<p>Any parents with a son or daughter that took a gap year?</p>
<p>I'm thinking about taking one and would like to discuss the matter with anyone that has experience or knowledge about the idea.</p>
<p>I'm not a parent, but I had a gap year. I taught English in China. </p>
<p>My brother is also on a gap year at the moment - he spent 6 weeks in Thailand learning Thai and travelling, and is now working in Australia. He will be moving to New Zealand in May. </p>
<p>One thing I would say: only go on a gap year if you have a plan of what you want to do. It should be seen as an opportunity to broaden your horizons (through work and voluntary work, travel, independent study, etc.).</p>
<p>Also, if you are planning on deferring your entry to university, they will most likely want you to provide such a plan before granting the deferral.</p>
<p>S, 19, did a gap year by volunteering fulltime with Americorps while living at home. He was a National Merit Commended student who loved school, but was disorganized and had been an academic underperformer (2.6 unweighted average at graduation). Due to disorganization, even though he planned to go to college, he just never managed to get his college applications in. He also was unsure of what he wanted to major in and what kind of college he wished to attend. He had interests and talents ranging from engineering to art to education. </p>
<p>He always had loved volunteering, and had done a lot of it. After missing the deadlines for the colleges that interested him, he virtually immediately got an Americorps offer at the place where he had been volunteering since he was a freshman. The position was one that suited his interests and talents, the staff was very supportive, and he got excellent mentoring, training and had an impressive level of responsibilities, which included representing his agency at meetings where city officials and nonprofit heads attended. </p>
<p>In Sept. of his gap year, he went to our local college fair, and reps from some colleges -- including top ones -- obviously were very impressed by him and some continued staying in touch. During the fall, as a result of job experiences, S figured out that he definitely didn't want to major in engineering or the hard sciences, and did want to go to a college where he wouldn't have to pick a major early, could take a variety of types of academic courses, and would prepare for some kind of career in which he could help people such as psychology or education. He also wanted a college with small classes and professors who loved to teach.</p>
<p>He eventually applied to 2 second tier colleges, including a LAC that he fell in love with. He was accepted there with a merit scholarship, attends there and takes full advantage of EC as well as academic options while avoiding the heavy partying that some students there get into, and he already lead some workshops there that were based on things he did with Americorps. </p>
<p>Due to his having spent a year in the adult world, he is very comfortable interacting with professors even though initially he was a very shy person. He also has made a variety of friends including a recently graduated student who was the academic and EC star of the campus. Even though his roommates are quite different from him, he has avoided the roommate hassles and angst that students with less real world experience often don't know how to avoid.</p>
<p>And his first semester gpa was an "A"</p>
<p>I agree with Laylah that a gap year can be excellent -- if you have a plan. Although some will suggest to you to make sure that you have a college acceptance in hand before going, my S's experience demonstrates the positives of applying to college during your gap year, something that could be a benefit to students who aren't yet aware of what kind of college or academic program would best suit their needs. A thoughtful gap year can help you realize what kind of career you want and what kind of environment best suits you.</p>
<p>nsmom, please tell us more about the logistics of applying to college after graduation. Did your S have much interaction with his former gc for paperwork and/or recommendation? How did the high school treat him/you as far as timely sending of transcripts, recommendations, etc.? How much harder is it to apply for the first time after you have left high school? I'm interested in this as it might apply to my S. </p>
<p>
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students who aren't yet aware of what kind of college or academic program would best suit their needs
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Exactly describes S... abundant talents, very young, very caught up in the moment...</p>
<p>nsmom - so glad to hear that the gap year was so good for your son. </p>
<p>I'm another big fan of gap years. I spent mine in France living with a French family and learning to speak French fluently. France is where I first became seriously interested in architecture and also realized that I'd be better off in a profession that was more hands on and less academic, even though I'd been a very studious kid in high school. </p>
<p>In my case I applied to colleges along with everyone else and then asked to defer my admittance for a year. Many colleges are quite receptive to this. (Harvard's acceptance letter even suggests considering it!)</p>
<p>*my case I applied to colleges along with everyone else and then asked to defer my admittance for a year. Many colleges are quite receptive to this. (Harvard's acceptance letter even suggests considering it!)
