Leverage your time away to create impressive applications that showcase experience, purpose, and direction.
How You Stand Out
Find your advantage as a gap year student.
The college application process poses unique hurdles for gap year students—from staying organized without a traditional school structure to crafting a compelling narrative about time spent away. Meeting deadlines, refreshing academic skills, and securing strong recommendation letters tends to be more difficult, and colleges want to see that you’ve used the time off effectively, demonstrating a high degree of self-motivation and proactivity.
Gap years provide several benefits.
Time to explore interests and clarify academic and career goals
Potential to build specialized knowledge or skills relevant to their intended major
A chance to recharge and approach college with renewed focus
Flexibility for experiences that differentiate their college applications
Opportunities to develop independence and real-world skills
Space to mature emotionally and socially before the college transition
Many families wait until high school to start thinking about college, and by then, key opportunities may have already been missed. Preparing for the college application process early helps students grades 6-8 build the skills, confidence, and strategic mindset needed to thrive in high school, college, and everything after.
You can succeed as a gap year student.
Our personalized 1-on-1 guidance helps you identify academic goals and high-value extracurriculars, so you can maintain academic readiness, secure strong recommendations, and navigate the numerous deadlines associated with the application process. By effectively communicating your growth and maturity over the gap year, you can position yourself as a focused candidate who brings unique perspectives and real-world experiences, and stand out in the competitive admissions landscape.
Our solution
Your approach with Empowerly
working with empowerly
Gap year application strategies for you
Manage application timelines while engaging in gap year activities
Receive detailed, actionable feedback from advisors with experience in college admissions and essay evaluation.
Generate compelling essay topics highlighting your strengths, experiences, and aspirations.
Address gap year experiences in applications, including updates to colleges
Transfer insights from your gap year into your academic and career planning
Identify courses, activities, and other programs to help keep you competitive
TESTIMONIALS
Student success stories
Empowerly provides wonderful resources that have been extremely helpful and beneficial, such as Essay Editing, informative slideshows/documents, resource questions, and AdCom reviews. As the first person in my family going through the college admission process in the USA, Empowerly’s resources have been guiding me throughout the entire process.
—Sahana, Empowerly student
We had a great experience with Empowerly. My son was passionate about Computer Science and had strong academics, but we weren’t sure how to make his application stand out. The team provided incredible guidance—helping him refine his essays, build a strong extracurricular profile and get accepted to a great internship, and position himself for competitive universities.
—Hayden, Empowerly parent
The essay editing service, in particular, provided detailed feedback from admissions officers. Additionally, the resource questions were always answered quickly and thoughtfully, with expert insights that helped guide my decisions.
—Jasleen, Empowerly student
Plan your gap year applications with us.
Whether you’re considering a gap year, currently in one, or looking to apply to colleges after completing one, Empowerly’s comprehensive approach can help you make the most of this crucial time. Schedule a call with our team to discuss how we can help you turn your gap year into a strategic advantage on your college applications.
