<p>D2 really only has one complete safety, but it’s an EA school with a program where she will know by very early in December whether she’s in. We keep trying to add another but can’t find one that matches all of her needs–Feels like a Venn diagram with very specific schools that overlap all the circles!</p>
<p>@harvestmoon - Given that the safety in question is a very large university, they are unlikely to weight demonstrated interest too highly, so I would say skip the visit until after results come out. You can always double check how much weight the admissions office puts on demonstrated interest by looking at the shcool’s common data set. </p>
<p>Regarding the conversation further upstream on whether on not students should have their lists in stone yet, I would say no. It’s good to have a preliminary list right now, but perfectly fine to be adding or dropping a school or two. Students are changing and maturing a lot between now and last Spring. My son ultimately wound up choosing a school that wasn’t added to his list until October or November and didn’t visit until Spring. He was able to show interest and fit in his supplemental essays. </p>
<p>On a related note, I highly recommend that students apply to an Early Action or rolling admissions school if there is one they like. Get that result early on really helps and it can also help reduce the number of final applications. My kiddo dropped a few schools after an EA acceptance as they didn’t rank higher on his preference list, saving time and money.</p>
<p>Barging in here…</p>
<p>This is not my thread as my crew is not quite there with you yet.Therefore I have been lurking here mostly and appreciating this discussion. May I ask, and I ask this in all cluelessness, what is the big rush to get these kids into colleges immediately upon graduation from high school? That is to say, if they don’t get into the colleges they want, why must they therefore accept places at colleges that they don’t necessarily want? Are there dire consequences I know not of? E.g., no one is getting drafted and sent into combat zones. Could not a year of work, a PG year at a BS, a year of community service be a valuable addition to a future application? I am just wondering and would appreciate the community’s wisdom on this.</p>
<p>If this derails your momentum, disregard…</p>
<p>College Counselors at our BS advise to get a college acceptance, then take a PG year. But I may be of the same mind as you–taking a year off and doing something interesting makes for a more mature and more interesting applicant.</p>
<p>@Agincourt,
</p>
<p>accepting a college that they don’t necessarily want:
The whole point of taking DS to visit the safety school was, not to “demonstrate interest”, but to establish that the school was desirable and take some of the pressure off of him.</p>
<p> PG or community service:
If GMTson or GMTparents had a fat trust-fund to live off of like some of GMTson’s loaded classmates’ families, then, sure! But since neither party has that financial privilege, then GMTson had better get on w his life, so his parents can retire before age 90.</p>
<p>a year of work:
I’m having a hard time seeing how working a low-wage, unskilled job for a year would be more appealing than going to a reputable state flagship. And seeing that there are more VP’s in my company that are State-U grads than elite LAC/private school grads, I’m confident that DS will be OK… </p>
<p>I’m glad you did not mention a gap year for backpacking through Europe. That’s a definite NO.</p>
<p>@GMTplus7 </p>
<p>Uhhh, okaayyy… </p>
<p>I somehow get the suspicion that my thoughts don’t find favor with you. If so, I apologize. I did not realize that I had unwittingly directed them specifically at you and your progeny. </p>
<p>@Agin, I didn’t think your post was directed at me, and I took no offense nor intended to inflict any upon you. Apologies, if I sounded shrill. I was only relating the unattractiveness of postponing the college decision for our family’s situation. </p>
<p>I’m getting mail from UChicago. Do they know that I’m 14? >:) </p>
<p>I would love my D to take a gap year with a college acceptance in hand. She however, wants no part of it. Wants to “get on with it”. Go figure. </p>
<p>I was surprised to learn that there are so many programs both academic and intern/work like positions overseas and in the US as gap year possibilities including some programs that great universities use, like Georgetown…taking a Romantic Poetry course at Oxford or Cambridge; another is doing a business internship in Silicon Valley. Lots of colleges like Middlebury and Princeton accept kids for second semester and encourage doing a work or study program for a first semester. They do cost money however. These are not minimum wage jobs.</p>
<p>My son was admitted to college, then took a gap year with one of his best boarding school friends. First six months worked a job to pay for second six months - no cost to mom and dad. Then, three months volunteering in the Patagonia followed by three months of fun, sightseeing, culture in Buenos Aires. All of this was planned by them. One of the greatest experiences of their lives, they say. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would hope that no student is applying to any school they don’t necessarily want to attend. Not getting into a first or second choice should not mean having to throw in the towel and try again. That’s why crafting the list is so important and why many kids aren’t done with it yet. I’m sure every kid has a “top” choice or two, but no student should waste an application on any school s/he wouldn’t be happy to attend – just like the BS application process. ChoatieKid would not be happy with our state U (and Choate pretty much requires that application), but every other school on his list will provide him with the same education regardless of how USNWR ranks them and he’ll happily attend any of them although he does have two absolute favorites.</p>
<p>And I agree with doschicos about applying EA to at least one school that your student would love to attend that is also a likely. It takes the pressure off and, in CK’s case, will negate any further applications.</p>
<p>Well, I can think of several situations where students might be applying to colleges they do not wish to attend or due to changing circumstances, they cannot attend or no longer wish to attend but my viewpoint is of slight value here and I defer to all of you who are in the thick of this.</p>
<p>I’m a huge fan of gap years especially with a happy college placement in the back pocket - even backpacking through Europe. 
