Taking a Gap Year: Pros, Cons and Ideas

Parents Forum
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<p>I wasn't really sure where on CC to post this but since you parents are always generous with your information, I thought I would start here. </p>

<p>I'm thinking about a gap year. I am applying to schools now but, if I do take a gap year, I would defer for 1 year. My interests are in art, travel, different cultures, community service. I would probably break the year up into 2-3 different parts doing different activities. </p>

<p>I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas. What are the pros? Are their some cons to a gap year that I am not thinking of? Any ideas for a gap year that is budget friendly - cheap of inexpensive? I definitely cannot afford the packaged programs costing $15-30,000.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Gap years can be the best thing in the world if they are done correctly. Gap years can also be terrible if they are done just for the purpose of taking an expensive vacation or beefing up a resume to apply to selective colleges.</p>

<p>Travel to a foreign place, lodging and food can be expensive. Additionally, if you are considering volunteering in this foreign location, logistics of setting up an authentic opportunity can be daunting. If you do your research, you might find that some gap year programs come out about even in terms of what it would cost to get and live someplace. Also, many gap year programs have the safety net of support should something go wrong (health, travel plans gone awry, burst pipes in an apartment).</p>

<p>I strongly advocate gap year programs for students who do not feel ready (for whatever reason) to buckle down and start their college experience. If you are attending college because of the expectations of your family or friends, you will not be as successful as if you are attending college for yourself.</p>

<p>Research! Go for it!</p>

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<p>Our DD is taking a gap year, a packaged program in Israel. </p>

<p>Reasons - 1. We felt it was important for her to have an Israel experience, and this is an excellent one.
2. She will be attending RPI - one of the negatives of RPI is weakness in the liberal arts, and in particular that it has no Jewish Studies program. The first half of the gap year is doing Jewish Studies, so we feel this is a good way to compensate
3. We feel DD could benefit from more maturity and independence before starting college
4. DD is twice exceptional (gifted but ADHD) and k-12 was stressful and we all agreed a year break before college would be beneficial to avoiding academic burnout</p>

<p>Negatives - 1. The cost. But RPI offered her a good FA package, and this makes RPI more acceptable (see 2 above) so we consider that in context its a good deal. (BTW we did got a modest amount of FA for the Nativ program, I am not sure which non-Israel programs offer FA)
2. She will be older by the time she enters “adulthood” Well that could be good or bad, I guess.
3. We are somewhat concerned that she will not be doing math for this period. We are thinking of some refresher tutoring the summer before she starts RPI.
4. There is always the fear among parents that a youngster will not go back to the college track (or in a case like this, that the youngster will want to remain in Israel) Our DD seems pretty set on coming back to the USA and completing college.</p>

<p>So far she seems to think Nativ (her gap year program) is the best thing since sliced bread (she has been there over a month).</p>

<p>I am sure that there are inexpensive gap year possibilities (hiking the AT? Volunteer things?) that are much cheaper. </p>

<p>Some students get jobs during a gap year, unfortunately the pickings on that are slimmer than usual now, I guess.</p>

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<p>Hi, OP, our dau got her desired admission, deferred a year and has just started school as a freshman this fall. She thinks it all worked out great.</p>

<p>The only downside she feared was being a “more mature” freshman than her classmates at a fairly small school. That has not materialized to any significant degree for several reasons: 1-more kids are gapping, so there was quite a group of “older” freshmen who matriculated with her, and fun thing was, they already “knew” each other via a Facebook group of those admitted to the college but taking a gap year; 2-her dorm is not an all-freshmen dorm, but mixed, and they even offered singles to gappers; and 3-she purposefully chose one class that wouldn’t be considered “just for freshmen.” Of course, she’s finding it easy to socialize with all levels on campus, has joined clubs that attract all levels, etc.</p>

<p>What she did with her year wasn’t what she planned. Her Americorps placement didn’t come through due to the high volume of college grads flocking to Americorps because they couldn’t get jobs–yikes! If a service gig is of interest to you, start early and target a geo area that’s not saturated with college grads or is otherwise more realistic in terms of availability. She ended up doing a mixture of work (also hard in this economy–as bright as you are, you still look like a relatively inexperienced HS grad to most employers, so you may need to be open to doing something menial), local volunteerism and political activism, and travel. She mixed it up living at home and living with friends–learned a lot about living within a budget, cooking and cleaning every day, how rent, utilities and moving works, all that good stuff!</p>

