Some students just aren’t ready for college for one reason or another. I wish I had taken a gap year because I was very immature as an 18-year-old and had no plan, no direction. Obviously, you do mature in college but for me at least I would have saved a lot of money (full pay with mediocre stats…hi student debt!) and figured out what I wanted out of college a lot quicker.
@coolguy40, At college someone else pays your rent, tells you where and with whom to live, cooks for you, sets rules for your living space, provides most of your entertainment… Not exactly adult life. Most of the kids I know who have done a gap year have spent at least part of the time doing something that really forced them to challenge themselves and become more self-reliant, such as living and working in a foreign country. No one I know has spent a gap year on the couch.
I think Gap Year is a great opportunity for self-discovery and focusing in on a direction. How many kids switch up majors in the first couple of years of college? I’ll bet, many more than go in with a defined focus and direction. A year older is an opportunity to be a year wiser, a year more mature, and a year more independent. And frankly, I don’t think there’s anything to be sneered at working a minimum wage job for a year; I imagine for most kids, that would be a great motivator to be successful in college and ensuing career. In Europe and other parts of the world, Gap Year is the ‘norm’. Many US colleges and Universities not only encourage a Gap Year, but look favorably upon students who have done so.
@coolguy40 I can see you don’t get the point. Personally, I think it’s a wonderful way to do something you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do with college debt and the need to get a job. Also, most gap year students are individual thinkers, they can rebuff the need to have to do everything on society’s schedule. To me, it shows initiative and thoughtfulness. If they are playing Xbox it is not a gap year, it is a do nothing year.
I would hire someone who took a gap year before one who did not. It also helps immensely to have experiences before you go to college. Esp, if those experiences are related to travel or working. And even working at Subway might be beneficial. That kid is going to really want to go back to school.
My friend worked as a landscaper for three years during college, said it kept him focused in school as he knew he did not want to work outside/or do manual labor his entire life. Some might realize they love working as a car mechanic who knows? And better to learn before spending all that dough on school.
^^Agreed. I doubt my daughter will want a gap year when the time comes, as she is a sort of “by the book” person, but if she did, and had a plan of what she wanted to do with that year I would be all for it (especially if she had a college acceptance already in hand.) Heck, I would love to spend part of that year traveling the world with her for one last intense mother/daughter experience, but I know by that time she would likely want and need an adventure far from mom 
I’ll put it in perspective. If my kid told me she wants to delay college so she can find herself, I would send her to college to do just that. If she’s feeling sorry for herself because she didn’t get into her dream school, I would tell her “tough noogies,” there’s 3000 other schools to choose from. She’s not going to Guatemala to feed starving kids, or hike up Mt. Everest. Really? Who’s going to pay for that? If you’re thinking that it’s me, I laugh. That would only teach her less responsibility. Grown-ups are grown-ups because they know how to discover and re-discover themselves through sacrifice and experience. The only way to do that is to get real and do grown-up things. That means sacrificing and working her butt off to get through school and paying for her living expenses. Of course we’ll help her along the way, but I’m cheap 
@coolguy, most of us are not posting that we want our kids to “find themselves” in a gap year. One “finds oneself” in everything one does, at college or elsewhere.
But many of us value lots of kinds of experiences in a well-rounded life, and think that all (or many) of them are educational, and that life is not a race. A gap year could involve a sort of internship to see what the world of work in a certain field is like on the ground before committing to a course of study. As far as travel goes, some kids work a menial job (an education in itself) for several months to fund that overseas trip or hike on the Appalachian trail. Also, most volunteer work is not “feeding” kids in Guatemala (did I detect a sneer there?") but participating in work in a community that does give them a glimpse into what life is like in a vastly different community of the world (as well as immersion into second language, a skill most Americans are woefully deficient at compared to the rest of the world.) Frankly, I would find it dangerous in today’s world if all American young people were totally insulated in out own version of reality without know what is “out there.”
Finally if some kids are whooping it up a bit during a gap year (as long as they are subsidizing that themselves) well, maybe some need to get that out of their systems and mature a bit before the very expensive mistake of ruining their college GPA’s partying too much freshman year.
But that’s just me. I have a feeling nothing will dent your preconceived idea about it, so I’ll give it a rest.
A lot of people taking gap years aren’t doing it because they didn’t get into the college they wanted. They are getting into college AND taking a gap year by deferring for a year.
It doesn’t have to cost much at all. There are many ways to do a gap year that are affordable or free if one does research and uses their imagination.
Coolguy- I’m sure you meant no disrespect when you implied ’ “feeding” kids in Guatemala’ to be some sort of frat house boondoggle, but that’s how it comes across.
