I delayed my enrollment by a year and I'm considering forfeiting

Applying to College
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Hello everyone. I’m just looking for some advice on my unique situation before moving forward. I was admitted ED1 to Oberlin (top 50-ish) and unexpectedly had to defer my enrollment for personal reasons. I’ll be doing a long internship during this gap year and working a job in the other months, but I am also seriously considering forfeiting this admission to reapply this cycle before I do all that stuff.

I originally applied ED1 to this LAC because it met 100% of demonstrated need, had a easier acceptance rate (30%) and had a campus that I visited/liked. Despite my doubt, I thought I’d be attending this fall and just try to make it work.

But this deferral has made me realize something. Although their aid package was just barely affordable for my family, Oberlin wanted me to take out max federal loans, had highly unrealistic work-study expectations, and I’ve read that they have very volatile need-based financial aid for returning students. My parents are barely able to help me out with tuition costs as it stands, if our contribution increased I’d have to transfer out. My family’s income has also fluctuated which has me very worried for my sophomore/junior/senior years. This, along with the fact that I’m not even convinced about this school’s value, makes me think this gap year is a golden opportunity to try again and give myself real, possibly better options.

Here’s my profile: 1510 SAT (750 M, 760 RW,) 94/100 and 97/100 UW/W, top student in my rural HS, highest course rigor possible at HS w/ dual enrollment & honors, creative and impactful CS extracurriculars w/ HS stuff and the internship, first-gen, good recs, lots of experience and essay-writing ability, interested in CS/Econ.

I’m looking at 3 of my state schools (Geneseo, Bing, SB) as safeties/matches. Will not be applying ED this time. Also, I did get into Union/Bucknell’s fly-ins and attended there, so given that the two could also be solid matches. I’m open to any suggestions for potential colleges to look at, or suggestions in general as I’m still on the fence about this.

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Union and Bucknell’s social scene is more Greek than at Oberlin and obviously Oberlin is very liberal.

You sound like a great candidate for Questbridge - it’s a national program that allows you the equivalent of 12 ED applications at once (“college match”) and if selected you are awarded a complete full ride without loans for 4 years. Here are the eligibility criteria - financially they’re a bit flexible but if you qualify for a full ride at Oberlin it should be within criteria.

You can apply during a gap year as long as you’ve not attended college nor taken college courses after HS graduation.
If you’re working full time or doing and internship it would be fine.
Your odds are better if you pick LACs like (Oberlin or Bucknell) rather than the usual suspects (Harvard, Yale, etc.)

The deadline is in 10 days so you need to start working on your application.

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Based on their net price calculators, would their net prices be lower than that of Oberlin for you?

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