<p>Hi everyone. During the college applications process, I felt like my number 1 choice was Harvard, but I had the best shot of getting into Yale (out of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale) because I did a summer camp there. During the early action phase, I applied to Yale, and got in. I applied to Harvard RD, got waitlisted, and got the call that I was accepted to the Harvard Z-list (for those who don’t know, I would have to take a gap year, and be accepted into the class of 2019). I still think I like Harvard more than Yale, but I have some reservations about the Z-list:
I don’t know what I’d do for a gap year, and I don’t really think I want to take one
I think it could be a little weird to be older than my graduating class.
I wouldn’t be as confident at Harvard knowing I barely got in. At Yale, I was offered pre-admission into a special program (DS).
So what do you guys think?</p>
<p>Yale kids seem to choose Yale because there are aspects they really like - they think it’s a perfect fit. I don’t hear that so much about Harvard. I think you are Harvard material. </p>
<h1>3. Getting into Yale should supply confidence that you are totally qualified for Harvard. I don’t know the directed studies program, but it looks more competitive than “basic” admission to Yale. There is no reason you shouldn’t thrive equally well at Harvard - although you presumably wouldn’t be in the special program you wanted.</h1>
<h1>2. No one cares if you are a year older and neither should you. There will be folks who skipped grades that were younger than average, people who entered KG at 4.5 years and those that didn’t start til they were almost 6, folks who took gap years or international programs who may be a year or two older, probably even some (gasp) 20-somethings who are on a really circuitous route.</h1>
<h1>1. This is actually the most important. If you don’t have a fantastic plan for next year - why bum around killing time? There is not that much difference between Harvard and Yale.</h1>
<p>In the end of it, I would go with a gut decision. If the opportunity to take a gap year is causing you to dream up lots of exciting options, or you are psyched to earn cash to pay for school, etc, then this may be a blessing and go for it and take the Harvard offer. If the opportunity to take a gap year has you flummoxed about what to do with your time and you feel you’ll be “treading water” then I would stick with your plan and go to Yale. </p>
<p>I think your criteria is strange. It should be more about where you really want to be for 4 years. And if you want to wait or not. There are many people in Harvard who barely got in and there are many more they would like to take but don’t have room for because they let the barely ones in. If you are qualified then there isn’t any difference between people who barely got in or not, or between people qualified for Harvard or Yale. You got that offer because they didn’t want to let you go. So I don’t know why there shouldn’t be a confidence issue involved. You have to weigh not wanting a gap year vs your preferred college.</p>
<p>DD was redshirted and entered kindergarten 3 weeks shy of her 6th bday. I think being older as an asset. It has been for her and it has been obvious in many instances. Please don’t allow the gap year to scare you off. </p>
<p>Directed Studies is a special program, by all accounts. I think that you should investigate whether you would be able to do something like that at H, if that is what you really want. I would also think seriously about whether the location of each school is a significant factor for you. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about your age or qualifications. Every year, both Yale and Harvard rejected thousands of equally well-qualified applicants, some of whom were undoubted “superior” to the ones they accepted.</p>
<p>@pyruvian I’m guessing you were offered a space in DS as part of your acceptance? I thought you had to apply to this program. </p>
<p>Does the program interest you? There’s not really an equivalent program at Harvard.</p>
<p>If you like Harvard better than Yale, then do the gap year. You would likely do what you’ve been doing outside of school and athletics for the past 4 years- interning, volunteering, etc. If you are concerned with living expenses, I guess that’s another story.</p>
<p>But I don’t see how you could turn down Yale, who clearly want you on campus and pre-admitted you to a selective program at one of the most selective schools in the countery. My $.02? Go to Yale and don’t look back.</p>
<p>I’m actually in the same exact position. I wasn’t planning to take a gap year and I think Harvard was/is my number one as well. However, as I think about things I could do in the gap year, I get pretty excited as @VSGPeanut101 said. Would you mind saying for which option you opted and why? Thanks a lot! </p>
<p>That it has a name, the Z-list, is one indication that the group of students at Harvard who are asked to take a gap year is quite large. You will not be the only student one year older than your classmates. I don’t have any stats about this, but I’d bet a significant part of any freshman class is made up of Z-listers. It’s a great idea, and schools should do this more commonly. Many students, moreso men than women, benefit from another year of growing up before going to college. They have better first years when they’ve spent a year or two after high school letting their brains continue to grow and settle down. they are much more recognizably adults at 19 than 18. They’ve done something during that gap year that doesn’t involve something they’re pretty good at: going to school and studying. They’ve had to consider another course for their lives, learned how to live on their own, or balance a checkbook, or shop for themselves, or care for children worse off than they are, etc. Kids so fixated for twelve years on getting into Harvard now have to develop skills they didn’t have to develop those 12 years. The student wins. Harvard wins.</p>
<p>I don’t know whether Yale or Harvard is better for you, but the Z-list is good for Harvard, in my estimation as an educator.</p>
<p>Harvard and Yale have very different cultures. As with people, you might be more naturally drawn to one than the other. It is unexplainable. As noted above, it is a gut reaction.</p>
<p>You should really think about the differences between New Haven and Cambridge, the Residential Houses at Yale vs. none at Harvard, and most importantly, whether the DS program seems valuable to you.</p>
<p>The gap year would actually force you to re-examine your priorities and goals in life. Going straight through can be dangerous if you haven’t had time to reflect upon life goals and the sorts of experiences that bring you satisfaction. That takes time and experimentation. The gap year is ideal for that… break out of the mold. There is a reason most MBA programs prefer their students to have had a few years in the real, non-academic world before hitting the classroom.</p>
<p>Ultimately you’ve got two people in the room. Whom would you rather spend more time with?</p>
<p>" I don’t know what I’d do for a gap year, and I don’t really think I want to take one"</p>
<p>If you can’t imagine taking a gap year, you probably do need one. Being unable to come up with anything to do with that time away from an educational environment is a bad sign. You need to be able to do things that are outside of a classroom.</p>
<p>Unless your home life is endangering your physical and/or mental health in such a way as to make going away to college the best option for your own safety, take the gap year and do something that has nothing to do with school at all.</p>
<p>Most first-year students at Harvard live in Harvard Yard. Living together as first-years before spreading out into the houses is a good way to get to know students across the campus.</p>
<p>Right. There’s a reason that the Houses and Colleges at H & Y are so similar…they were endowed by the same donor whose goal was to create the same thing based on the same model. It’s not a coincidence.</p>
<p>You can’t go wrong here, but I’d go with where you actually want to be rather than when you go. In 15 years in the admissions industry, I’ve never met a student who took a gap year and regretted it. Never.</p>