<p>I am a recently graduated student from high school, and I was wondering whether or not taking a gap year would aid or hurt my college admission hopes. The situation is this; I applied to a number of upper level schools such as Vanderbilt, Virginia, Columbia, and Dartmouth, and was not admitted. My HS rank is relatively good but my SAT scores were only a 1900/2400, but besides that my school leadership and community service are both excellent. It has been a life long goal of mine to attend such universities as the ones listed above, even though I was admitted to Trinity University in San Antonio Texas. My question is this, would it be wise of me to not attend Trinity and take a year off, work, and take SAT classes to improve my score? I would prefer not to have to transfer because I am relying on a large amount of financial aid no matter where I go and this aid is usually given sparingly to transfers.If i took the gap year i would be applying as an incoming freshman.</p>
<p>I think it depends on what you do with your gap year. Volunteering? Good. Touring Europe? Fun, but not so good for colleges.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that even a productive gap year is unlikely to make a college which rejected you previously accept you. Additionally, some colleges only look at the SAT score that you got in high school, I would do some research about the institutions that you are looking to apply to for more information.</p>
<p>As for the idea itself…if your only motivation for going on a gap year is to improve your SAT score and prospects at a few selective schools…I’m not sure if its worth it.</p>
<p>^I agree. You cannot spend a year just working to get your SAT score and expect to be admitted to highly competitive universities. You need a way to make that year productive, and even then, you’re betting a lot on this gap year. It’s unlikely that your SATs were the sole reason you weren’t accepted to these schools (though they certainly didn’t help). </p>
<p>Ask yourself if this gap year would be worth it even if you weren’t accepted to these highly competitive schools the second go-round. If it’s not, I’d go to your safety or a CC and transfer to a good-but-not-insanely-competitive school like UNC or UVa.</p>
<p>No, for all the reasons above and how hard it is to go up 300-400 points, I’d go to Trinity.</p>
<p>Unless you have a great use for the gap year - so great that it would have been worth deferring acceptance to a school you REALLY wanted to go to - don’t do it.</p>