Rejected everywhere but "safety." Gap year?

Applying to College
21

<p>Harvard and UPenn are good schools, but they are not really known for CS. Other than UNC those school are all ‘peers’ except when viewed through the lens of the Ivy snobs. Water under the bridge at this point anyway…right?</p>

<p>A gap year can only make things worse, not better. Auburn is a great school. It may not have the name recognition in academia as schools on your list, but you really went for schools that are high reach schools for anyone.</p>

<p>Go to Auburn for a year or two. Do everything you can to excel. The advantage for a non-party student at a perceived party school is that you will look like superman in comparison. Of course, Auburn is not the party school you seem to think it is, methinks. If you do well there, transfer to wherever you think is better. Your degree will read where you graduated, not where you started.</p>

22

<p>Based on your current stats, I don’t think there is much to improve here. Improving ACT from 33 to 36 doesn’t really change your profile that much… Doing a little more ECs and writing a new essay MAY improve your app, but still I don’t think its enough…
It is really up to you, but I think its very risky having a gap year trying to get to schools with 10% or less admission rates. My advice, go to Auburn and try your best. If you still didn’t like it there (from any perspective), you can always transfer.</p>

23

<p>I would take the gap year. With those stats I can’t imagine at least 1 top 25 school not taking you.</p>

24

<p>1) Engineering/CS admissions seem to have gotten significantly more difficult to the highly selective schools over the last two years and I expect that trend to continue into next year. 2) All schools are getting squeezed by the economy. Merit aid is highly competitive for the highly selective schools and the aid trend is to not meet full need. 3) Engineering/CS is rigorous which is dangerous for scholarships. At GaTech, for example, a high majority of instate kids go in with GA Hope scholarships and about 40% (by memory) lose them due to GPA requirements. 5) Aid packages/scholarships tend to be much less generous for transfers. 5) Your first 2 years of mandatory classes will be pretty much the same everywhere. But if you get A’s, my impression is that transferring up may be less difficult than getting in as a freshman. </p>

<p>Its all weighing pros and cons. I assume you got offered stats based merit of at least 16K/year + need to Auburn such that it is affordable to you.</p>

<p>S1 (MechE) looked at a lot of schools and liked Auburn (low match) the best, got good merit $, and was not that disappointed to not get in to GaTech. ps We thought UA/UGA were the big party schools. I’d call UNC-CH highly selective but not that generous for OOS. </p>

25

<p>If Money is an issue don’t plan to transfer! I wish I had known that as a parent. My S is currently looking to transfer and the scholarship money is not there. Schools with rolling admissions may be a good option right now. My son also went to his safety with hesitations and ended up loving it! Unfortunately now he wants to change majors and they don’t offer the major he wants. He is also at a large public university, as for the party scene, he found that some people go the the parties and choose not to drink. I think you can find your fit.
If money is not an issue, go, get involved in research and on campus activities. Then if you decide to transfer you will be able to get some great recommendation letters.</p>

26

<p>

Unfortunately, I can imagine that happening. I’m not saying that it would, I’m just saying that I feel like I’ve already read too many threads detailing such results… </p>

27

<p>I know a many of kids at Auburn that turned down Ivies, and several that turned down MIT to go there. One who turned down MIT had a full ride, just got a great job and told me he felt thoroughly challenged at AU. Their honors college is pretty strong. The scholarships are good. There are LOTS of students that don’t party. There are LOTS of students that do. </p>

<p>Your ACT scores are in keeping with most of the kids from my area that go there. So far, they’ve all loved it. You’ll be fine. As for transferring, it’ll depend upon what your major is. If it’s engineering, there’s no point in transferring. If you are planning on getting your masters, there is also no point. Save your pennies on undergrad and blow them on grad school. As long as you keep your grades up (not easy to do at AU by the way, it’s consistently ranked in the top 10 schools where it is hardest to get an “A”) you shouldn’t have a problem getting in to a good master’s program. </p>

<p>If liberal arts are your thing, I’d check out some of LAC’s with rolling admissions. Lots of great LAC colleges in this area (Sewanee, Rhodes, Milsaps, Birmingham-Southern, Samford). Although, I’m not sure which ones have rolling admissions. If you are Pre-med, then BSC is hard to beat although their pre-med program is pretty brutal. </p>

