The idea of placing our 14yo on a college campus is suddenly a whole lot more real to us, let's just say, now that we're only a year away.

While she plans to apply next year on schedule, she (and we) are contemplating a gap year before she actually attends.

Understanding that she has lifestyle restrictions that make travel (even overnight travel) extremely challenging-to-impossible, what could she do with that year?

1. She has well-established ties with a particular set of local NPO's, and would happily work there for an internship.

2. Self-study? She's interested in a Google Science fair project, and wants to me to teach her the Biochemistry and synthetic Organic Chemistry that she needs to pursue the interest/question that she has. We also have the support of a graduate program in the discipline and a local hi-tech firm with experience in prototyping.



3. ???


Other ideas?

Anyone have direct experience with a gap year and feel like sharing?

I'd probably go with #2 ... unless she could do a year abroad or something like that? Not sure since you're talking about traveling not being an option. I was an exchange student in High School (that's when I first came to the States) and it was one of the biggest experiences of my life (good and bad but worth it!)

No direct experience with a gap year, just opinions.

I think a gap year is a great idea for the young and college-eligible, even without lifestyle restrictions.

My opinion comes in part from my personal observations of students when I was a Caltech undergrad eons ago. My conclusion was that *on average*, the younger students (14-16yo freshmen) struggled more than those who were a bit older when they enrolled but insanely over prepared (i.e., they could have easily enrolled at a younger age but waited, for whatever reason). This impression was so striking to me at the time that we have avoided grade skips for our children, even when the school put it on the table.

If our kids consider gap years, (aside from travel) I would encourage them to use it pursue passions that they are unlikely to pursue early on in college - art, writing a novel, French cooking, etc. They both have broad interests, so a gap year seems like an opportunity for independent exploration to help nail down what they want to get out of college. While a CC class or internship would be fine, I'd prefer to see most of their time spent on a self-directed project of their own design. (And ideally, the "project" would not include playing Minecraft (or fill in the blank) for N hours per day.)

"The idea of placing our 14yo on a college campus is suddenly a whole lot more real to us, let's just say, now that we're only a year away."

I would offer an opinion, but college was quite possibly the worst five years of my entire life, from a social and emotional perspective.

Of course, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, only that it was required for membership in the adult human community.

However, the caveat here is that I probably had an emotional age of 13 when I started college, which made things that much worse.

#3 a year abroad with a host family through a reputable exchange program with on-the-ground support and oversight.

#4 - another option - What about a gap year at a prep/boarding school as a postgraduate? I only mention it because I heard someone else doing it.

Some prestigious prep schools offer more support and better facilities than most universities. Some prep schools offer full scholarships based on needs. Just a thought.

Some of our DD's ideas of what to do with this time (aside from the internship with the NPO, listed above):

1. learn one (or more) foreign languages unto basic proficiency, and maybe practice as a volunteer translator. Her interests here are in Spanish and ASL. She has some minimal experience with both, and will have had two years of German at that point.

2. intensive instruction at a (different) musical instrument-- she plays piano now (going on eight years) at a late-intermediate/early advanced level.

3. Arts and Humanities-- take art workshops, work on writing skills, etc.

What I don't know is whether a plan which doesn't have any real external structure/oversight/benchmarks is going to fly with colleges and universities.

Everything that I've heard about gap year plans indicates that institutions prefer (rather strongly) that student plans include things OTHER than "me-me-me-me" self-indulgence/self-improvement. So "yes" to Ugandian orphanage building, but "no" to the grand tour of the continent. If you KWIM.



She'd like to travel, but realizes that for her personally, this is likely to simply be impossible for now, particularly since travel to the developing world is an ABSOLUTE no for medical reasons. Her age is part of the reason for other travel restrictions, so it isn't that she won't EVER be able to do a semester abroad, or study at Oxford, or something. Just not now. The problem for her is that aside from the language barrier, she'd need one host family in about ten million in order for it to work. At fifteen, we are not okay with her being 'at the mercy of' someone else in managing her medical needs on a daily basis, even assuming that she could GET to such a host family safely (which is itself a significant hurdle). We'll know in another few months whether or not this is something which CAN be done with sufficient preparation or not.

FWIW, highlights of my university experience included playing in various orchestras. If she's likely to be going somewhere with an active musical scene, and likes that idea, then intensively learning an in-demand orchestral instrument might be an excellent idea. (What's in demand varies, but often includes strings, because orchestras need a lot of them!)

The other ideas sound good too though. Does the university have to approve, if it's a gap year after the offer has been made? I don't know how your system works that way. My guess would be, though, that a university might be amenable to gap plans in a young student that they wouldn't approve of in a normal-age one, because they might see merely adding a year of age as a significant benefit in itself.

