Taking a Gap Year

If you take a year off from going to school, colleges want to see that you either had a good reason, or that you have something to show from your unstructured time. If you did nothing for an entire year and simply enjoyed not being in school or went on vacation, colleges will not be impressed. This is not to say you cannot enjoy your time not spent in school, but a year away from school should still be a year of personal growth and productivity. Spending a month in Spain will not harm you, especially if you volunteered there, stayed in a homestay and learned the language or even just vacationed but spent the remaining eleven months, volunteering, working, or taking classes, but spending a month on vacation and then doing the same for the other eleven will not help you get into college.

Some schools recommend it for applicants who were young for their class year. College is a big lifestyle change from high school, and an extra year of experience for students who are younger than their high school classmates can be crucial. Gap years can be highly beneficial if the applicant is productive in their time off. Whether they volunteered for a cause, took classes to earn credit beforehand, or worked a job to earn money to pay for school, colleges want to see that they have something to show for the year they took off. If an applicant can easily and ably demonstrate how they grew and benefited from their time off and what they learned (even working at Starbucks can teach you something!) then colleges will likely respect their decision and consider it favorably in an application.

A gap year can help you mature, gain real world experience, and learn how to live independently. They also require you to step outside your comfort zone (sometimes WAY outside), and can be instrumental in helping you discover your passions and sense of self. Colleges appreciate these qualities in applicants; they also like knowing that a student who successfully completed a gap year certainly has the maturity, intellectual curiosity, initiative and self-discipline to be successful in higher education.

Gap years should not only be viewed as a means of enhancing one's college application, but also -- and more importantly -- to have a period of time dedicated to meaningful out-of-classroom experiences that encourage personal growth. Not engaging in some sort of meaningful activity -- be it work, volunteerism, cultural exchange, travel, or some other form of learning through doing can ultimately be detrimental to your college application. If you don't want to go to college immediately, but you also don't want to do anything else in the interim, I would not even consider that a gap year. I would call it time off. Conversely, a gap year should be considered "time on," and you should be able to speak or write about it as such during the college application process.

The answer to this question depends on whether you have a goal in mind for after you complete gap year. If your goal is to go to college, do you know what college you would like to attend? Do you know what major course of study you would like to pursue? If so, it would be beneficial for you to structure your gap year experience around what you are interested in pursuing during college or possibly after. If you have an interest in medicine or international relations, could you possibly arrange to work at a medical clinic in another country? Or, if your interest is in the arts, could you pursue an internship or other work/learning experience at a local arts organization? Through "connecting the dots" between high school, gap year, college, and beyond, you not only are keeping your sights on your future goals, but gaining valuable personal experiences that will ultimately be of great benefit along the way. Many gap year students, also interested in college, are nonetheless undecided regarding what they would like to pursue as a major or a career. Students in this camp (and there are many just like you!) will still have a meaningful experience during gap year, and may even learn more about themselves than they ever could have imagined learning in high school. Gap year can in effect become a pivotal time in one's life, where horizons expand, boundaries are crossed, and your inner self, which may have felt clouded in high school, begins to emerge. If you are uncertain about what you want to do in college other than being sure that you want to go, then go with your heart for gap year--but regardless of what you do, be sure to make it *meaningful.* Do not volunteer if you do not want to volunteer; do not travel to a foreign country because you think it will look good on your college application. Go with your heart (but be mindful of you and your parents' wallet!) for gap year, but be certain that it will be meaningful to you, and that you will be able to speak knowledgeably and convincingly about your experiences.

Implicit in this question is that you did not defer for a year to gap year *after* you were already accepted to college. Some students may imagine the college admissions staff rephrasing the question as this: "Why didn't you apply to college during your senior year of high school?" And it is a fair question. Colleges and universities want to know what your experience has been since you left formal education (i.e., high school), be it one year ago or ten years ago. For those students taking time off before entering college, it is imperative that you are able to speak fluently and meaningfully about your post-high school life experiences. The most important thing to hear is "meaningful." I disagree with another counselor who had written that you should not work during a gap year. But if your financial situation has dictated that you were not able to afford college--or more importantly the college that you wanted to attend--then work can be a meaningful and necessary experience. For those students fortunate enough to be able to participate in a structured gap year program (which sometimes carry a significant cost), it is important to create a meaningful narrative of the experiences you had on your journey. If you volunteered during your gap year, ask yourself how you can create the narrative of the time, energy, and heart you committed to the service of others. Do not expect that the academic "credit" you may earn during your gap year experience will overshadow four years of crummy grades (which we hope you don't have) in the eyes of the admissions department. It will not. Instead, focus on how you became more connected to the people of your community (whether here or abroad), and how you grew from the experience of having a year away from formal education. If you needed a break from formal education, it is perfectly okay to say so--but be sure to frame it in a light that endows value upon your gap year experience, and how it has prepared you for the coming four years of higher education.

A gap year can be beneficial because it gives students a chance to pursue a passion. Learn about it, be exposed to it, do it which will be viewed very positively in college admission offices and usually allows the student to enter a more mature confident and goal directed individual.

If a student does not have a good plan or the plan does not include a significant amount of independent reading, it could make for a tough transition to college.

The possibilities are virtually unlimited. Many of the most valuable experiences combine independent study with actually doing work in the world that benefits others.

A gap year can be harmful if it is a year wasted. It is a chance to learn and grow not live at home, play video games and party.