<p>jeez! ivyparent, who are u? i admire that fire in ur stomach ....... FIRE</p>
<p>Ivyparent, did you get into a med school without a college degree? What a great story! Tell me the specifics of your job, the place you slept, and your story overall. You can PM me if you like.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
This is what you have to figure out. With your SAT scores, you could very well be a polymath. But, can you identify anything that you can do that no one else can do? When I ask this, don't underestimate yourself. What do you think about, when you are by yourself?
[/QUOTE]
My brother, I think, is an example of a polymath. In high school his grades in math and science related subjects were extremely good. He majored in a science in college, but his grades weren't top of the line. They were, however, for the humanities minor that he did. He's currently in grad school for science and he said he's ended up hating it over the last 2 years, so he's thinking of leaving early with a Masters degree and pursuing something like law. His case was really weird because his verbal/writing abilities only started to peak after a few years of college (they weren't all that good during high school), while his math/science skills dropped pretty quickly towards the end of his 3rd year in college.</p>
<p>I have seen cases like that.</p>
<p>I see there are lots of good replies to the gap year inquiry. I read an excellent article today in my local paper about the gap year option that originated at the Hartford Courant. The reasons given in the article for pursuing a gap year are differnt from yours, but interesting. The article includes a statement by a headmaster at a private school in West Hartford. He notes that when he worked at Dartmouth and Trinity and counseled students in danger of flunking out it seemed that they did not have goals but had gone to high school focusing on the task of getting into a good college. He felt that additional maturity and experience would have aided such students in having a successful time at college. In reading the article I was reminded of myself who did flunk out, and underwent a sort of mandatory and belated gap year. I certainly was more focused when I returned to college! One of the things I did, (way back then), was that I took some evening courses at the school of general studies at Boston University. What I want to give you along with the slew of other excellent ideas you have gotten from parents is that I think you could work during your off year, if that is what happens, and that rather than going to a community college, you should find a really excellent school and pay the money to take one course there that will really challenge you and enrich you. The other idea I have is for you to seek admission at one of the school listed on the web site of the association of admissions counselors during the first week of May. Good luck to you. You are obviously a very accomplished student.</p>
<p>Is there anybody here who could chip in some money to help sgyrosx. Like $100, $500. Specify that the money will be sent to a university on behalf of sgyrosx. I've made a pledge. How 'bout you? Show sgyrosx that Americans are generous. Even if your contributions can't pay his/her total tab, you'll be creating a great story. We can get it published in USA Today: "Outpouring Off Support Helps A Talented Student Go To College". Have your kids go around the neighborhood and drum up some money from your neighbors.</p>
<p>I'm not a parent but I have some advice anyway. Travel the world or work. You can improve yourself that way. Also read and maybe enroll as a part-time student in local colleges. A gap year can be beneficial.</p>
<p>You should ask the admissions office of Top Liberal Arts Colleges,if they can accept you with financial aid.
I believe at least one of them will acccept you,for example Grinnell College,the Top 11th.</p>
<p>Kyotojapan has a good idea. Top LACs are more likely to give good aid than top universities are. However, it may be too late to get aid. You may be able to find a space at one, but aid, I'm not sure about. Still, it's worth a try. Maybe you could go to your home country's university for a year, and apply to some top LACs and other US schools (as a transfer or even as a freshman) offering aid to internationals. That might be a pretty good plan.</p>
<p>I want to elaborate on the application essay. You mentioned that your English teacher has read your essay and loved it. I have some reservation about that.