<p>Note that most colleges will ask you to agree not to take coursework at another institution during your deferral. I think foreign language courses are often excepted–you can always ask about a specialized circumstance. Language immersion in another country is obviously a popular gap year activity.</p>

<p>Travel doesn’t have to be expensive! She ended up doing domestic roadtrips, including a fabu national parks trek, with lots of camping because she’s into outdoors stuff. That may not be your style, but you get the idea–you can get creative in planning satisfying travel on the cheap. International backpacking and living the hostel life is certainly an option! There are also variations on that theme–she almost did one of these: [WWOOF</a> - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms](<a href=“http://www.wwoof.org/]WWOOF”>http://www.wwoof.org/)</p>

<p>Good luck in reaching your decision!</p>

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<p>I’m on a gap year now. I highly suggest you get pretty much any job you can find. I am going to appreciate being at school so much more now that I know what it’s like to work for minimum wage. I am also wwoofing second semester, which you should consider. Besides that, look for volunteer opportunities. You might want to mentor a middle/high school student by meeting with them once or twice a week to help them with their homework and plan their life. Search for programs in your area.</p>

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<p>A million years ago I did a gap year here: [Institut</a> de Touraine](<a href=“http://www.institutdetouraine.com/en]Institut”>Learn French in France | French courses in France | Institut de Touraine) I stayed with a French family and was fluent by the end of the academic year. I took the SAT2 and got an 800 getting me out of the language requirement. </p>

<p>I’ve also taken classes at [Learning</a> German, Experiencing Culture-Goethe-Institut](<a href=“http://www.goethe.de/enindex.htm]Learning”>Goethe-Institut | Sprache. Kultur. Deutschland.) both a one month summer course in Passau and a three month course in Munich. </p>

<p>At either place in addition to meeting lots of locals you’ll also meet a lot of Europeans and Aussies doing gap years. Language learning generally is not a particularly inexpensive option, but it made it possible for me to take all sorts of courses I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. I also wrote my senior honors thesis about public housing in Paris and Berlin and got a grant that allowed me to spend the summer in Europe doing the research.</p>

<p>My nephew was going to do this [WWOOF</a> - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms](<a href=“http://www.wwoof.org/]WWOOF”>http://www.wwoof.org/) , but blew out his knee in a skiing accident and had to cancel, but I’ve heard good things about it.</p>

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<p>Why do you want to do a gap year? I think it is important for us to know what is going on.</p>

<p>Are you feeling burned out w/academics? Unmotivated? Feeling like you are not ready yet to go to college? Feeling like you need wider experience to benefit? Money problems? Other ideas on future paths (piano tuner, furniture builder…)</p>

<p>Don’t forget that once on campus, you can have internship experiences, and study abroad experiences which are often covered by financial aid. You will also meet all kinds of people.</p>

<p>I think I might be the first person ever to do a “gap year” (joking) back in 1969. People thought I was crazy. I worked in Appalachia, a fish factory and took a train across Canada. But I never really “went to college” after that: I kept finding better things to do, and I did feel older after being out, silly as it sounds. Have about 2 years of continuing education over 40 years, w/classes that I took one at a time and enjoyed. But sometimes, for practical reasons, regret I have no degree, and I also missed the experience of living on campus, for better or worse. Also, a gap year can be isolating, when you could be meeting lots of students on campus.</p>

<p>There is more structure available now, and more kids do this and then start college. So it can work out really well. </p>

<p>My youngest didn’t go to college after high school, this year. She does not call it a gap year. She works in a restaurant, draws privately, takes a few dance classes, and relaxes with friends locally. She is applying for next fall, but I am not sure if she really is going to go, after this year. I will be fine with her plans either way. Her two siblings are happy at rigorous colleges: everyone is different.</p>

<p>For her, the “gap year” was less of a chance for stimulating experiences and more of a centering experience, that is, as a byproduct, clarifying whether she wants to go to college or not. This was not her stated goal. She just knew she needed to be out of school to figure herself out a little. I am proud of her for that.</p>

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<p>Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. </p>

<p>My reasons for contemplating a gap year are to take advantage of this time in my youth to explore outside the academic bubble I have been in , to refresh prior to college and just for the plain old adventure of it. I attend a rigorous private school currently that has prepared me well both academically and in terms of maturity and independence so that is not a concern of mine. I could easily continue right to college but I feel this is a good time in life to do some exploring. I think it is harder after college/before starting a career. I have my parents ‘ blessings on this if it is something I choose to do. They think it makes more sense now than between college and career because it’s nice to take advantage of college placement and the alumni network for job opportunities and there can be relationship commitments as well (my parents met in college). I don’t think a gap year will get in the way of my returning to college as I really enjoy learning and an academic environment. I am on the young side for my grade so taking a gap year won’t make me old in the physically sense relative to other new freshmen by delaying a year. TXArtemis – thank you for your comments and suggestions re: being a “more mature” freshman. They are helpful as that is one of the primary concerns I’ve had. </p>

