Sound crazy?
That's not the conclusion of an article in the Wall Street Journal which quotes the cases of a number of students who aimed at highly competitive colleges and were unsuccessful— at first. Then, after a variety of experiences in the extra— the “gap”— year, they gained admission to a number of famous name places.

At the BAEF, we've long been aware of this phenomenon. One of our recent students, after a solid but not distinguished record at his school, took a year through our program, spending a highly successful year at a famous old school in England, and the following year he had a choice of three Ivies, among others. We've seen it happen often, although to be truthful, there are no guarantees. Dean Fitzsimmons, Harvard's Dean of Admission, agrees. In the Journal he is quoted as saying that the extra year best serves the student who has come close to being accepted but did not make the final cut. But, he says, "there is no quick fix that will get you in and to think that would be a mistake."

Again, our experience tells us that the good student who gets the most out of an extra year, the student who is a participator— in sports, music, debate, or whatever— and who sees the extra year as a chance to expand cultural horizons in a "strange" country and to serve as an unofficial American ambassador, is most likely to be able to move up the college ladder.

But all of our BAEF students would agree that the English school experience is a great thing to do in its own right. “I learned so much . . . and not just in the classroom,” says a recent student who has now graduated from college. "I made friends I will keep all my life." And then he adds that getting into a better college, though a dividend he hoped for, turned out to be almost secondary to the whole experience of spending a year in England and travelling in Europe.

For the full article, see the Wall Street Journal of November 10, 1997.