My D had her essay read by her English teacher who also loved it. Ds best friend who is a gifted writer also read her essay and loved it. When her EA school rejected her, she tried to find something to improve, so she asked the parents from this board to criticize it; the feedbacks were not all positive and from the explanations in the feedbacks, I totally understand what the parents were saying. Since D really didnt have time to do a big change, nor start a new one, (she barely finished the one in Oct, in time for her EA school). So she just modified her essay a little and sent what she had. Her end results were not bad, I have to say they were actually quite good; she got into most of her schools except the very top reaches. While the results were good, I also wonder about the schools that D did not get in; the essay may be one of the main reasons that she was rejected. (Well, I know that there are plenty of other reasons :-) (Do not know how to make the smiling face)
What I really want to suggest is that you should ask the parents from this board to read your essay if you decided to apply again next year, or for the transfer essay. IMO, sometimes, the adcom and English teacher have different ways of reacting to an essay. Here the parents on this board are very knowledgeable about it. Once you have done that, and if the comments are all positive, at least youll know thats one critical area that you did get it right.</p>
<p>Hope your good news will come soon.</p>
<p>Ivyparent- totally love your post #60, I wish my D will read it and be inspired by it.</p>
<p>I have come late to this thread but I just wanted to add that many overseas schools see a gap year as a great asset to admission. The original poster xgyrosx mentions they may attend an overseas school. Depending on the country, taking a gap year may make you a really attractive candidate. If you do something interesting and worthwhile during you gap year, I can see no reason why this wouldn't make you a better candidate for US colleges too.</p>
<p>At Oxford almost EVERYONE has taken a gap year. It's very common in the UK. Though degree courses are only 3 years here, many graduates are 22 when they finish, not 21, because of their gap year. Most UK schools are happy to accept applications for what is known as "deferred entry" which means the student applies during their last year of high school, and is given an offer of a university place AFTER their gap year. In UK job applications there is often a sections for the candidate to describe what they did in a gap year, so I presume it is interesting to employers too.</p>
<p>This website gives some ideas of the things you can do on a gap year.
<a href="http://www.gapyear.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.gapyear.com/</a></p>
<p>As an int. here is my advice:
1) Reassess your capacity for risk and your near-term plans.</p>
<p>If you are risk averse, then you have to opt for those that offer you aid. This may mean accepting a place somewhere other than the top 20. You may have to adjust your application strategy accordingly. </p>
<p>If you are willing to bear the risk of the investment in college tuition at your first choice school, then you are betting on that first choice giving you the compensating utility and signalling to pay off that investment. Looking at your stats, I say this is not a risky proposition. Of course it depends on your willingness to work in certain industries.</p>
<p>This doesn't apply so much to the OP, whose situation is fairly unique, but more to gap years for the HS class of 2006 in general. Much of the Gulf Coast and SE Louisiana is still devastated from Hurricane Katrina. Nearly nine months after the storm, there are still families living in tents and sleeping in their cars while they wait for what they need to rebuild, whether it's resolution from their insurance company, the OK or new building requirements from the government, or temporary housing so they can live onsite while the work is done. </p>
<p>Do-gooder considerations aside, I really think that 20-30 years from now, your generation will look at this the way mine did Woodstock--as in, "Damn, I should have gone; now I'll never really know what it was like". (Well, I have an excuse, I was only 5). </p>
<p>So if you are going to be taking a gap year anyhow, please keep the Katrina Coast in mind. If you can volunteer to help a family rebuild, a community clean up, or a fisherman restore his boat, great. If you can't afford to volunteer and need money for school, jobs are plentiful and in many cases pay twice or more what they did pre-Katrina (though housing costs aren't what they were before the storm, either). </p>
<p>Even if you can only come to Louisiana or Mississippi for a visit, do it. As a fifth-generation New Orleans native, I was against the idea of disaster tourism...till I drove through the Lower Ninth Ward. I have literally been through more hurricanes than I can remember, but even after the overdose of media reports and seeing first-hand the destruction in Slidell, there was still no way for me to really comprehend the devastation in some areas without seeing it in person. </p>
