<p>Go on ahead with the gap year if you don’t feel like going to college. Get permission from UCLA. See if you clear the Rice waitlist and if you do, decide if you can go there this year, or should wait another year. You’ll also see what Rice is willing to give you in financial aid. </p>
<p>When you take your gap year, you can certainly reapply to other schools as well. But I can tell you that most kids I know just went to the school where they were accepted that was holding a spot for them. Unless your gap year is something that clearly makes you a more stellar candidate than you are now, it’s not highly likely that you will get accepted AND get more money from schools than you did this year. Unless you made some gross miscalculations about schools and the process this year, giving it another try is not usually going to get you different results, unless, again, you do some things during the gap year to change your profile exceptionally.</p>