<p>I am a sophomore in high school, and i live in the united states but have a passport to england because that is where i am from. I am very ambitious, and i really want to go to collage at Cambridge to pursue becoming some sort of doctor, but am willing to go to any collage in england simply because i love england, and feel like it is my home. Most people when they graduate high school are already 18, but i won't turn 18 until that august (so i am one of the youngest in my grade, many are more than i year older). I feel like because i am so young, i have a better opportunity to take a gap year (even though age doesn't really matter, i feel like i have more time than some other people in my grade because of my age). My parents are totally supportive of this, and money isn't really an issue to a certain extent and i am planning to save as much as i can. It has been literally my dream to hold a baby lion cub, and when i found a reliable program that enables me to pursue that dream i almost started crying, thats how happy i felt when i realized that doing it might actually be possible (: i am not really sure of the details, but i want to do that for 2-3weeks, and there is another program called the Zambia medical project that i could do for 2 weeks. it would be a great experience, and i think the medical thing would really give me an edge of collage applications. i am really unsure of the details and am not 100% sure if i can do it, but it is definitely possible (:. After this i would go back to england, and this is where i run into problems. what do i do the rest of the year? are there any other long term volunteer things i can pursue? i just don't know what to do with the rest of my time off, and i really need ideas! i want to plan and consider everything, and i am open to absolutely everything. what did you do if you had a gap year, and do you have any regrets?</p>
<p>Pick up another language. One year of study at 3-4 hours a day will get you to a high level of fluency in most Romance languages. Also a very good thing to put on your college app.</p>
<p>Hi 
I live in the UK and i know how our admission’s process works. I had a Cambridge admissions officer come to our school and talked about how they want your application to look. For Cambridge I would say they look at your academics more than your extra-curriculur stuff (thats why im applying in America because of the high possibility of ending up with either pretentious or geeky people) but one thing the admission officer emphasised on was for super-curriculur stuff (stuff related to your subject). So if you want to be ‘some sort of doctor’ decide what do you wanna do medicine or dentistry or something else? Then try and find a way to do work experience for a year or so at a place which you think is suitable for your course.
I want to apply engineering and for that we have a year in industry scheme im pretty sure they have something like that for medicine as well. But try and look something sensible up, be proactive and you may have a chance :).</p>
<p>Thank you kartik12, that was very helpful! I’m leaning towards medicine so I definitely think that some sort of work experience in that area would be great! Although I’m not sure how many places I would be able to go to without any experience</p>
<p>Kudryavka, its a nice idea and if I had the motivation and passion for learning a language I totally would but unfortunately, I dont</p>