Taking a gap year may also improve students’ future academic performance. Robust majorities also reported that their gap year helped them acquire skills to be successful in their careers, develop a greater understanding of other cultures, and made them see themselves as global citizens. One in two respondents also included exploring academic options and volunteering as key motivations.Īs to whether their experience during the year had proved fruitful, the response was almost unanimously positive: 98% said their year had helped them develop as a person, 96% found it increased their self-confidence, and 93% agreed that it had increased their communications skills. In a 2015 national alumni survey conducted by the American Gap Association in conjunction with Temple University, students who had chosen to take a gap year were asked about their motivations for doing so: the top answers were to gain life experiences and grow personally (92%), to travel and experience other cultures (85%), and to take a break from the academic track (82%). Recharged and with a year of real-world experience under their belts, students can then face the college workload with greater maturity and equanimity.īut however romantic it might sound to pack your bag and grab your Eurail Pass, are gap years really a good idea? Do students become less motivated or forget their academics during a “year off?” Let’s take a look at the research. The concept is simple: after twelve-plus years of constant schooling, a year away from the classroom gives young people the chance to reassess, take stock, and enjoy a different type of learning experience-be it in the form of travel, paid employment or internship, studying a foreign language, or performing service work. In Europe and Commonwealth countries, however, the “ gap year” has been a well-established tradition since at least the 1960s. And few do: a recent study by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA found that only 3% of American students take a year off before heading to college.
After all of that work, postponing matriculation for a year might feel a little counterintuitive. Grades and transcripts, sports and extracurriculars, essays and SATs, AP classes and early admissions-the pressure can be intense. For American high school students, applying to college sometimes feels like a fulltime job.
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