As a lot of us know, there’s a good chance affirmative action is struck down by June 2023. Thing is, I graduate in May 2023, so I really wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the ruling as an Asian male. I know I have the stats, ECs, etc. to get in if the playing field was fair. Would it be wise to just take one gap year before applying, then apply once affirmative action isn’t used anymore?
Why would you delay your start of college? There are plenty of colleges in this country…and surely you can find at least a bunch where you would be accepted so you could start after your HS graduation.
I think you are hedging your bets in the wrong place.
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I understand that, but I really don’t want to live with any regrets, “what ifs,” etc. I’ve worked really hard over the past 3 1/2 years, and this may be an opportunity to concretely get out what I put in. I just wanted to know if it was an outright stupid idea, or if there’s any merit to it.
Even if you have perfect academic stats and amazing ECs the elite colleges must be considered reaches for ANY unhooked applicant. Acceptance rates are typically under 10% with some under 5%. Simply put there are many more extremely well qualified applicants than spaces available.
I recommend you don’t lose a year on the hope that your odds MIGHT improve slightly. A better use of your time would be to expand your horizons, do your research, and find a good mix of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be happy to attend.
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Do you really think a change in policy will make much of a difference in terms of your admissions chances? If so, run the numbers and tell me why.
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Hypothetically, let’s say that 1) “affirmative action” is struck down in June 2023 and 2) your dream colleges immediately make changes in their admissions metrics in ways that you think will favor you. You apply during your gap year and you get rejected -because that will still be the most likely outcome. Then what?
tl;dr - even if it all plays out as you anticipate, your odds are still tiny.
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It can be harder to be accepted during a gap year unless you are able to do something significant with that gap year. LOR can be stale because you are removed from the writers and the bar can be higher because the expectation is that you have at least as much or more than other applicants.
Anything you might gain from a possible affirmative action reversal could be mitigated by all the things that make applying during a gap year more of a challenge.
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Meh. These schools will still admit the students they want to admit and the vast majority will be rejected (most likely including you). Not worth putting your life on hold imo.
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That!
I work with many, many very strong Asian and Asian-American coworkers. Some of them have academically very strong kids who are of university age. This gives some insight into the way that the top ranked universities deal with admissions. I am sympathetic with your situation.
However, there are a lot of very good universities in the US. You do not need to attend Harvard or MIT or Stanford to do very well in life. I did graduate with degrees from two of those schools (one bachelor’s, one master’s) and work with many excellent coworkers who graduated from U.Mass Amherst or UNH or Rutgers or one of the IIT’s (in India) or any one of 50 or more other universities and no one cares were anyone got their degree. In most cases we do not ask and do not find out. We care what people can do and whether they are reasonable to work with.
There is something else that you should keep in mind: In many cases the hiring managers are also Asian-American. They know first hand how admissions is skewed. They want to hire the excellent employees. They do not care much which school the excellent employees come from. On the most part (not quite always) the excellent students become excellent employees regardless of which university they attended.
What this means is that at least in high tech (where I work) you can do very well with a degree from a “very good but not super top ranked” university. You really do not need to attend a famous highly ranked university to do well in the USA.
Also, attending your in-state public university can in some cases save you buckets of money.
Also, if you are considering a master’s degree in the future, the graduate students at those highly ranked universities come from a very, very wide range of undergraduate universities. Depending upon what sort of financial aid you qualify for, a bachelor’s degree from your in-state public university plus a master’s from a famous university might also cost less than just a bachelor’s from the famous university.
I also would not count on politics in the US to produce any particular result, even if the result seems likely and reasonable to you (or to me).
I would only take a gap year if you have some other compelling reason to take a gap year. I would not do it in the hopes that affirmative action will be shot down.
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You will get into a college but likely not a T20.
If you have worked hard for the last 3 years, you will continue to work hard.
Your success depends on you, not your college name.
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@DadTwoGirls, I understand all that you have written to the OP- but the harsh reality is that if a student has been raised with a ‘Harvard [or similar] or bust’ mindset, they can internalize a sense that anything else is a failure. Indeed, I have heard parents saying exactly this, explicitly, to their children. The student’s entire HS career is built to the goal of specific colleges. Again, I have had parents explain this to me, explaining why Jr can’t do this or must do that, as part of their college plan.
The corollary in some communities (not just the Asian/Asian American community- there are several demographics that have this perception) is that if the student has ticked all the boxes, then the reason they didn’t get in is that the playing field is unfair. This is an unrealistic scenario- policies or no policies. I have seen how crushed a student can be when they have to tell their parent that they ‘failed’ and only got into X university. It’s heartbreaking that they don’t see any value in the work that they did in HS if it doesn’t deliver the name their family / peer group has taught them is the only right answer.
Your post makes every kind of sense, but if the OP has been raised in that sort of mindset I don’t know that it can override all the messaging that has gone before.
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Fact is…if this student doesn’t get accepted to an elite college, they really will have no way of knowing why.
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Based on these responses, I probably WON’T take a gap year. I’ll most likely qualify for National Merit, so I think I’ll just go to school wherever, for free, if I don’t get into a T1. I’ll be pre-med anyway, and I can hopefully reap the “benefits” when I apply then.
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