Get Into Harvard: Year Off After High School
A reader who wanted to do some volunteer work in Africa before reapplying to an Ivy League school recently asked me this question. He wondered if the volunteer work would make him a more desirable candidate.
My response was, “Yes, perhaps.”
You may wonder why I said “it might” rather than “it will”.
Acceptance to an Ivy League school is dependent on a number of factors that must all be balanced, one against the other. Here are some things to think about when considering a gap year:
First: If you are going to take a gap year, be sure to make it worthwhile. You must commit yourself to staying very busy with very meaningful activity the whole time. In this way, it is like choosing valuable activities to participate in during the summer.
Second: Be sure that the activity you choose fits in with your “big picture”. It must support the image you plan to present in your Common Applications. It should be connected with your stated areas of interest and/or your major course of study.
#3 Bear in mind that you will really only have about 6 months. Common Applications are due at the end of the calendar year. You will probably graduate from high school in May, so you will not have a full year for your gap year.
Click here for more info on Ivy League waitlists.
#4 Your total application must be strong in order for a gap year to do you good. If you have negligible extracurricular activities, low grades, poor transcripts, and/or low SATs, a gap year will not fix problems with your application.
When you are thinking about working for your dad’s textile sales company for a year before applying to Ivy League colleges ,keep these four factors in mind.
After you have weighed all of these considerations, you may decide that a gap year will, indeed, be beneficial to you. If you determine that you are already a very strong candidate, and a gap year will make you even stronger, then it is definitely a good idea.
As far as personal development goes, a productive gap year is an excellent choice. It can give you a break from academic life while simultaneously advancing your academic career. This is an excellent choice, as long as you understand that a gap year is not necessarily a guarantee of acceptance to an Ivy League school.
