To take or not to take a gap year (between HS & college)

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I have been rejected by two of the three scholarship programs I have applied to (YES Abroad and CBYX), and I’m awaiting my last rejection from NSLI-Y Year (finalists have already been notified).

I will be attending Smith College in either the fall of 2017 or fall of 2018. Smith is extremely supportive of their students taking gap years, and it is something I have been thinking about all year. However, now that I’ve been accepted to my top choice and have been looking into the school more and more, I can’t wait to start! However, logically I know that Smith will still be there after a gap year.

My family is also less than supportive of me taking a gap year. My dad really wants me to start college right away. He also does not want me going to Morocco for “safety concerns”. I think I could convince him, and I also doubt that in the end they would try to stop me. Anyways…

My current plans for a gap year:

Part 1: September-October: Walk El Camino de Santiago with a friend or two (500-mile hike across Spain, I think more like 550 if we go all the way to the ocean). I have some relatives in Barcelona so we’d likely book plane tickets to spend 2 months in Spain and use the time left over to get to Barcelona and explore the city.

Part 2: November-February: Work to earn money for part 3. I would also appreciate having time to do things I used to enjoy but haven’t had a lot of time to do during high school (reading for fun, writing stories, learning the piano)

Part 3: March-May/June: Depending on how much money I have left over from El Camino and how much I find myself earning once I get back, I could spend 12-16 weeks in Morocco with the International Volunteer Headquarters. I’d like to volunteer with community development or women’s education.

Does this sound like a constructive plan? Does it sound too lofty?

Financially:
My parents can pay nada.
I have $1000 in savings.
I have a summer job where I make about $3000 over the summer.
I just got a part-time job that pays min wage ($8.44 per hour). (Could pretty easily get another one if I wanted to rack up hours during Part 2)

Costs:
Part 1: $4000 (rounded up drastically, probably more like $3000; extra $$ can count towards Part 3)
Part 2: 16 weeks would cost a little over $6000 with program fee, flights, personal expenses, etc.

Now that I’m sitting here thinking in depth about my plan, it seems really satisfying and exciting. However, I know as soon as I start to peruse a Smith website or talk to some of my fellow admitted students, I become equally as excited to start college. See my predicament? I’m well-versed in the pros of taking a gap year, but are there any cons that I haven’t been considering?

Okay this was super long and detailed but that’s my 411. Any input and advice would be appreciated :slight_smile:

2

At some point, you might start to wish that you were a year ahead on classes. For this to happen, it would depend on how passionate you are to have a career in the field of study that you plan on studying. The other factor would depend on how much you enjoy college life.

There are upsides to taking a year off, obviously. When your life is centered around today’s universities, I personally do not believe that you are exposed to many different ideologies or beliefs. If someone has a viewpoint, especially politically, that is against the norm, they are more often than not criticized. College is supposed to be about open-mindedness, debate, and free speech. You’ll get a lot more open-mindedness almost anywhere else.

I’ll tell you my situation. I could have my Bachelor’s in Computer Science already, but I took a year off. While I truly love the college life, I really wish I was in graduate school right now. We have a professor that is very passionate about virtual reality, and set up a lab specifically for it. If I was a graduate student, there would be more I could do involving research.

3

I’m a big fan of gap years. I think you can make it work if you save religiously. Err on the side of having more not less money. Things always cost more than you think and it’s good to have a cushion for emergencies and unexpected expenses.

Both my kids took gap years. No regrets. They didn’t mind being a year “behind” their HS classmates. Life’s a journey not a race.

As a parent of a daughter, I can understand your parents’ concerns about Morocco. Have you been before? On our visit, we found it to be a great country. It is very safe in some ways but it is a very sexist culture. Our daughter dressed very modestly but was still hit on and ogled CONSTANTLY even with her parents standing right there. We are a very well traveled family and my kids have traveled extensively around the globe but the forwardness and boldness of the men in Morocco was the most she has felt on 5 continents. I’m not saying not to go, just be aware of the environment you’d be living in and how you would deal with that. It can get very old very quickly for those of us not used to it.

Lastly, I don’t know a lot about IVH but I think you can find volunteer programs abroad where you don’t need to pay a intermediary to participate. It would save you some $$. Subtract around $1K off that $6K allotted for that portion of Morocco. That’s $5K for a couple months living in a very inexpensive country. I’d rather have some of that money going to the program I’d be working in then lining the pockets of some go between.

4

You’d need to do your own due diligence and check into program logistics and suitability, but here’s just one program to throw out there that involves working with females in Morocco with no apparent program fees and free room and board: http://www.efamorocco.org/get-involved/volunteer.html

5

@tenncr but wouldn’t it be the same, wishing you were done with undergrad and in grad school, if you took the year or not? I’m sure a lot of people wind up feeling that way eventually. Or do you just mean in comparison to the people you went to high school with?

