<p>I did not get accepted, and I'm not sure I can afford $50k/yr anyways. If I take a year off and do something like research or get a job, can I reapply for freshman admissions? Would anyone advise this?</p>
<p>You can reapply as a freshman so long as you don't enroll in a college or university as a degree-seeking student.</p>
<p>Taking a gap year can be a great thing, but reapplying to the same schools is not always the best bet. You might check out the story of [url=<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html%5DAndison%5B/url">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html]Andison[/url</a>], a somewhat famous CC case who took a gap year after unsuccessful applications and had a very successful round of reapplications. (He's going to be a senior next year at MIT.)</p>
<p>Thanks Mollie for that thread. I have a few questions though.</p>
<p>I'm likely to be in a similar situation to Andison; I've already had two of my applications deleted, three taken off of my list because I did not meet any of the requirements, and the final remaining four will most likely reject me. MIT is a school that I wanted so much (and it is close to home) and I feel like I'll have nowhere to go this year. </p>
<p>I plan on reapplying to MIT but I've only heard of one success story and how colleges tend to reject students whom they have rejected before. I plan to take college classes as a non-degree seeking student and getting a job in my career choice (CompSci) to help pay for the costs. One thing that I wanted so much to do at MIT was cancer research and I'm also searching for research opportunities. Do you have any advice?</p>
<p>Sorry, I meant advice in general and not specifically for research.</p>
<p>I don't really have any hard information about reapplying after a gap year, but my intuition is that the application will have to be considerably stronger -- it's not that they'll look at it and say, "This is the same person who applied last year, send 'em to the recycling bin," but if an application wasn't accepted this year, it's not likely to be accepted next year without substantial strengthening. Research is certainly one way to strengthen an application.</p>
<p>What's the procedure for applicants who have been accepted to defer matriculation until the next year? Can this be done?</p>
<p>@Ham,</p>
<p>Yes, this can be and often is done. I believe there will be something on your myMIT page about deferring admission or taking a gap year, possibly within the matriculation form. Everyone I know who took a gap year is really glad they did, really enjoyed it, and did something really awesome with their time.</p>
<p>That sounds cool, do you know what some people did? I don't have anything specific in mind, but I've just been entertaining the possibility a little...</p>
<p>Matt had a great blog entry last year on gap years [url=<a href="http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/deferring_enrollment/on_taking_a_gap_year.shtml%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/deferring_enrollment/on_taking_a_gap_year.shtml]here[/url</a>].</p>