28

<p>As I said before, you would not have gotten merit aid at those schools even if they had admitted you. Your ACT is, in fact, a little below average for a top 25 school. You could get in, perhaps, if you took a gap year. But no merit aid – and THAT (freshman merit aid) is the only real advantage of a gap year.</p>

<p>If you simply do not want to go to Auburn, or if you do want merit aid at a private college, you should lower your targets down quite a bit IN ADDITION to the gap year. You would need to make, say, Tulane, Case Western Reserve, and University of Rochester your “reach” schools. Schools like Rose-Hulman, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Wofford College might be good “match” colleges. It is highly doubtful, however, that any of them will give you a better education than Auburn. Still, they might fit your expectations better.</p>

<p>By the way, it is harder to avoid parties at small colleges than at big colleges. At small colleges, you are stuck with whoever is there. At big colleges, it is easier to develop your own circle of friends who do not party.</p>

29

<p>I read your earlier posts. After doing so, I would advise against a gap year UNLESS you really think you could somehow end up being recruited for baseball. And trying to play varsity ball and do well academically is tough. Without the sport, I think it’s unlikely you’d have any better results next year. </p>

30

<p>Mmm, my thoughts are mixed. It’s not true that your ACT is a little below average for a top 25 school - it’s definitely in the mid 50% range for all of those schools, and actually near the top of the range for UPenn and Vanderbilt. It’s above the range for UNC, although of course if you are an OOS student you are held to a higher standard. I honestly don’t think your stats kept you out at all. You can’t get much better than a 3.9 unweighted GPA and a 33 on the ACT. I think this is more partially due to a fluke in the system and partially due to intangibles. All of the students are you are competing with at the top schools have similar scores and grades, so students who get selected have a little something “extra”. Is varsity baseball your only EC? If so, then that’s probably why. It could also be a mediocre essay. But I really don’t think it’s grades and test scores. You’re easily in the range. However, that doesn’t mean that NROTCgrad’s advice isn’t good - it is. You should lower your target a bit.</p>

<p>I definitely wouldn’t take a gap year for the hope of merit aid at any of these schools. Harvard and Penn don’t give out merit aid, and at Vanderbilt, MIT, and UNC you are the average applicant. Besides, all but UNC (and perhaps them too, I don’t know) meet 100% of your financial need. If your parents have an average financial portfolio (as in no crazy hidden assets) and they are willing and able to help you financially with college, then merit aid may not be your goal. But that depends, too. If your parents are lower-middle class - say they make under $80,000 a year - these schools will give you huge financial aid, and I’m pretty sure Harvard and Penn will completely cover the cost. But if your parents are quite wealthy ($200,000+) then you may not get enough or very much financial aid at all.</p>

<p>I also am not 100% sure how the recruiting sports world works, but I’m guessing you stand a much, much lower chance of getting recruited if you are not actively playing in high school. So I wouldn’t take a gap year for that hope, either.</p>

<p>So if you took a gap year, the goal would either be to just get into one of these places with a decent financial aid package OR to get a merit scholarship at a place that’s qualitatively “better” than Auburn for you. I agree with NROTCgrad that if you choose to take the year off I would lower your target; s/he’s suggested some great places. The other thing is that if you take a gap year, you have to have a plan of what you’d do with it. Otherwise, you’re a weaker candidate than you were this year.</p>

<p>But I have to say that I’d recommend just going to Auburn. As other people have mentioned, it’s a great school and is pretty well-reputed for your intended major. Also, it may have a reputation as a party school, but so does every moderately large public university. College students party. And many students who assume that they won’t like the party scene, or want to avoid party schools altogether, actually end up enjoying them in college. But even if you don’t want to party, like absolutely zero partying, there are 20,000 undergraduates at Auburn. I’m sure that some of them also do not party.</p>

31

<p>Thank you all again for your input! I must say, I don’t know where the idea came into play about seeking merit aid at schools other than Auburn. I know it’s unlikely or impossible to get merit aid at those schools. I’ve checked into them all, and with my family’s financial situation their need-based financial aid alone makes it easily possible. The only hump is getting in. </p>