@doschicos I’ve never even left the country before! I understand that I’d have to dress modestly, and the volunteer work I’m interested in doing is with supporting women, so I doubt any of my options would free of extreme sexism. Those volunteer projects are important to me because it’s similar to what I’m interested in doing in the future.

For IVHQ, there’s a $300 registration fee + a program fee (probably between $1500 and $2000, I forget). The registration fee goes to the organization and the program fee goes directly to the people in-country. One pretty big cost (almost $1000) is the language lessons while I’m there. I could probably go for a shorter package if need be.

6

I will check that out, thank you!

7

My personal example probably isn’t the best. Graduate school is something that I look forward to because of all of the opportunities to participate in research and teach classes. I really want to work in academia, so these things are appealing to me.

If you are able to afford all of the things you mentioned, don’t worry about the ‘con’ I suggested. You won’t regret taking a year off to travel and support a worthy cause, but it is important that you research the risk involved in living in Morocco as a woman, especially with your goals. A recent pew research poll found that 83% of Morocco supports Sharia law. In other words, you can be sure that the majority of the population opposes equal rights for men and women. So, research the current state of Morocco as much as you can.

8

I’m going to a small LAC so I will be able to participate in research as an undergrad.

It’s less that I’m able to afford the things I mentioned and more that I’m willing to work 40+ hours a week (when I’m not in school) to make it happen. Then again, maybe it would be easier to just go to college.

I understand Morocco’s (generalized) view on women, and it doesn’t really phase me. I think it just makes the work more important to help educate women & increase literacy and such. I think it could also be very helpful to be able understand what feminism truly means in a country that generally supports sharia law.

9

I figured out that if I change my plan to do IVHQ from Jan or Feb to April and then El Camino from May to June, I could save nearly $1000 in flight costs. I also think it would be easier to continue my summer work grind through the fall than leave it for two months and try to come back.

However, getting my parents to let me go abroad for five or six months straight will take quite a bit of convincing. It’s still not as long as any of the scholarships would have been, but I think they viewed the scholarships as opportunities that I wouldn’t be able to let pass, so I think I need to convince them that what I want to do (El Camino & volunteering abroad) are also opportunities that I can’t let pass. @doschicos as a parent, what do you think I should stress when trying to convince them to let me go? Offer to let them talk to people who have done it before, statistics on safety, what?

10

It might be helpful to find articles talking about the benefits of gap years for college students. I believe Middlebury and Harvard used to have something on their websites about it. I’m sure you can find others.

Do you know other, older students who have done it? Perhaps talking to them and their families would be helpful. I think having concrete plans and showing your parents that you have listened to their concerns and have read up on the best ways to counteract any of them would show maturity and might help.

If they have the assets to do so, encourage them to come visit you at some point in your time away.

11

I actually gave my dad the link to the Harvard article a while back, but I’m not sure if he read it. I will also look for the Middlebury one, and maybe some others.

Most of the older students I have spoken to who have taken gap years either had extenuating circumstances (recovering from major surgery) or enough financial backing to do a full-fledged program, so my dad thinks their anecdotes don’t apply to me. I’ll see who I can find, though :slight_smile:

And I’m not sure if visiting would be entirely possible, but I will definitely suggest it! Thank you!

12

Do you know what friends might be interested in El Camino de Santiago? Do your parents understand why you have chosen that? What benefit? Sending kids off to college is hard enough, but sending a kid off to another continent with a vague plan…someone who maybe has never spent much time away from home?

As a parent, we tend to look at costs and benefits.
Costs (not saying you would do this, but this is what parents think):
Literal cost
What if you don’t have a friend to go with you?
What if you are physically attacked?
What if you are robbed?
Where would you stay?
What if you decide not to come back to school?
Can you get a visa to stay that long in another country?
What if you meet a boy and decide to stay?
What if you decide you like drinking as an 18 year old?

Pro:
Are you religious? What do you hope to get out of the walk
Exposure to other cultures
Gaining independence
??

13

I have two friends who will do the camino with me if they don’t get taken off of the waitlists for NSLIY and CBYX, respectively.

I definitely understand their concerns but I’m also not sure how to convince them that I’m coming back and going to college. I got into my dream school and I can’t wait to go there, I just know that it will be waiting for me when I get back.

I also know they’re concerned for my safety, but I could also be attacked or robbed here in the US. I also know that there are things i should and should not do (if I had any fancy jewelry, I would leave it at home). I think if by some chance anything does happen, my family in Barcelona would be fairly accessible from either location if I need somewhere safe to go while I plan my next steps.

I made a list of pros:
-Independence
-Experience other cultures
-See more of the world
-Volunteer work would help direct my interests in what I want to do/study in the future
-Strengthen Spanish skills
-Start to learn Arabic
-Volunteer experience and references

As for why I want to walk, I’m not too sure yet. I used to be very religious but I’m kind of out of sync with it, so I’d say my motivations are more spiritual than religious. I’d also just love to go backpacking :slight_smile:

14

Thank you for your questions, i think i have a better idea of what to talk to them about while I’m trying to get them on board :slight_smile: