<p>I got my letter from Bates today, and to my surprise I was wait listed. Bates was kind of a backup for me, but it was also my second choice. I was originally deferred (then rejected) ED from Swarthmore - something I embraced quickly as I know it's such a competitive school.</p>
<p>I have been planning on taking a Gap Year for a few months - working in France, studying in Italy, and doing volunteer work across the US. However, I was rejected by 2 and waitlisted at 4 of my top 6 schools. I have received acceptance letters from two schools, neither of which I am particularly excited about attending.</p>
<p>Finally, my question:
How would telling the administration I am taking a Gap Year affect my situation. I assume I cannot be accepted off the wait list if they know I am going to defer a year.. Will I have to apply again, next fall? </p>
<p>Lastly, does anyone know if I can accept a spot to another college, defer a year, but also reapply to other colleges?</p>
<p>Any insight will be appreciated!</p>
<p>This was exactly my question as well, but I haven’t gotten a lot of responses on my thread either. Hopefully someone will know the answer!</p>
<p>Finally, my question:
How would telling the administration I am taking a Gap Year affect my situation. I assume I cannot be accepted off the wait list if they know I am going to defer a year… Will I have to apply again, next fall?</p>
<p>If they take you off of the waiting list, it is because Bates has an empty dorm room come September. No college is going to let you take a gap year if they accept you off of the waiting list.</p>
<p>Lastly, does anyone know if I can accept a spot to another college, defer a year, but also reapply to other colleges?</p>
<p>If you do this, the college youve committed to will issue a warrant for your arrest, and you wont be able to re-enter the country from France.</p>
<p>Seriously, if you commit to a college and then decide not to attend, you will forfeit any deposit paid to that college, and thats all. There is no way that any new college youre applying to will know that youve committed to South Dakota State or wherever there is no National Registry of Students Committed to Colleges and Who Are Taking a Gap Year. You would be a long ways from the first person to have committed to a school and then decided not to go there. Anyone who gets pulled from a waiting list has made a commitment to another school and then abandons that school. Kids also change their minds over the summer and during gap years periodically (trying to get into a different school is one of the reasons that some kids take gap years).</p>
<p>You can always re-apply to Bates during your gap year, but I would recommend that you also apply to different schools than the ones that rejected you this year during your gap year if you hate the two schools that have accepted you. Almost invariably, when someone is rejected and re-applies during a gap year, they get rejected again. </p>
<p>If you do commit to a school and are applying to new ones during your gap year, dont broadcast it on Facebook or Twitter or to the newspapers. Some admissions offices will Google an applicant to see if anything bizarre turns up, and if they discover that you’ve committed to South Dakota State, it might hurt you. But probably not that much.</p>