<p>Baseball likely won’t factor into my decision too much, but not having a team wouldn’t be a big problem, because I could play for a travel team.</p>

<p>I have two great volunteer ECs and a small business, so it seems to me it may have been the essays, which I thought were pretty darn good but would’ve liked to have spent more time on. If you’ve read my other posts, you know I’m also homeschooled (largely self-taught through free resources), which may have also played a role.</p>

<p>I’m still on the fence, but I’m facing Auburn’s side.</p>

32

<p>ITA with

Think about the “top tier yet not tippy top” schools you could potentially get into: would you like them better?
is there a honors college (UGA’s is well known, plus Barrett if you were NMF, plus UAlabama’s NMF scholarships which, I think, are still available) you’d like better than Auburn’s*?
If the answer’s no, then Auburn is your best choice.
If travel team + work/volunteering + applying to a wider range of schools + using this website as a counseling companion would serve a purpose, then it’s not a bad choice.
But not if you’re to do the exact same thing as this year.
*(where you should definitely apply to even now, ASAP, if you choose to enroll).</p>

33

<p>If “the only hump is getting in” then a gap year serves little purpose. You can still transfer from Auburn. </p>

<p>Perhaps your home schooling did play a role. It is a unique challenge which is beyond my experience. Doing well at Auburn for a year or two could benefit you greatly when re-applying to those schools.</p>

34

<p>NROTC: not if money is a concern. Financial aid, not just merit aid, is different for transfers. Even schools that promise to meet 100% need for freshmen don’t have such a promise for transfers. As for schools that never made the promise… transfers basically get leftovers. It’s only different wrt to merit if it’s a student who is looking at in-state public options. All other cases make a transfer more costly.
This isn’t to say Auburn isn’t a good choice - just that transferring out of Auburn may not be financially possible even if it’s academically possible.</p>

35

<p>Hi theanonymousguy,
If I am not mistaken, entry level computer science salaries are about $65,000 per year. That would be the the cost of a gap year, because you would delay starting your career. </p>

<p>Let’s say that a more elite school would increase your starting pay to more like $75,000 per year. Then it would take more than six years to recoup the cost of a gap year (probably more like 8 to 10 years, because the additional $10,000 per year salary would be taxed heavily).</p>

<p>Plus, there is no guarantee that you would get accepted the second time around either. I do not know why these schools rejected you the first time, but a second effort is not likely to produce significantly better results. Maybe one of the schools would take you after a gap year, but not necessarily. Maybe a lower level school like Tulane would take you after a gap year. But is it worth an extra $65,000 either?</p>

36

<p>I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and I still haven’t been able to decide. Any other thoughts on the pros and cons of (a) transferring from Auburn, (b) staying at Auburn, and/or © taking a gap year?</p>

37

<p>Reapplying after a gap year is not going to change anything unless you try all different schools. My niece went through this. Took a gap year because she didn’t want to go to UCSD. She had great stats. She reapplied to all her top schools, including Yale where she would have been legacy and was rejected a second time. Go to Auburn. Did you contact the admissions office and ask about being admitted to the honors program?</p>

38

<p>It’s only going to be worthwhile if you apply to other schools. Are there schools not on this year’s list that you’d rather attend than Auburn? If so, then, the gap year is worthwhile. However, if your plan is to reapply to the same schools, odds are you’ll have the same results and will have wasted a year.</p>

39

<p>I would certainly apply to mostly new schools (about 6 or 7) but reapply to one or two. With everything else out of the way I feel like I could give the application much more attention than was possible last time.</p>

<p>I’m OK with missing a year of salary. It’s not all about the money for me. </p>

40

<p>I agree with the others that taking a gap year only makes sense if you are applying to new schools. There is lots of evidence that re-application to the same schools after “strengthening” your application with a gap year is unsuccessful.</p>

<p>This should not be a primary concern but I disagree with NROTCgrad’s contention that the financial cost of a gap year is a year of your starting salary (ie. $65K). You will always get that starting salary a year later but you have one less year of earnings at the peak of your career before retirement so the cost is really much greater.</p>