@dancingwriter Congrats on Temple and good luck with the scholarship!!
@flame7926 Welcome to the gap year club xD Which school are you planning to attend?
I got my scholarship information today. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the full tuition scholarship 
Thankfully, I at least got the provost’s scholarship, which is around 18,000 USD per year. That makes Temple around 21,000 USD. I hope my family can make it work somehow. If not, I hope my other safeties will be a bit more generous haha
Hi guys, a fellow gap year applicant here. I talked to a college counselor and she told me things would be harder for gap year applicants as colleges may wonder why you are taking a gap year. She also suggested that my EC’s (internship, job, conferences, clubs) are nothing ‘ground-breaking’ to apply for an Ivy. I felt really down to hear what she said. But I guess, they are Ivies anyway. I’m also applying to some woman colleges so if you are, I would love to chat. 
I mean, you have to write an essay about your gapbyear - use that space to explain everything. If anything, we’re at an advantage. And welcome!
Sorry for typos, km on my phone
If you spend your gap year binge-watching Breaking Bad on Netflix and playing Rocksmith on Expert mode, <em>then</em> college admissions are harder.
Many colleges consider a gap year a plus, so long as you don’t spend it coating your skin in a fine residue of potato chip dust.
@LAMuniv Are you sure you are totally required to write that essay? All the prompt says is to explain WHY I took a gap year. Of course, I am also explaining WHAT I’m doing during my gap year as well, but my explanation is only 50 or so words long.
Ideally it’d be a combination of both, but you don’t HAVE to do anything. If there’s a way you can phrase the “why” in a positive way or say like “I originally just took it because this but it’s become so much more” or something…
I think the Gap Year Essays are optional. Common App does not require it, although it is in our best interest to write to the colleges we are reapplying.
At least for me, it’s required on CA.
How so? The education interruption section only requires that an applicant report any interruption throughout the secondary education. So unless you took a “gap year” within your high school years, it is not required by the CA.
I talked to adcoms and they said I had to check the gap year box…
@viphan If you didn’t explain yourself at all colleges would see that you graduated from high school a year ago and would wonder why.
@1sparkle2 You are correct, but the CA does NOT ask to report any interruption AFTER secondary school. It is wise to write a separate essay/letter and send in as a mail rather than writing down something in a section where it asks for something else.
I wrote a letter myself detailing what I did over the year, and will substantiate it with the letter from my boss of my internship. I will send it as a separate package to individual colleges.
To write the “gap-year” letter in the CA education interruption section is akin to answering yes/no to an explanation question.
@viphan But people applying as seniors planning on taking gap years would say “WILL TAKE GAP YEAR”, and that wouldn’t be an interruption in high school… obviously, do whatever you want, but I’ve talked to adcoms at the colleges I’m applying to (Vassar, Bowdoin, Middlebury, colleges like that) and they all said to check the box and write the essay
This is the exact question on the CA on Education Interruption section:
“Please indicate if your progression through secondary school was or will be delayed or interrupted in any way. Check all that apply.”
Doesn’t THROUGH mean 9th-12th grade? If you attended high school and graduated in 4 academic years, I don’t think any of us fits that description. Also if you check “Took a gap year”, it would mean for example, that you took a year off between 10th grade and 11th grade.
I know what you’re saying, but that would mean that the student would click “did or will take time off”.
I don’t think it <em>really</em> matters any way - as long as they know you took a gap year and have an explanation for it, it’s fine. I’m just doing it through Common App since a lot of colleges don’t want hard copy materials and I want to make sure that it’s reviewed at the same time as the rest of my Common App. I’ve already emailed all of the colleges anyway so they know my situation.
Plus, I don’t understand why they’d ask seniors “will you take a gap year” if they didn’t mean “in between college and high school”
Likewise, I don’t think it will really matter if you write an explanation letter/essay to colleges. Some high school students take time off between their HS years to support their family, illness etc.
If you do check “will take a gap year”, where is the space to write the additional letter/essay?
I am going to check with individual colleges tomorrow so that I don’t make any unnecessary mistakes.
The essay is under “Writing” and “Required Explanation”
Just to be sure, I sent a CA help question:
I will post their response here.
Thank you so much, please post when you get a response!