If your gap year is structured and productive, colleges will likely view your “time on” very favorably. A gap year can provide students with the opportunity to learn, mature and discover what inspires them (all very valuable for success in college). It’s even possible that taking a gap year may make you a more desirable candidate for college, especially if you make good use of the time and experience.
When Princeton, Middlebury, or Northeastern University (Boston) speak, I listen! The Director of Admissions at Middlebury College studied the GPA and retention rates of Middlebury College students who took a GAP year between High School and College and was amazed to see that these students had higher GPAs, higher rates of persistence can maturity. Princeton runs a program that offers a gap year-like experience for incoming first year students. A small group from the application pool are offered the opportunity to spend their first semester with other PRinceton students on an international travel/study/service program. Northeastern offers a similar opportunity and actively recruits students who have international experience.
Almost all colleges will view a gap year positively if a student has used it well.
Believe it or not, most colleges like the idea of a gap year! In fact, Harvard actually encourages admitted students to defer their admission for a year and approximately 50-70 students per year do just that. Harvard’s Dean of Admission, William Fitzsimmons, co-wrote a great piece entitled “Time Out or Burn Out for the Next Generation”…check it out! http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/time_off/index.html
As in every situation, there will be differences between one institution and another, but how a college would view a gap year would depend very much on how the student used that time and how productive that gap year was.
Some are for, some are against, and it all depends on what, when, where, how & why the gap year was spent. Juvenile hall could be a serious negative. Working with tornado or other natural disaster victims would be a real plus.
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