make a huge difference on their resources and your daughter will be like summer melt kids. Since they said it’s okay, assume it’s okay.</p>
<p>Note that the NACAC list was just published. It may not be your cup of tea, but New College (Honors Public College in FL, gorgeous location, academically INTENSE, quirky, merit scholarships for OOS applicants) still takes applications.</p>
<p>The school I was talking about is Boston University which is relatively large so that is probably why there is no restriction. I am not familiar with NACAC and I looked at the list and a lot of these places I am not familiar with. Are you referring to the new college of Florida? It looks quite interesting and very affordable for the Florida residents. Not for us in the northeast. </p>
<p>To update my particular situation, I was planning to go ahead and do this… and then UChicago took me off its waitlist… so no reapplying for me!</p>
<p>Will you get financial aid?</p>
<p>Short answer: no. Long answer: Financial aid was never part of the question. </p>
<p>Okay, so that’s awesome! 
Congratulations!</p>