*</p>
<p>I think for most students- this is the smoothest choice.
Even if you later add colleges (as my daughter did)& have to reapply to the ones you had already been accepted to because they didn't hold on to applications ( as she did also), going through the process once, makes it much easier the next time.</p>
<p>"nsmom, please tell us more about the logistics of applying to college after graduation. Did your S have much interaction with his former gc for paperwork and/or recommendation? How did the high school treat him/you as far as timely sending of transcripts, recommendations, etc.?"</p>
<p>S had no problem getting recommendations or the other paperwork done. The public h.s. that S had transferred to at the beginning of senior year had a very efficient, caring guidance department. Even though he only attended that h.s. one year and had underperformed academically, the teachers and his GC knew him very well. </p>
<p>He also had no probs getting recommendations from teachers. He got one from a teacher from the school that he had transferred from. That teacher had taught him math for 2 years, and math happened to be the subject that s did best in, fairly easily getting As even in calculus.</p>
<p>I don't know whom he got his second teacher recommendation from (I had learned from structuring my very smart, underachieving older S with college apps that with such young men, when parents are very involved with college apps so those get submitted by deadline, the young men may go off to college and then flunk out), but clearly S got what was needed. When he was invited to a merit scholarship consideration weekend by the college that he now goes to, he had to submit an additional recommendation, which he got from his Americorps supervisor.</p>
<p>I think the hardest part for S was having the courage to contact the teachers and GC to get what he needed. However, based on what I saw when S applied to summer programs in high school, asking for those kind of things would have been a challenge for S to get himself to do even if S had been still attending h.s.</p>
<p>I did see a post once from a student on CC who said that when they decided to apply to college fall after senior year, their guidance office refused to help since the student was no longer at the h.s. However, I think that behavior was due to that student's attending a very weak h.s. that seemed to attract staff who would not have been able to get jobs in schools where the majority of students go to college and where parents are very active in volunteering and monitoring the school's performance.</p>
<p>Thank you, northstarmom.</p>
<p>laylah, i am thinking about taking a gap year in china, did you use a program? if so, which one?</p>
<p>Hi Jordan - I did use a programme - it's UK-based, but I know they operate in different countries as well. It's called GAP (Gap Activity Projects), and the website is Gap</a> Activity Projects</p>
<p>If you're looking to do a language course though, I would NOT recommend GAP. Instead, I would just apply direct to a Chinese university - I studied at Beida (Peking University) for study abroad and it was pretty good, although I have friends who studied at BeiShida (Beijing Normal University) and Beiyu (BLCU) and apparently the courses there are better.</p>
<p>H and I have been thinking about a gap year as an option for D. She's only a junior now, but it's something to consider. H took a year off after high school to work (needed the money for school) and to this day claims it really made him work harder in college. </p>
<p>I've been looking into several au pair programs that place American young woman into European homes. Any thoughts on this idea for a gap year.</p>
<p>rrah,
I'm wondering whether your D wants to do a gap year, and how she feels about your idea of being an au pair. It could be a nice gap year -- if she is mature and would like living abroad with a strange family and taking care of their kids. </p>
<p>As for me, I would have hated that kind of experience. If I had done a gap year, I would have liked a regular job in which I wouldn't have felt on call all of the time and I wouldn't have been working with children. I would have wanted it to be in the U.S., and I would have wanted to live either at home or in a dorm type of situation.</p>
<p>I would be careful of the au pair experience. I have worked with students who were in that situation before. Unfortunately, many are left for countless hours with small children and no transportation or social interaction with anyone except the children.
If you do decide to go that route, look carefuly at the program you select and ask to speak to past participants.</p>