“I’ve often wondered though how that works out for students planning on pursuing STEM degrees. Does a year out of school make first year math and science courses more difficult as much material from high school may have been forgotten in the interm?”
I was a math major, so definitely in the STEM area. I took two years off between dropping out of the wrong master’s program half way through and starting the correct master’s program. I didn’t have any trouble at all. I did retake 1 class because it was so central to what I was going to be studying and I was concerned that my knowledge might have become stale. Other than retaking that one class I was a much better student after my “gap”.
I might add that I have become a big fan of a gap year. I haven’t noticed any stigma at all regarding gap years. Of course a gap can be between high school and university or between undergrad and graduate school.