<p>I'm a senior at my highschool, and I'm interested in taking a gap year. One reason is, I want to travel playing chess, as I won't have time once I enroll in college. The other is, I think I can use the gap year to retake my SAT's, write better essays, and maybe take a few AP classes. My question is, if I apply to some colleges this year, and get rejected, will I be able to reapply the following the following year without fear of them referencing my first application? After all, I am predicting being a completely new person after the gap year, because I also plan to get a full time job. I'm afraid that applying this year will lower my chances for admission next year. Am I being paranoid? Also, the new SAT scores and taking the SAT subject tests (something I haven't done even once), will improve my application. Schools that I really would like to attend are Yale and Stanford. Stanford and Middlebury are the two schools I will apply to this year for the heck of it. Do you know of anyone in a similar situation as mine, with the same schools, or schools of equal prestige? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>come on people, 60 views and no reply. This is really important, if it does indeed affect my admission for after the gap year, i might omit the application this year. Anybody out there? :(</p>
<p>You can reapply, but judging by the results I’ve seen on CC of people who did the same thing, the college that originally rejected you aren’t likely to accept you no matter what you did during your gap year. I saw students reapply after doing major ECs, work or similar things, but they still didn’t get in. </p>
<p>One applied ED or EA and was deferred and eventually rejected by a school that had rejected him RD the year before. Why put yourself through that kind of torture?</p>
<p>shoot, thanks. Is this because they have a record of the previous application? If this is the case, should I just omit applying this year, because my test scores are likely not good enough for me to get in. The other thing is, I foolishly sent my SAT I scores to princeton and cornell, thinking that I could take the SAT Subject tests in January and apply. However, my december scores came out, and were not satisfactory to say the least. Do you think Princeton and Cornell will have the record of my previous scores when I reapply after the gap year, or will it not really matter because I would have retaken the test by then, and presented them with new scores? Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>I suggest that instead of pinning your hopes of successful application next year to schools that are reach schools for everyone, you apply to colleges this year and if you’re rejected by your dream schools, aspire to go to those dream schools for graduate school. If, though, what you really want to do is have a gap year playing chess, don’t apply anywhere this year, but apply during your gap year, and do retake your SATs, etc. Your gap year chess experience could make you stand out in admissions for top schools.</p>
<p>Revising the above after checking your previous posts and seeing your gpa is 75th percentile in your school.</p>
<p>Unless you are a top prep school or something similar in Canada, I doubt that even being a national chess champion will boost you into the very top schools in this country. Sure, you can try (I’m just an ordinary person making an estimate; I’m not an admissions officer), but I don’t think it’s worth it to pin your dreams on hoping that a gap year playing chess and attaining higher scores will get you into places like Princeton.</p>
<p>Remember, Harvard turned down an Olympic gold medalist whose grades were not impressive.</p>
<p>I know a URM, legacy, state chess champion, with similar scores but a much higher class rank who was turned down by a top Ivy.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your input Northstarmom. One thing to keep in mind is a 75% in Canada can not be transferred into a GPA point scale, so its not as low as you think. The other thing is my 75% is an estimate of my first 3 years in high school, as senior year I have a 90% avg. However, one thing that I have heard, is adcoms value SAT scores over GPAs when it comes to international students because they are not familiar with the education systems in other countries. That being said, the person you spoke about that got declined is pretty scary for me. Did he/she get accepted into any other ivies, and would you mind telling me which ivy it was that rejected them? Thanks again for your time.</p>
<p>“That being said, the person you spoke about that got declined is pretty scary for me. Did he/she get accepted into any other ivies, and would you mind telling me which ivy it was that rejected them”</p>
<p>I think he was deferred EA at Harvard when Harvard had EA.</p>
<p>Check the thread about Andison, an outstanding student who was rejected everywhere he applied. He had applied only to reach schools. He took a gap year, did some interesting things during it and reapplied to some of the same schools, and also to some different colleges. He was rejected by all of the top colleges that he reapplied to, but was accepted to some top colleges that he hadn’t applied to before. </p>
<p>You can find the Andison threads by doing a search for “Andison”. I think the initial thread was called, “We’re picking up the pieces, what went wrong?”</p>
<p>Many top-notch universities completely endorse and even encourage taking a year off. Your chances of being able to go to a good college will be much better if you get in and then decide to take time off rather than take time off and then try to apply.</p>
<p>“Your chances of being able to go to a good college will be much better if you get in and then decide to take time off rather than take time off and then try to apply.”</p>
<p>While it’s true that most excellent private colleges welcome accepted students taking a year off before going to college, that doesn’t mean that such colleges are more likely to accept students during their senior year in high school over students who are applying during a productive gap year after high school.</p>
<p>i’m from Canada. I wouldn’t bother with US schools if your average is like 75. I spoke with many admission officers from the states and the consensus is that 90+ is a A, 80 a B, …
Please don’t act like 75 is hard to get, cuz its not</p>