Sample Interim Year Scenarios - "Tim"

Tim didn't get into any of his top college choices. Rather than settling for one of the schools at which he was accepted, he decided to take an Interim year to reapply to his colleges of choice, pursue his interests in Italy and writing, and prove himself academically.

During his initial meeting, Tim told us that he wanted to improve his writing skills and study art history in Italy. When we suggested studying Italian as well, he wasn't at all enthusiastic because he'd been bored in his high school Spanish classes and felt that he was "bad at learning languages." We proposed the following scenario:

Tim applied to the Oxford and art history program, which took him through March, but he was undecided about what to do in the later spring. He decided to wait and see how the first two programs went before making a decision.

While at Oxford, Tim regularly traveled throughout Britain with classmates and he enjoyed England so much that he applied to several colleges in the UK with the help of the Oxford program directors. He also reapplied to his top college choices in the US

In January, he headed to Italy still undecided about the next step. The art history program included some Italian language classes and Tim surprised himself by swiftly picking up the language as he chatted regularly with local Italians. He also fell in love with Florence and emailed us to ask if he could study Italian there. We sent him an array of language programs and he was soon ensconced in a home stay and taking twenty hours a week of Italian language instruction as well as a cooking class.

While traveling in Europe with friends he met at the language school, Tim received word of his acceptance into one of his top US colleges, as well as one of the schools in the UK. He was convinced that his Interim year gave him the edge to get accepted the second time around.