The Gap Year: A Meaningful Detour

The Gap Year: A Meaningful Detour
By Dr. Paul Wrubel
Friday, December 22, 2006
http://www.tuitioncoach.com/blojsom/blog/default/?permalink=A-Meaningful-Detour-The-Gap-Year.html

If I controlled the world, I wouldn't let a kid go to college until he or she took a year off. The catch phrase would be "We interrupt this schooling to bring you a year of education!" School can be and is great but "seat time" in a class may not be providing the kinds of education that provide long-lasting relevance in the life of a human being. To wit: Is there a high school class that teaches self-esteem? Independent living and decision making? Initiative? Values based upon real-life experience? Interaction with people of all ages, beliefs, and languages? Basic survival and living skills? Probably there are "no's" across the board.

The kinds of life-altering gap year experiences do not usually include taking some courses at a local community college or bagging groceries at a local supermarket. Rather, it is designing an internship away from home or travelling or becoming a low-paid member of an archeological expedition or interning with a regional theatre company or financial services company or law firm or government office. Away from home would be good.

Why doesn't this happen more often?

• Parents fear that the student will not want to go to college after a year off. If that is the case (which it usually isn't) the student would have likely dropped out of college anyway since he didn't really want to go in the first place. The downside of dropping out is usually student (and maybe parent) debt, with no way to repay it, and failure on a transcript makes returning to college later or even getting a job more difficult.
• It doesn't resonate very well at cocktail parties. Parents feel that their friends might snicker at and think that the student applied to college and got turned down, thus the year off. With friends like that who needs enemies? Most people don't really care whether your kids are at college or not. They are more interested in the quality of their lives and the experiences that add to that quality.
• Kids are afraid to lose a year to their peers. If you do something totally great for a year, your friends will drool with envy.
• There's not general acceptance of the idea of a gap year. I am not a very religious person, but I am quite certain that there is nothing in the New or Old Testaments or the Koran that requires a kid to attend college immediately after high school.

Some Advantages:

• A year off containing some real-life experiences will equip you with a grid of reality through which college instruction will have to pass. This will help you evaluate those things that are important and those things which are not throughout your college education and beyond.
• Older college students seem to do better than younger ones. They have greater sense of purpose and are better able to handle assignments that require self-direction and initiative.
• College admissions offices seem to like students who have acquired independent living skills and experience outside the classroom. A gap year might, in some cases, make the difference between being accepted at a college or rejected.
• Kids who seem to have a better sense of self tend to behave more responsively in the largely unregulated social scene at college.
• Sometimes a solid experience in a gap year can help provide a sense of where the student might want to with respect to a college major or concentration.
• More than one student has parlayed a gap-year experience into a promise of full-time employment following college. Gap year possibilities are nearly endless.
• A gap year may also provide for a second shot at a college if the student is rejected. It never hurts to speak with an admissions person at a rejecting college to discuss a gap year and the intent to reapply. Having the college approve of a gap year activity in advance may enhance the opportunity for admission a year later.
• Finally, and not insignificantly, a gap year for an older child may create another year of overlap where there are two or more kids in a family attending college at the same time. If having more than one child in college will qualify the family for financial aid, then the family could save a full year of college costs. The tools in TuitionCoach will let you know if this is an attractive option.

A gap year is not for everyone, but for some, it can become one of the most important years in the education of a fully functional, well-adjusted adult. But before one takes this option, it should be carefully considered by both the student and the parents.