Grapes of Wrath Action Project

   What most seniors in high school are concerned with (other than graduation) is their future.  Where will they be after they graduate?  For most students, the answer is college.  Seniors spend a good amount of time in their senior year looking for colleges and applying for the fall semester.  As spring break rolls around most students have their admissions letters and are making final decisions as to where they are going to spend the next four years.  In most cases there are three types of responses college applicants receive from the Office of Admissions from their chosen schools: acceptance, rejection, and waitlisted.  Although not too popular, another type of response from admissions is sent out to a number of prospective students.  Instead of being admitted for the preferred fall semester, some colleges are pushing selected applicants to the January semester.

   When my admission letters arrived in my mailbox, I received notice that I was admitted for the January 2013 semester when I applied for the Fall 2012 semester in an college.  This was curious to me so I decided to set out to find out more about this different kind of acceptance.  I wanted to know why they were pushing some of their applicants to the next semester and the consequences associated with it.  I also realized that this might be a growing trend that might become common for the next generation of applicants to colleges. 

   To find more information on the acceptance, I tried calling the admission office of the college that accepted me for their January semester.  After the usual interlude of being on hold, someone in the admissions office received my call.  When I asked about the January admission I was given an acceptable amount of information on the subject.  I was told that the purpose of this admission is to accommodate students with a shrinking budget in an applicant pool that is larger than ever.  I was also told that it is an immutable decision. After talking for a while, that seemed to be all the information that I could get from the phone call.

   For the purpose of this project, I set out to see if I could dig up any more information on the subject.  For the sake of considering all of my options, I took a visit to the college.  I attended the Open House at which there would be admission counselors, faculty, and student advisors.  I attended a seminar that was lead by the dean of students.  At the close of the session, he told his audience that he would welcome any questions after his presentation.  I took this opportunity to speak with him about the January admission.  After approaching him and explaining my situation, he more or less retold me what I was told by admissions.  However, he did ask me to meet with him after the scheduled lunch to discuss the topic further.  Upon further discussion, he described to me in more detail the answers to my questions.  I was told that in previous years the college has tried to push for a January class.  However, it was of little success.  He did not give reasons as to why it was unsuccessful, but I can postulate that there was little interest in taking off the fall semester.  After asking about the consequences of attending college in the January semester, the dean told me about a “gap year” (or semester).   In short, a gap year is when students take time off to take a psychological break from all the stressor of school.  Students may choose to use this time to pursue an interest or travel or take an internship.  An unexpected result from out conversation was his willingness to put in an effort to get me admitted for the fall semester this year. 

   In The Grapes of Wrath the Joad family moves toward California despite the journey's hardships in hope of a better future.  Although I did not go searching for a chance to have my admission status change, I still feel that there is a connection.  For me, fall admittance of preferable over January admittance because I feel that I do not need a “gap year.”  I believe that summer vacation will be sufficient as a time to ease my mind.  The move to California can also be likened to the search for the "right" college.  Both can be very stressful with many hurdles to jump, but the goal in sight is meant to be worth all the hardship along the way.