MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Yes indeed. Let’s focus on the OP’s situation, please. Any posts not relating to OP will be handled in accordance with ToS.
This is what I was trying to warn you against. I would not rely on anecdotal or even survey studies on gap year. There’s an inherent bias for positivity due to the sunken cost (no one wants to admit they waste a year, so they rationalize) and confirmation bias.
If you read your first posting, it looks like your parenting spider sense was on high alert and that the gap year didn’t made sense to you. I think the people on this forum (again the confirmation bias of having experience a gap year) has slowly convinced you to take your parent spider sense down. I have a feeling that most people did not thoroughly read what you wrote and instinctively just write what they felt was “right”.
Let’s examine this LOGICALLY:
a. Your kid is excited to go to college and immerse himself in topics that he enjoyed.
b. You mentioned that he will be miserable at home for another year.
b. He doesn’t need to “find himself” since he already knows what he wants to do in life. Like you said in your first post, people who take gap year generally do not know what direction or major they want. Your son is not that
c. People take gap year to save money, your son doesn’t have a problem here.
d. People take gap year to travel, your son is going to travel in the 3 months before school
e. People take gap year to expand their horizon, you said your son is not one of these travel people who want to broaden his/her horizon nor do mission work. So it doesn’t apply.
f. You imply in your post that he’s considering a gap year because he was overburdened/pressured from the application process. Not school related, not burnout. Just stress from the application process.
In summary, a kid who is excited to go to college to finally get into classes that interest him … should be going to college. You yourself believes his reason for a gap year isn’t a “strong reason.” I concur: stressing out from the application process doesn’t justify a gap year. This stressing out over application process will fade, it’s not worth wasting a year where he might be “miserable” as you put it, and wish he was with his peers.
Here’s my suggestion. Stop listening to people with positive bias on gap year. Talk to your kid AFTER the application process. Preferably a month or so after he get his admittance letter when the stress level is no longer heightened. Reassess, and make sure he understands the potential drawbacks of a gap (opportunity cost of losing a year: loss potential wages from entering the workforce a year later, potentially stuck at home while his peers are at college, and losing the opportunity to immerse himself in classes that he was looking forward to, resulting in a year of potential intellectual boredom). As a parent, give him BOTH sides of the coin, not just the positive.
Again, please keep us informed!