Specify dropping a year in commonapp ESSAY

Liveulife
Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:54:54 +0000

If you can’t explain for your gap year, don’t go into something that will turn adcom off. Rather, focus on the qualities that will light them up. I know one gap year student currently who is actually keeping record of his year, but that person has already enrolled at UVA and can come back without needing to reapply. Unless you are not part of UG, your gap year won’t really matter to colleges (although it will incite them to query on your activities during that time period). Colleges know that some students may have hardship (can’t afford or whatnot) that provokes them to hinder their education by utilizing a free year to gather themselves, but I would highly recommend that you not include your reason being solely that you waited to apply to the right college. That would be perfectly fine if you actually did something meaningful with the year you decided to take a break, but it would certainly give reason to colleges to put your file to the side if you did it merely to raise your scores (as that is and should be viewed under a negative light). Though many internationals may do a gap year just because they blindly applied to very selective schools that had very low acceptance rates/ applied with low scores their first year, they briefly/do not emphasize much on their gap year. Include some information that shows your creativity and growth during the year, but again if you are not the most creative writer in articulating a boring experience into something provocative, I would say lightly and carefully shed some light on it and then switch back to your HS years. I think that if you are able to shove away attention from your gap year and focus more on how your talent can be implemented at your intended college(s), adcoms will come to see your potential nevertheless: which is after all the final goal of your essay.