She's expressed a desire to learn...





















the accordian.





"Honey, are you sure that you wouldn't rather try something less objectionable to the neighbors? Maybe the bagpipes?"

Love it.

DeeDee

She is welcome to come spend a year with us here in South Africa. She can do self-study courses (we homeschool so she would have time, space, resources etc), she can do loads of service projects - plenty of needs here! She could live with and travel with a family that gets gifted and any other conditions. She could help with my kiddies if she wanted as well with their homeschooling/learning. She could do musical instruments (my boys learn violin and recorder and at least wants to start piano soon), she could travel locally here with us and on her own a bit too if she (and you) felt it safe to do so...

Is the goal for the gap year for college admissions, or is it to take advantage of being young with a bit of extra time, and to enable her to learn and engage herself in something outside the ivory tower?

For me taking the gap year abroad, in which I did no service, was a broadening experience for me as an individual. It does look like doing a year as an exchange student is tough to manage given her medical status, but please don't make the object of a gap year decision all focused on improving the all-important application.

I spent a year in Turkey. I now speak fluent Turkish, a skill that has helped me exactly never. Well, except that I came back with the confidence I could learn just about anything I set my mind to. I came back with a more nuanced appreciation for the world beyond the me-me-me-me. I came back with a sense of independence and personal responsibility that was unmatched by my peers in college, many of which were still older than me.

Three weeks after my return -- at a time I was still dreaming in Turkish -- I was paired with an Armenian room mate, further stretching my world view.

These experiences have made me who I am today.

Right-- and I think THAT is really our ideal-- for her to spend some time... well, spending "the gift of time" which her 3+ years of acceleration have given her.

On the other hand, we also don't want to propose something that a college will look at and say "Nahhhhh... we aren't going to hold a spot for you for THAT. Apply again when you really want to go to college, okay?"

I mean, maybe we'll have her do that anyway (that is, be flexible about the fact that she may change her attitude/desires significantly during a gap year, and wish to apply at different colleges at the end of it than at the beginning...)

but it's not necessarily that we're looking to build a college resume. Honestly, that has NEVER been a motivation for us personally, and I don't see that changing.

We're more about just not hurting college admissions with a gap year.

So. I guess that would be a "no" for "a year spent exploring Minecraft and WoW while I eat pizza and live in the basement, only venturing out after nightfall to hang out with my slacker friends..."

I wish that she COULD do a stint in the Peace Corps. She's made for that kind of experience, if not for her disability. Oh, and I guess, her age. Right.

We anticipate that she may well want to spend a semester (or a year) abroad at some point in college, so we're not necessarily pushing for that now; the older she is, the easier it will be for her to manage.

She could resurrect her profit-sharing microbusiness and turn it into a NPO. She had talked about that back in middle school.

She could also do a variety of jobshadows; maybe pick four or five disparate careers and research and observe, try some things out.

One of the reasons that I can see a gap year being of tremendous benefit for a HG+ child is multipotentiality. It's a problem. More life experience can ONLY help there.

And what's wrong with accordion??? I played it for SEVEN years! lol ... She's gifted. She'll pick up on it quick. The neighbors will enjoy it

Not a thing-- honest! No, she's really just kidding with us, I think. (We lived in MN for a while, where an accordian rendition of "The Chicken Dance" is pretty much the unofficial state song... so it's a sort of family perverseness that is, er... goading... her into making that kind of statement. I think. Her interest is governed largely by how little her dad and I enjoyed the process of being outsiders to what felt like... well, like a real-life blend of Groundhog Day and Fargo, basically.)

She's (in all seriousness) expressed renewed interest in a string instrument-- like the viola. I still think that the bagpipes would place her in far higher demand... and be much more quirky/esoteric, which appeals to her greatly.


She has also done NaNoWriMo and ScriptFrenzy before, so we know from experience that neither is anything like a year-long or full-time endeavor. At least for her, they aren't.

I'm not sure that she is interested enough in anything but Pathfinder to do any single thing passionately for a full year. (Yeah, just... no-- see above about Minecraft.)

No matter what she chooses she could probably add some volunteer work.

Yes, and I'd advocate community service very strongly as a part of any gap year planning. It just FEELS good, and it's one of those things where perfectionism has very little chance to take root and grow. It's such a nice thing to have that.



I strongly suspect that we'd have a hard time STOPPING our DD from doing 10-15 hours of volunteer time a week. That's about what she does now.

I wonder if she's old enough to certify as a master gardener? Hmm.

Msybe it's just coincidence or a trend, but I keep hearing about even the typically-aged kids finishing h.s. seem to be taking a "gap year" these days. Rotary, AFS, (don't know if your DD will be too young for those) volunteer work and online classes...the kids I know who are doing this are so, so happy and come out of the year having a much better idea of what they want to do with their studies and goals.

