The case for a gap year: Not every graduate needs to go straight to college

“My daughter wouldn’t have done well if she hadn’t taken a gap year between high school and college!”  

Charleston resident Esther Ray was a high-performing student who was exhausted after four intense high school years. She loved horses and was thinking of being a veterinarian. She took a year to work at a ranch, mucking stalls, and riding horses. Working for a year before college gave Emily time to test her assumptions, work for a paycheck, and gave her focus when entering college. 

There are many benefits to taking a gap year. Some students struggled in high school and aren’t exactly enamored with four more years of education. Some student-athletes often need a year to mentally and physically grow. The gap year offers a pause, a time to become grounded, becoming more intentional with college and career plans. “Gappers” tend to make better decisions and develop a better road map for the future. 

A gap year should not be an unplanned year off. It’s not intended to be living in your parents’ FROG! There are gap-year programs that provide well-structured, educational, and exciting life experiences, which involve meeting and living with people in other cultures. If not through a program, students can create a gap year of their own: working for a year, shadowing a professional, or volunteering at a local business or nonprofit. 

How do colleges view this break in education? Most universities favor students taking a year to work or conduct independent studies. Several representatives of admissions from Dartmouth, Yale, and Harvard, at a recent NACAC conference, agreed they preferred to admit students who experienced life outside the classroom, whether it was traveling through Thailand, interning at a local business, or even scooping ice cream. Sometimes, routine jobs are the best because people find themselves. They found that students who take time to experience the real world are more mature and get more out of college.  

I remember working with a high-performing student who was tired of constant book studying. She spent six months hiking with an outdoor wilderness program and the following six months in a supervised program, living with a family in Mongolia. She learned their language, noted how they lived off the land, cooking simple meals, being in a symbiotic relationship with their animals and one another.  

She came home with a renewed sense of purpose and benefited from being unplugged from electronics. Her self-confidence and decision-making abilities improved. She was accepted to her highly selective universities. 

Many of these gap-year programs can be expensive; however, there are programs such as CityYear, a free AmeriCorps program, that places students in cities where they can volunteer in schools and even earn a small stipend. 

If a programmed gap year isn’t possible, you can learn a lot by working, exploring courses at the community college, and volunteering. The benefits are many, including increased maturity, self-confidence, and improved vocational direction. 

C. Claire Law is a Daniel Island resident and a certified educational planner. More at eduave.com.