Applying to 2014/2015 Cycle, what to do for a year? Forum

[Pure Protein]

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[Pneumonia]

The things you mention as negatives won't matter for HCCN, and depending on your GPA they may not matter for YS either. Don't worry about them. A year of work experience is definitely your best option, financially and otherwise. I'm assuming that you're a senior so start working as soon after graduation as you can so that you will have as much time at your job as possible to draw on in your application.

One thing that may hurt you at all of these schools is that you don't really have any extracurriculars. I don't mean this in the narrow school sponsored sense only; from what you wrote it sounds like you did literally nothing except go to school freshmen-junior year. If that is the case then I'd recommend sitting out at least the next cycle as well in order to maximize your chances. On second thought this advice may be irrelevant for NYU, but it definitely applies to HYS.

[phillywc]

Take a full time job, not because schools care, but because employers will at OCI.

[Mack.Hambleton]

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[Yea All Right]

As others have said, get a full-time job. Also start thinking about how you can weave your job, extracurriculars, and life experiences together into a cohesive narrative that establishes a positive and interesting personal brand for your applications.