Throughout the whole college application process, my daughter has been a reluctant participant. She finally chose a close-to-home state school, was accepted, enrolled and recently attended orientation where she enrolled in classes. Rather than feeling excitement like all of her peers, she has felt anxiety. Orientation gave her a sinking feeling of dread as the awareness of more school, and focused school to boot, was looming in the near future. She turns 18 a week before move-in.
I have long advocated a gap year for her for maturity reasons. She now is strongly considering it. Actually she is 95% sure this is the route to take. I support her. It would also be helpful from a financial standpoint because at this point, college costs will literally break us and she has 2 siblings coming behind.
Question, though: the adviser suggested she take a CNA certification course (6 hours total) to see if she even likes nursing enough to major in it. Will this affect a deferral? Also, admissions at her school isn’t being very prompt in getting back to me so I feel we are flying blind.
You need to check with the school in question what its deferral policies are, including whether taking other college courses during the gap year would cancel her frosh admission.
Note that if she may apply elsewhere during the gap year, be aware that taking any college courses after high school graduation could prevent her from applying as a frosh, although different colleges have different rules (e.g. some may treat any college courses after high school graduation as requiring the student to take the transfer route, while others may only do that with a certain number of credits or other conditions).
My 16 year old son is considering nursing and is in day 7 of a two week Cna certification course. It’s been a great experience. It’s a great idea and will help him get a job that will give him the crucial patient care hours needed to land that first nursing position after graduation. We figured that he’d love it or hate it, either way was fine for us.
I wanted to respond and say that i was in this place two years ago in August with my daughter and it did not work out well. she forged ahead but the anxiety was overwhelming and, well, she is still in college but it’s been a struggle the entire way. I wish wish wish she had taken a gap year, but everyone said oh don’t worry, it’s just freshman jitters, etc. so…good idea! now about the CNA, that doesn’t sound like the kind of college course that would violate deferral rules…it’s a certification centered type of training. I would just call the school and ask-- oh i see that you aren’t hearing back. I would actually try to show up on their door if you live close enough. I bet they would rather have her come in stronger next year I think than show up this year with big anxiety and clouds on the horizon. I have much sympathy for you and your family and I wish you the smoothest of paths through a wisely chosen gap year.
Thanks for your tips. She decided to take a gap year and just work. No classes of any kind, at least not this semester. We called the school and officially withdrew but never heard from her counselor or got an official deferral. I think she’s kind of cooled on that college anyway and feels freedom to re-investigate some options since she can still apply as a 1st year freshman.
Thank you for letting us know.
Hound the registrar until you get something official. Make sure the un-enrollment is a clean break. (Some colleges aren’t all that nice about it).
Good luck to her, and congratulations for finding a strategy that is good for her when some kids may have chosen the path of least resistance, and just enrolled, then failed out.
If you or she need suggestions, you’ve got the perfect forum for new ideas!
@MYOS1634 the surprising thing has been the amount of people who thought she was brave for deciding on a gap year, indicating that most kiddos would go ahead and go to college right away because that’s what is expected. Several people said they knew kids who wanted to do a gap year but were too afraid to tell their parents. The college advisor, in fact, said taking a gap year before freshman year was far better than struggling and dropping out mid-semester, completely burned out and likely not wanting to enroll ever again. Seeing all of her friends go off to college has not changed her mind one iota. For her, this has been the best choice and I have no doubt that she will enjoy her college experience so much more with a year of “real life” under her belt.