Personal bias disclaimer: University was mostly a waste of my time as it taught closed-mindedness and a doctrinaire thinking. Put bluntly, I think the best learning is that which we seek out and design for ourselves.

From this perspective, I'd advocate that your daughter choose a wickedly complex question that she's dying to answer and make that her year. It would be incredibly fulfilling, teach her project management skills, and be an inescapably creative endeavour. Yes, it's completely exploratory, in a way that university never will be.

I'd say multipotentiality in itself is a tremendous blessing, but it can be distorted through self-doubt. I would want to ensure that whatever she does reinforces her values intrinsically so that the year can be applied to any pursuit later. I would also focus on the rarity of the experience to enhance the value of her skillset relative to her peers.

The question is if she will apply to colleges, get in, then defer a year; or if she will finish high school, do the gap year, then apply to colleges. It matters alot the order.
If she is going to finish high school and do a gap year, then apply, you could build into it retaking the SAT or a test like that. Not alot of kids do a gap year before college; you see that more after college when applying for graduate school.
If you just graduate from high school and apply, her application may be stronger if you wait a year after doing something interesting and/or retaking any tests that might need to be improved.

If it were me, I would apply and then try to defer; at worst, they'll say no, reapply, and at best, they'll say okay and you won't have to worry about applying during the gap year. I also think all this planning is wonderful and may itself have a helpful effect of not rushing in blindly to something you're not sure about. Certainly a much better approach than my blind stumbling into college without a clue how it would be or whether I even wanted to go, then having a disastrous first year and almost withdrawing. I muddled through, but it was not fun, and I was not a pleasant person to be around.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, a video with my favorite piece of music featuring an accordion (the laser dance from Ocean's Twelve):


I got a kid-sized one for DD when she was way too young for it, but I think they're pretty cool--maybe she'll take an interest some day and we'll dust it off.

I haven't read all of the posts yet so someone may have already mentioned this. Davidson has a good article on gap years here:

http://print.ditd.org/young_scholars/Guidebooks/Gap_Year_Guidebook.pdf

Sorry I don't know how to make it a blue link. Hope it helps.

I agree with Dbat - apply, then defer. Schools grant deferrals because their policy is to allow deferrals - they don't ask what you're going to do with that time.

I applied to college during my junior year, intending to enroll the following fall without having graduated high school, as a 16-year-old who would turn 17 in the first month or so of the fall semester. I was accepted everywhere except my first choice, who wait-listed me (but was notorious for never taking anyone from the wait list).

I sent deferred enrollment to my second choice school, and spent a gap year doing basically nothing but getting older, and reapplied early decision to my first choice, who took me.

IMHO, my gap year doing nothing was really less than ideal educationally. It doesn't sound like your DD will have the same problem.


Tangent: if the business model here is, "I'll sell stuff and donate the profits to charity / use it to fund my charitable purpose," be aware that the IRS will not approve NPO status for that. Income from selling stuff that's not specifically in furtherance of the charitable purpose is UBTI (that is to say, completely taxable) to tax-exempt entities, so getting a charitable umbrella will just create heartache and aggravation for the charity.

WoW and Minecraft... hmm... a one year major in those could up the nerd-creds... I'd say a year of gathering interesting skills would be cool. Write her first(?) fanfic novel. Learn seamstressing, hacker electronic skills, cartography, definitely the bagpipes (bonus if Carnegie Mellon is in the possible schools), and some random certifications in various computer areas for the grad school side job.

I don't know if you're familiar with the forum College Confidential (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-college-issues/) but there are a lot of these issues being discussed there for gifted kids - gap yr, applying or deferring, etc. Might be worth exploring.

I love all of the great ideas; thank you so much!

I spend way too much time on College Confidential, but there is some good advice on CC.

I know that your DD took the PSAT, but has she taken the SAT, ACT and SAT Subject Tests? If she plans to apply to schools next fall, she should have taken (or be scheduled to take) the standardized tests.

My eldest objected when I signed her up for the ACT (since those of us on the coasts still view the SAT as the "superior" test), but she was very happy with her score. Make sure she takes the ACT with Writing, as some schools won't accept with ACT w/o Writing.

Additionally, the more selective schools "recommend" two or three SAT Subject Tests. I think that the SAT Subject Tests may also help a kiddo who has skipped a few grades to demonstrate that she knows specific material (and not just that she can ace a general standardized test). AP tests may also help demonstrate mastery of material, but those scores are typically self reported on college applications, so they are not official.

Good luck with the college application process...my eldest is waiting for acceptances/rejections from the regular decision applications.

College Confidential is like crack for parents of college bound kids.

Yes. it. is.