I’m working out whether or not I will be taking a gap year, and for my parents to allow it they want me to be enrolled in a college with enough scholarship money for me to attend. They are totally fine with me applying to schools while I’m taking a year off, but I’m trying to plan out what I will be doing. Since I will be enrolled in a school (I’ll have paid the deposit and everything) but won’t have taken any classes, if I apply next year, will I be applying as a transfer student or as a first time freshman?
Also: assuming finances aren’t a concern, would this be a wise decision? Will the college I am enrolled at punish me for applying to other schools or will it come across as flakey to the schools I’m applying to? Or will it be ok?
So you are a senior? If assume you have already applied to colleges. When you get accepted you can defer for a year. This is common and not a problem. Your scholarship will remain intact. But you then want to apply to other colleges during your gap year, right? I don’t understand why you would do that, but if you do, as long as you haven’t begun college anywhere, you would still be applying as a freshman. The college you paid a deposit at doesn’t need to to know that you are applying elsewhere, but you will lose your deposit.
It is more difficult to apply for college in a gap year. It will be harder to get teacher recs. Do you say to a teacher that you know they already wrote you a rec last year, but would they mind doing it again, even though you are already accpeted somewhere? You Will have to deal with more red tape from your high school. In addition, if you are going to take a gap year, make it count. Don’t just potter around doing not much of anything.
Why would you tell schools you are applying to as a freshamn that you already have deposited elsewhere? I don’t understand your thinking at all, and I suspect you are leaving out some part of this that will make it more clear. If you apply and get accepted to other schools during a gap year, as soon as you choose a school, you must notify the original one you deposited at. Virtually every college states that double depositing is not allowed. It is also unethical, and if you are discovered, you might have your acceptance rescinded.
The best course of action is to deposit and defer. Your scholarship will remain intact, most likely. Call your college to confirm this though.
@Lindagaf Basically, I had a lot of personal things happen around the end of last year that meant I missed a lot of major deadlines to schools I had planned on applying to. I got into my safety school, and it looks like I’ll have enough scholarships that my parents would be okay with a gap year. I had already planned on taking a year off, now it just seems like it would be the better option because I would have a second chance to apply to the schools whose deadlines I missed.
About the schools knowing I deposited: I was worried about it reflecting negatively upon me. I’d heard from my guidance counselor that other schools know if you get in early action (decision? Still don’t know the difference… whichever one is binding) and it can have a bad impact if you keep applying to other schools. I just wanted to make sure depositing isn’t a similar situation.
Did you apply ED? If so, you are obligated to attend. ED is binding, EA is not. No school is going to mind if you were accepted EA. Many people are accepted EA and don’t attend that school. That is not an issue.
ED is,a different story. Your GC would have signed an ED agreement too. You can only get out of it if you can prove finances won’t work. Your school will know you pulled out of an ED agreement and it will be in your records. That will not work well for you.
If you deposit at a school then defer enrollment for a year, you’ll have to check their rules to see if they let you apply to other colleges during your gap year. I don’t think all of them do.