BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey all,

It's college admissions time and I was rejected from the schools I wanted to go to . After some financial considerations it looks like I'll be taking a gap year and then applying to the University of California next year. Until then, I'd like to go travel of course. I've figured that all those Ivy League rejections are actually the chance of a lifetime--someone up there must be giving me this opportunity .

Some ideas I'm looking into are...

Attending school in Italy (I'm second generation Italian-American).

Some kind of volunteer/Peace Corps sabbatical, though the Peace Corps is two years. Probably hook up with a faith-based volunteer group.

Get a TEFL degree and teach overseas for a year.


The problem is that the U of California won't let me take classes at any university or college, anywhere in the world. Supposedly it means I'm enrolled in college, and I'd have to accumulate 60 credits before I could apply as a transer student two years later. I had it all worked out with the Foreigner's School in Perugia Italy until this bureaucratic crap came to my attention...

Anyways I'm just out here looking for ideas. Anyone else have any experience with post-high school travel? Don't hold back any ideas just because I'm 18. Like I said I was applying to the Ivies and similar schools, so I'm a pretty mature and smart kid. Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

Anthony Zueck

I've never experienced this because I went to college right after high school. The Peace Corps sounds good though. And it'll help you when you apply to schools again. Good luck!

I am a junior in high school and already planning on doing a gap year (even though Americans think I am crazy, I met people in Europe who think it is quite sane!). I was also planning on applying to ivies and ivy-equivalents, no gap year, and then this summer I took a trip to Spain, England, and Morocco. Now all I want to do is travel! In my gap year I want to spend part of it working and part traveling as cheaply as possible (couchsurfing, etc., also willing to work as I go), and then I want to go to college in Europe (I am thinking an English-language program in Sweden). However, I was wondering--do you know if/how much it hurts your chances of being accepted if you took time off to travel? Good grades, hard classes, extra-curriculars and all in high school. I want to do TEFL after I graduate for awhile. So you and I are in kind of similar situations (only you're further ahead of me). I'm interested in seeing replies to this topic...

Taking a gap year after high school won't hurt your chances of getting into college, providing you present it as a goal-oriented journey rather than an aimless series of excursions.

you've probably already found your answer, but here's my two cents. Doing a program like LeapNow is good, as it functions as a internship/travel/rite of passage thing. I'd also look into doing an americorps program [like City Year]. You won't be traveling abrovd, but you will def. get to learn a US city inside and out. I was in the same situation and took the americorps route, and I ended up getting $12,000+ in scholarships