<p>If you don't come, I think when you are my age, you'll see this as a missed opportunity to participate in what will have been a watershed moment (NPI) for your generation.</p>
<p>xgyrosx-we are in a similar situation. You could also consider a mid-year enrollment. Most schools accept applications for the spring semester, so you would only have a "gap semester." Watch the deadlines, though. They are around Nov. 1st.</p>
<p>wow. that sucks. go to a school that offers a 5th year of hs. i know people who have done that and gotten into princeton. i know alot of good private schools do that.</p>
<p>xgyrosx:</p>
<p>It seems that you still don't understand the financial aid process. You write,"One of the colleges I REALLY WANT to go is Stanford, but unfortuately, it's a very stingy university compared to its...$ resources. I don't have much info about transfer for S. If my waitlisted college accepts me w/o FA, I'm definitely deciding transfer to S, b/c I'll be paying 40K anyway."</p>
<p>Your last sentence implies that your family has the ability to pay the money, but wishes to get get aid for one reason or other.</p>
<p>Also, you are confusing the statement on 'need blind' admissions policy. That may be true for domestic applicants, but for internationals it certainly is not true.</p>
<p>In my opinion, you decided to play the lottery and are now facing the consequences.</p>
<p>Your application strategy should have included some safety schools as well as some lower tier schools (if you want $, e.g. Drexel, Vanderbilt, or some less ranked LACs).</p>
<p>I think the strategies taken by callthecops and other international students might be your best bet. The strategies employed by domestic students may not work for you.</p>
<p>xgyrosx:</p>
<p>Reading your posts and the responding ones is kind of surreal (to me). It seems that you're so focused on top 20 schools, being international and needing aid to the exclusion of such important core issues as letting us know what your dreams and aspirations are, the REASON for the need to be enrolled at a top 20, etc. When presented with the option of a gap year, instead of embracing the idea of exploring the world, your place in it, and what you could gain out of the experience, it seems that you're analyzing it TOTALLY from your current goal of getting into some specific schools. I say this with total respect, and in acknowledgement of your academic accomplishments and credentials. At the risk of overstepping bounds, I think your exploration of the deeper motivations in higher education will help you come to natural conclusions and help give you a direction.</p>
<p>It's been a while since I visited this website. Let me clear some things about my family's financial situation. One reason I'm not able to afford most colleges in US is because I'm not an only child. I mean, my parents have to split money between their children. Like Simba pointed out, my parents can barely, BARELY pay ONE child (by selling our house, which is basically the sole family property, and getting loans) for four years at an expensive college.
Honestly, when I was applying to colleges, I thought my parents were richer than what I now realize. They're simple folks and they now tell me they thought I'd get some full scholarship money without having them to pay anything(I am aware how ridiculous this may sound to some of you, but just bare with me) and life will be happy. I know I deserve this nightmare because I lacked tact and was being stupid and naive. Yes, yes I know, I'm already miserable so don't tell me how wrong I was to apply to "top notch" schools without safeties. Tell me what I can do now. I am not saying this because I am offended by some remarks that tells me what a risk I took, but because I started this forum to get advice and help.
It is true that I don't know a lot about admissions even now. I suck at this admissions "game", and being in too many disadvantages, I don't want to repeat it.
Someone said something about my essays. Well, I did have someone from this website read over and edit it, and it turned out at least okay. I think essays are not a deciding factor in admissions, maybe except LCs. I guess it may not be true for domestic students. Considering the time and effort and pain I put to those essays and extra explantory letters (I used them to explain some unusual circumstances I've been in) I sent, I am very discouraged from saying that they mattered in the admissions processs. And actually, I had two English teachers (teaching AP English, if that matters) read over them and two other people I know who are writers.</p>
<p>It matters little how hard I tried...</p>
<p>Also, if anyone have questions about why I applied to top 20 schools (which probably sounds arrogant and prestige-seeking) and cannot draw a conclusion from my posts and replies, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>the discussions about the gap years are very informative and eye opening. I just wonder if one already decided to take a gap year after high school, whether there is any benefit to mention it in the college application. Anyone has similar experience? Will this work for or against your application provided if you have a gap year well planned.</p>