<p>Have you (students) or your child (parents)taken a gap year? If so, why? What did you do? Was it beneficial in any way? Was is harmful? Thanks.</p>
<p>My kids have not taken gap years (but one of my daughters did an extra year of high school when she switched tracks, and it was great.) But every kid I know who has taken a gap year has found it very much beneficial, both in terms of personal growth and in terms of opportunities that came after.</p>
<p>My kids didn’t choose to do this, but we know a handful of musicians who elected to do so. All found that it was challenging to find the right combination of practice/lessons, academics (there are often limits on how many credits from a local CC will transfer), and especially social life. Their friends have often moved on to university. In general, it seems to run about 50/50 for “would I do it again?” for students who aren’t on a structured program, in our experience.</p>
<p>I took part in gap year and will likely take part in getting a GED when I turn sixteen as my school underestimates my abilitys.</p>
<p>It was beneficial.</p>
<p>Hi — my son is in the middle of a gap year. He was accepted to Berklee and to Univ. of Denver/Lamont School of music. Both were out of our price range even with a scholarship, so we deferred Berklee for a year. He will be going next month to reaudition in the hopes of a bit more money.
In the meantime, he has explored several other schools. Now he is auditioning at UNT (North Texas), William Patterson, and Middle Tennessee State.
The benefits for him were:
1, broadening his schools to choose from. In fact, if things go wonky, he has even found a couple of programs to consider for next year if he should have to take another gap year. He’s young and he has his whole life ahead of him. We want him to be where he Should be, not just picking a place off the cuff.
2. He has grown as a musician even more during this year. He’s done several gigs – some of them huge – and done some session work, etc. And he has immersed himself in theory and jazz (all on his own as there are no teachers near us and we couldn’t have afforded them anyway! lol)
A gap year is what you make it. It can be beneficial – immensely so – if the student keeps studying and learning.
As a parent, I can honestly say I have been glad he waited and didn’t throw his money away on an inferior program. He would’ve had to borrow at least some money to go somewhere and I think it is smarter to wait for the right place and the right time than to “settle” for something that wouldn’t have been good for his career. One can LEARN anywhere, but college is more than learning… it is connections and it is the start of a career. To go into debt for just “any ol’ place” for us wasn’t what we wanted for him. I know that makes us sound snobby but we’re trying to be practical while at the same time encouraging his dream.
As a former student, I wish in a way I had taken a gap year. For me, I think it would’ve given me time to figure out what I wanted before just jumping in. And for my husband, he should have taken a gap because all he did when he went to college the first year was play pool! lol So there are lots of reasons and lots of benefits. It’s just mostly important that whether one does a gap year, or gap years, or whether he/she goes straight to school, don’t waste time or squander time/talent/resources. You can benefit from any scenario if you work at it.</p>
<p>My S didn’t do this, but I have known several music students who did this, to be able to work towards auditioning or reauditioning to programs they wanted to get into.</p>
<p>With the nature of auditions, a student wanting to get into a particular program/teacher who doesn’t audition there or doesn’t get in, may want to take the time to bring up their skill level to be able to get in the next year rather than accepting what to them is a poorer alternate school. The question with success is how motivated the kid is, if they have the ability to focus and work on their music during that time, or will they drift? Will just focusing on practicing cause them to drift? </p>
<p>The one myth is that taking a gap year will somehow hurt the student at the school, and I call it a myth because of what I know of auditions, there isn’t any real institutional memory that someone may have auditioned there and failed, isn’t going to happen. It is not all that uncommon, and again it won’t hurt them, and if they really feel that teacher X/School Y is what they want to shoot for, it may be the way to go. It is what my S would do if he had not gotten in where he did, he was prepared to do it and already had his plans set, with teacher, and also music programs to do as well during the year.</p>