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Fickle

I highly doubt you got rejected because of one mediocre recommendation (and it's not like that teacher was saying anything bad about you). You should just go to UCLA and then transfer after one or two years if you find yourself still wanting to.

noobcake

Don't waste one year of your youth with a gap year.

Go to UCLA. If you hate it, transfer. Having this Ivy or failure mentality is beyond sad.

Fickle

Hey now, I don't think it's fair to label gap years as a "waste" of youth. If you have some sort of plan then it's definitely useful. I would agree it would be a waste if the OP only wants to take a gap year because he's unhappy with the level of prestige of the school he has gotten into, especially since re-applying won't guarantee anything -- but taking a gap year in general is far from being a waste.

terenc

^Yeah. I would argue that a gap year is best done WHILE you're still young. You have 40+ years to work and study, after all.

Sikorsky

But, Fickle, the OP didn't really express much of a plan for his gap year--except for trying to beautify his applications so he could get into some other university.

I'm a proponent of gap years--my oldest comes back from hers about 48 hours from now!--but I'd contend that taking a gap year so you could go to Cornell instead of UCLA might actually be wasting a year.

Fickle

I know, but noobcake seems to be under the impression that *all* gap years are worthless. That may be true in this case, but not necessarily in general.

Abcd3f3

Alright thanks guys! I had my visa interview today and it was approved, so UCLA it is

wilsun007

Oh yeah, this thread is kind of dead but...

From my point of view, your rejection isn't especially shocking. I'm sorry to say this, but I have friends who seem much more qualified than you, who have been rejected.

A senior friend of mine will also be attending UCLA with you. He was rejected from Berkeley and UPenn. He had a 3.95+ GPA, a 2300+ SAT, and a likely letter for swimming (a real one, from UPenn), as well as his other EC's. I'd like to see those people who got into MIT with no EC's and worse scores than my friend.