Hey guys!
So this is the first time I’ve made a thread because I’m really curious about spring freshman admission.
Long story short, I’m graduating a year early from high school. I had some good choices for fall 2017 but not as good as I had hoped, and my top schools I got into offered not nearly enough aid to be feasible. Now I’m sitting on my safety, which I have visited 3 times and still am not content with personally.
Now when I started applying to schools, I had no idea my family was moving to another state. This largely has changed my vision about some schools that I had never thought of before. Because I was not aware of this situation of moving until after most application deadlines, I was thinking I could take a gap “semester” because I noticed some schools have admissions for freshman spring 2018 in a separate process that opens soon and closes October/November. Do you guys know of any good schools that offer spring 2018 freshman admission like I described above? I appreciate all the help!
If you mean competitive private schools, there won’t be many I am guessing. However, some private colleges do offer spring admittance to RD applciants, even if they don’t “advertise” it. I suggest emailing the admissions office of some schools you are interested in and enquiring. Otherwise, for Spring admits, your are probably mostly looking at public schools. However, it sounds like you need aid. Frankly, you are not likely to get any at this point.
Other thoughts: it’s possible you were denied because of your age. There are colleges that don’t necessarily want young students, particularly small residential colleges. Take the gap year and reapply. Do good things during the gap year that will bost your application.
Or, look at the NACAC list of colleges with openings for fall 2017. They might be happy for you to come in for Spring. There are some excellent colleges on this year’s list. Again, the issue might be Financial aid though.
A word about entering in Spring. It can be very tough to join at Spring, becasue you are pretty much on your own. There are no organized events for spring admits and many students find it very difficult. For that reason, there are quite a few colleges that don’t allow freshman spring transfers. Especially you, being young, might find it quite rough. I wish you luck, but maybe you shouldn’t be in such a rush?
@Lindagaf Thanks for the advice. The more I think about it, I might just take a gap year and reapply to schools. It’s just difficult to find anything substantial that I can do for a gap year at 17 years old, especially if I want to link it to my major (likely English, or some communications/media, depending on the school). Regarding the schools themselves, I don’t really care if it’s private or not as long as it’s the right fit, you know? Ugh, this whole thing is complicated. I wish I would have just gone with my gut 
Enter writing competitions. There are thousands. Submit work for publication to teen ink and others. Get a job, save money. Volunteer. Audit some courses at CC, but don’t enroll, or you will then be a transfer student. There goes your chance at any merit aid. Pursue a hobby. Do an overseas service project if your parents can afford it. A year will pass before you know it. There’s nothing fun really about being an adult, so savor your youth.
If you really don’t want to take a gap year, I think you can also consider attending university overseas. Australia has a huge Feb intake every year, and the top universities there (Melb, Sydney, UNSW) are really good. It’s very far from home for you though, but it’s an interesting option to consider, I think. The USD-AUD exchange rate also saves you the money too, since you need aid. I personally think that it’ll be a great experience. (Also most arts/humanities courses are 3 years long and there are exactly z e r o essays you need to write in the application :p)
I applied to Sydney (as international) and got a merit AUD$40,000 scholarship for my first year, so they’re pretty generous to international students too.
UK also offers 3 year undergrad courses if you’re interested. I can share more if you want.
Good luck! You’re smart and I know you’ll succeed no matter what life throws at you.
@Aovnick I visited Sydney last year and I LOVED it. Amazing place. But being so young, I don’t think my parents would let me go that far for school. And I also have some medical issues that would be very problematic if something went wrong so far away. Hoping to maybe do study abroad there!