<p>Is taking high school second semester off (after accumulating enough credits to graduat from HS) and go out to work/volunteer acceptable to the elite colleges? I know they do encourage kids to take a "gap year', but how about a gap semester during second semester senior year?</p>
<p>the daughter of a good friend of mine did just that – she still got into some very, very selective schools. </p>
<p>in other words if you have the credits/grades/scores, graduating a semester earlier shouldn’t have a negative impact.</p>
<p>Great! Does the semester has to be school work oriented or can it be like work/volunteer?</p>
<p>friend of daughter took his entire senior year of h.s. off as a gap year. (Graduated early because of built-up units, maybe partly due to community college credits?) He was also Val. Got into Princeton.</p>
<p>bestswimmer, to answer your question, my friend’s daughter studied Spanish in Argentina for a couple of months, then traveled. But work/volunteer would also be fine – if anything, it would look better on a college app, IMHO. Working/volunteering full time shows character. Studying abroad and then traveling shows a parent with $$. (Smile.)</p>
<p>It would be surprising if a candidate for elite colleges didn’t have leadership commitments and rigorous classes they needed to be there for through senior year. My initial reaction is that the student doesn’t seem very engaged.</p>