Is Taking a Year Off After High School OK?

aMomOfaSenior
Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:51:33 +0000

PLEASE Help! I posted this in another forum, and someone suggested I repost it here. My daughter is graduating a year early from High School. She is not a genius or anything, she is about a B average student and has a few C’s on her transcript. She attends a good school that is a Charter School that is focused on College Prep. She has taken Extra classes to graduate early because we are moving back to Michigan this summer, but she wanted her diploma from California where we live now.

Anyway, she is still very naive and has a pretty dependent personality. She says she wants to go to college for acting/theater but most of them require auditions and she doesn’t have much experience. I was kind of thinking that if she took a year off to take some acting classes and maybe try out for some local plays, work part time, and take drivers training (she hasn’t yet) that it might help prepare her better for life on her own in college.

Can anyone tell me if taking a year off would hurt her when she decides to go to college? Will they not want to accept her because she was out of school so long? Also we do not have a lot of money to pay for school so most of it will have to be financial aid and scholarships when she does decide to go. Any knowledge or information on this matter would help me a lot!! Thank you

P.S Also anyone who can offer info on schools she might want to apply to? I thought about having her take a few acting classes at a Community College to gain experience but someone mentioned that sometimes that could hurt her getting into the school she wants because that will add more requirements. Any thoughts on that?