Many of those programs provide a real opportunity to be immersed in a different culture which can only enrich a person’s life. My DD is taking a gap year and hopes to do such a program. She’s not ready to start college. She spent all of high school fighting off cancer and never got the chance to be a fun loving teenager. There nothing more “getting real” then fighting cancer at a young age. She knows how lucky she is to be healthy, and live in a place where she has phenomenal healthcare. She wants to give back to those less fortunate, and have a lot of fun while doing it. There are many roads to becoming a mature, compassionate adult. Heading straight to college is great for many kids, many others want or need to take a different path.
@Mimi2018 I wish all the best for your daughter. That is a hard road to take at a young age. Her gap year will be like a breath of fresh air. I’ll bet her college years will be wild successful.
@Mimi2018 I wish your daughter (and your family) continued good health; I know first hand, the cancer struggles in HS. Sometimes, the teen years are a race to nowhere and a Gap Year affords an amazing opportunity to grow and regroup. When your D gets to college, she’ll be all the richer for her Gap Year experiences, and, after the ups and downs of her health during HS, your family will also reap the rewards of seeing her happy and content for a little while before she embarks on her college career. Kudos to you all for coming to this decision!
That is what a deferred year is for. Your place in a future freshman class, and scholarships awarded, are secure. Plus you get a much needed year to mature – or other fill in the blank reason. I am a fan and I wish I encouraged it for my older son.
@Mimi2018 - I wish your daughter continued good health and much joy, good health, and happiness in the road ahead.
@coolguy40 - There are no shortage of ways to spend a gap year without spending much (or any) money. Frankly, I think that feeding starving kids in Guatemala is a noble thing to do and I applaud anybody that does it for the right reasons (i.e., because they want to do good in the world – not because they want to look good for college admissions).
I know kids that have immersed themselves in other cultures by working as au pairs (free room and board and a salary), another that worked on organic farms (free room and board in exchange for working on a farm), and another that, while not scaling Mt. Everest, spent some time in Tibet. Two of them had been accepted to top colleges and deferred their admission for a year, while the third was not happy with her initial choice of college and reapplied to other schools the following year. A fourth has taken some time to attend to health issues.
For those that need or want a bit of time to find or regain their mojo, a gap year can be a unique opportunity to grow and learn. It’s not for everybody, but neither is starting college straight out of high school without direction or lacking the maturity to succeed.
@Mimi2018 I wish you the best for your daughter.
@coolguy40 Whether that comment may be out of snark or sarcasm, feeding starving kids in another country is still a noble and rewarding endeavor. My parents just payed $10,000 to keep me from dropping classes. Would you do that?
Reading all these responses so many months later makes me REALLY wish I could’ve stepped up and deferred a year for self-discovery. Thank you all.
If you had a chance to spend a year abroad for free to improve in one language and experience another culture, why wouldn’t you? My kid probably had a better experience in gap year than in college. College is not a be all or end all experience. You also learn to realize USA has bad points as well as good points.
The people I know who have taken gap years were either burnt out, wanted to travel, or wanted to work to save money.
Personally, I took a gap year because I was burning out, like GummyDolphin said. I spent fourteen years of my life in school (including preschool and kindergarten), I can’t even remember a time where I wasn’t in school. I had four cases of stress induced vasovagal syncope senior year alone, which pretty much lead to me vomiting in class and passing out on the floor from the stress of working two jobs and college applications and trading sleep for caffeine. I hammed it for fourteen years, so I took a year off to relax or else my health would have suffered further.
Both my D & my S have Gap Years (GY) - each having a different experience; one is working, the other is overseas - both feel the GY has been the best experience and the best decision. D’s GY came about by default (initially, I wasn’t happy about it). S had always dreamed of a GY before college. Looking back over the college admissions cycles, seeing how much my kids have grown emotionally and personally during GY,
I now see the definite benefits and pros of a GY; I can’t really see any downside.
DS never saw the point in school and knew he wasn’t ready for college. He ended up taking two and a half gap years! He did two programs with a Christian organization. He spent three months one year in Jordan, then three months the next year in Lebanon. It helped him discover that his passion is helping refugees. After his long gap, he enrolled at the American University of Beirut and is thriving. That gap experience changed his life.
Why a gap year? Your graduating senior is very immature for his age and can’t delay gratification. We urged our son to take a gap year (should have forced it), he swore he needed to go straight to college, then put his social life before school and is in danger of losing his scholarship. A year off in a program such as americorps would likely have helped him mature. Just one reason, among many!