<p>Hello, I am a senior in high school right now and should be applying for colleges within the next 2 months. But I have not decided whether or not to take a gap year, and what the pro’s/con’s are. I have a 3.7 GPA (I screwed around my sophomore year), 28 ACT without writing section, 5 AP classes this year, and am a part of the Academic Decathlon team, FBLA, NHS, and various other school organizations. I am very intelligent and definitely have the capacity to get straight A’s this year, and am already on track. I am also rather confident in my abilities to boost my ACT score to at least a 32, considering I have only taken it once and that was roughly a year ago. The colleges I plan on applying to are Stanford, USC, UC Berkley, Harvard, and a few others that are currently undecided. I would prefer to go to undergrad at Stanford, or somewhere in California, and then go to Harvard Business School (HBS) shortly after, which I have a considerably higher chance of getting in (as high as 40%) because my dad is an Alumni.</p>
<p>During this “gap year” I will get an internship through one of the connections my dad has, I will be able to study more for the ACT and will be able to take it multiple times, I will have better essays due to less time constraints and more applicable experiences from my internship, Academic Decathlon, and my recently started business, my GPA will be much higher, I will have many more service hours listed in my application, and on top of all that, I will be much more mature and differentiated from other applications having lived on my own for a few months during my internship.</p>
<p>Are all of these reasons I stated correct, or am I misguided? If I am incorrect, please point me in the right direction.</p>
<p>As a future HBS applicant, may I suggest you research the admit rates of students with 3.7GPA and 32 ACT at the schools you listed? NOthing wrong with being ambitious but a dose of realism should guide any savvy business person, dontcha think? </p>
<p>My suggestion is to prepare a list of viable match/safety schools. You should do well.</p>
<p>Bottom line, of the four you listed, you might have an outside chance for USC. Nothing in your profile says you’re a viable admit to the other three. To gap year for something ultimately unattainable would be a waste.</p>
<p>Finally, I’m aware of zero legacy preference at HBS</p>
<p>As for my GPA, it will be a 3.8 after senior year, which according to my research is fairly close to the median (3.89) GPA at Harvard. So there are a good number of people who have been accepted with a 3.8. Also, there definitely is a legacy preference. According to a recent NY Times article, 30% of the spots are “saved” for the children of alumni. I definitely agree with your suggestion to research safety schools, and am doing so now. I also think that normal selective schools such as Stanford, without the advantage of having legacy preference, are a long shot. But I will still apply due to the randomness of the admission process. I still think I have a fair shot at getting in to Harvard undergrad, and can almost assuredly get into Grad school if I go to a descent, business-oriented college. Right now, my main safety is BYU since they have a great business school and because I live in Utah.</p>
<p>You’ve misread the NYT article. The admit rate for legacy applicants is near 30%. This equates to about 12-13% of incoming freshmen with legacy status. (for simple comparison, Yale has about 20% admit rate and about 10% legacy incoming freshman).</p>
<p>70% of legacy applicants to H are being turned down. Again, your ACT and GPA doesn’t propel you to the top of the pile in my humble estimation. Regardless, good luck.</p>
<p>One last thing – try that internship thing w/o dad’s connections. That’s the kind of thing that H is really looking for.</p>