Not quite a fan of overpriced, organized and led gangs of young americans traveling together types of trips because I feel they take away from a lot of the cultural learning and independence skills a a gap year can bring. There are also ways to do a gap year for zero to little cost. I think the kind of gap year that ThacherParent’s son experienced sounds wonderful. </p>
<p>One problem with taking a year off and reapplying is that, given the admissions cycle, when you are writing applications and reapplying, you don’t have that much time after high school graduation to have too much new to add to your application. There is only a 5-6 month window at most, and if you are taking a gap year, who really wants to utilize part of that time filling out more applications as opposed to traveling, living, and learning? There are so many great colleges out there. If you just ignore USNews rankings and perceived “prestige” and focus on fit to build a well-rounded list, your student will have great choices.</p>
<p>D1 did a gap year after being admitted to college, was invaluable in giving her time to mature and gain life skills (Did an internship year in Worcester, MA). D2 will be ready to go straight on. Different kids.</p>
<p>Doing a gap year will almost never strengthen your chances of getting into college–you don’t have a chance to get all that much done before the applications are due. And it’s vanishingly rare for anyone to be accepted into a school they were rejected from the first time. However, if the application process was flawed the first time (no REAL safeties–guaranteed admission, can afford, would be happy going) then it can give a student a chance to start over again. That being said it is MUCH easier to defer attendance after being admitted than to do applications during a gap year.</p>
<p>One advantage of BS is that in general the college counselors are experienced enough to reality check students and parents about their college list so that it’s done right the first time! </p>
<p>@Agincourt, your questions are perfectly valid and provide a nice spark for prompting further conversation and opinions. No need to sit back IMO. I’m sure there are plenty of others who are reading here and wondering about this process. I can tell you that it is nothing like what I thought it would be like two years ago, and even as we are going through it, I’m very interested to hear others’ experiences.</p>
<p>Do you disclose on your application that you are planning a gap year and/or will most colleges automatically allow you to defer for a year? Just curious how this works. </p>
<p>We didn’t disclose (and really weren’t sure D1 was going to do a gap year until part way thru the year). Policies for deferring admission vary from school to school so you need to check. In our case D2 needed to share her plans for the year, which just needed to be something productive as opposed to spending your year perfecting your World of Warcraft game or something. Not allowed to take any courses for college credit. Most important is to make sure any financial aid or merit awards will carry over. </p>
<p>Although it is true that if you take a gap year in hoping to improve your chances, there is very little time to demonstrate your individuality and how you improved your app from the first time 'round, because the CA comes out in August and deadlines loom large, there is still some time to plan something and tell a good story of how you are using your gap year.
Also, another idea is to go ahead and attend a college and like anyone else who is not wholly satisfied, work hard in order to transfer to a college you think you would like better. The app process is daunting enough the first time, although a second time would be difficult, a lot of people do it. I did. And it worked out great.</p>
<p>Is it because I’ve been “corrupted” by years of my kids in either school uniforms or preppy class dress that I am shocked by what people wear on college tours? Some of these families look like they are going to a redneck beach: frayed cutoff shorts, Tshirts w eyebrow-raising images, tanktops & flipflops-- their parents aren’t much less sloppily dressed. </p>
<p>What a way to “demonstrate interest”… </p>