<p>My thought is to break up the gap year into a few sections – community service, paid or apprentice work, travel and language immersion. In my research, I stumbled upon WWOOF and it is very appealing to me as it aligns well with my interests.</p>

<p>Would love more thoughts and ideas!</p>

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<p>Thought a little about whether I, as a parent, would recommend a gap year to my two kids. In the end I didn’t, not because I didn’t recommend it, but it just didn’t seem like something they would not get much out of. They never talked about it, so I didn’t either.</p>

<p>Anyways, some of the thoughts I had about it:</p>

<p>Are you going to really do something meaningfull or is it just an extended vacation?</p>

<p>While a vacation is nice, would it be by youself or ?? You develope a whole new set of friends in college, ones that, in my experience, become more lifelong friends than my high school friends. Would an extended vacation without my life friends be that great in the long run? Wouldn’t a trip later with one or a couple of those friends mean more later in life?</p>

<p>Doing something “meaningful” with only a high school education would many times mean manual labor type work. Wouldn’t it be be more meaningful to wait until mid-way thru college, when you now have some “outside world” skills and can put those to work. Many colleges (including the one that my daughter attends) look to their students to do a term project that can, and many times is, away from school. (in fact my daughter’s school requires two such projects; one in her major field and one not).</p>

<p>As far as the maturity, it isn’t the physical maturity, it’s the emotional maturity that separates out the freshmen from the upperclassmen. A year away will probably provide that emotional maturity, although possibly a different sort than the college experience. A couple of my college classmates had a gap year. They always seemed to carry themselves a little different (like they knew more than the rest of us) even after their freshman year. Don’t know if they were just that way, were that way so that they had a desire for a gap year, or whether their attitude was a result of that gap year. Will never know, but suspect that they were just that way to begin with.</p>

<p>Tough decision to make. Good luck to you with it.</p>

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<p>Hi chica2college,
I am very much in the same situation as you were in when you made this post ( Im a senior in High School trying to decide whether or not a gap year, possibly WWOOFing, would be good for me, or if I should go to college and travel afterwards). Obviously you have already made your decision since you posted this 2 years ago, but I am really interested to see whether or not you decided to take the gap year, what made your decision, and if you did, how your experience was. I would really appreciate some input, because this decision is very hard. Thanks</p>

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<p>Hi, my name is Ethan Florentine, and I would like to inform you of a gap-year program in Israel. The program is called Mechina Nachshon. It is a program that focuses on leadership. It provides a wonderful experience to live in Israel with Israelis (who take a year off before joining the army to do this program), to travel and camp around Israel and learn everything: from History to philosophy to religion to Dr. Seuss. The program is what we, the participants make it. We can give classes, plan trips, and raise all sorts of projects. I personally have taught a Muay Thai class, and have given a history lecture. I have learned much about myself from the Mechina, my physical and mental limits, where I really put my values, and my ever changing views upon the world. I have also been able to have my own unique adventure that very few others experience in their lives, traveling around Israel on my own and living with the families of friends in a different place every week. The program is fun, but it has many hardships as well. Hebrew is a difficult language, and I struggle with it from time to time, but people are more than happy to help me with it. There is a lot of stressed involved in raising certain projects, or studying certain topics before giving a lecture; however, the greatest satisfaction is seeing your work make others happy. It is important for the Mechina to have a certain number of non-Israelis, since they have a very different outlook than the Israelis, making the Israelis think differently.</p>

<p>I hope other young people will have the opportunity to enjoy this experience. To ensure the success of the program we need your help to get the word out. We are looking for bright, outgoing young students who are either Israeli immigrants to the US, or young Jewish adults with some Hebrew knowledge hoping to have a meaningful year in Israel before continuing on to college, or even considering joining the Israeli Army. If you know of students that might be interested, I am happy to answer any of their questions. You can also direct them to our website at m-nachshon.org or have them be in touch with the Registration Coordinator, Orly Shafir at <a href=“mailto:orlysh@israelexperience.org.il”>orlysh@israelexperience.org.il</a>. Anyway you can help would be amazing. Attached is a copy of our flier which really helps describe the program. Thanks for the help and I hope to hear from you,</p>