Who considers a Gap Year?

[Anonymous]

Curious what a gap year looks like for students today? My DS is on the younger side in the class. 17 at Graduation. Are more kids taking gap years? Is it harder to get back into an application pool the following year?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is doing a senior year of high school (a second one) in Mexico, via the Rotary exchange program. Her two big reasons were that she had always been young for her grade (September birthday) and she wanted to become fluent in Spanish—she’s lucky she was assigned to a Spanish-speaking country, that wasn’t guaranteed. Also, she was pretty interested in having a year where her grades wouldn’t “count,” to see how she would handle herself.

She applied to colleges last year and will be going to a New England liberal arts school next year; they were happy to let her defer a year, there’s a standard process for that.

[Anonymous]

First get accepted, then defer.

[Anonymous]

We are considering a gap year for DS who will be 18 next month. He has EF issues and we hope the gap year will give him time to mature. He does have admission into a few schools and we'd defer admission at one of more of those schools for a year. I don't think it's a good idea to apply for college while on your gap year.

[Anonymous]

My kid, currently a hs senior, is considering it. Also will be 17 at graduation. She feels young, and describes herself accurately as a late bloomer. She can't quite imagine knowing what she wants to do in life, let alone trying to earn a living just four years from now. She thinks another year's growth would help her make the most of college.

She has applied and been accepted to colleges. Once she makes her choice, she will investigate deferring. If she does the gap year, she'll do some combination of structured gap semester program, paid job, volunteer at a place she's volunteered regularly in h.s., and at least one academic class (likely math) at a nearby college to keep skills fresh and to keep her head in the game. The academic class was a suggestion from a counselor, and she agreed it was probably wise.

We have been following the Gap Year Association, which has tons of great travel programs, etc. They aren't inexpensive, but she'll pay for some of it by working.

[Anonymous]

PP. Also, when applying to colleges, one has to say what year they'd enroll. All advice we got -- and we got it from multiple sources, including two college counselors and several families of kids who took gap years without issue-- was to fill that out as if she were starting on time. Then defer. I'm not sure why that's standard practice, but it seems to be.

[Anonymous]

Kids with rich parents.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is considering a gap year. She was accepted ED to college. She struggles with perfectionism and is burnt out from the grind at her pressure cooker HS. She has the opportunity to work for the year with an organization that she currently works for in the summers tutoring and coaching swimming. If she does she will defer her acceptance and work on finding a better work/life balance.

[Anonymous]

My DD went to college at 16 and then took a gap year when she graduated, before law school. She really wanted the time to recharge. It's not exactly what you asked, but she got into law school and just deferred for a year.

[Anonymous]

Why not just attend community college and then apply to college as a transfer? Is cc a bad word in this group. I attended a top 5 SLAC and they admitted a handful of kids from cc each year.

[Anonymous]

Gap year and taking a deferral are two different things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gap year and taking a deferral are two different things.

They are generally the same. “Deferral” is the agreement student makes with the college they plan to go to. “Gap year” is what they do with that time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First get accepted, then defer.

This is what my eldest did. She then ended up choosing a school on West Coast graduating this year. But having the acceptance put us all at ease.

[Anonymous]

My dd never would have considered if not for Covid, but as one of the ‘20 high school grads it made the most sense. That 20-21 year was unique in that so many kids were gapping, but it ended up being a year of real growth for her that shaped her future in some very positive ways. She did a combo of paid work / volunteer work and some outdoor-oriented adventuring. She figured out all the details herself, located opportunities that fit was she was looking for ( WWOOF, Workaway) and developed new skills and interests that have shaped her college experience and professional direction. My younger kid will graduate from HS next year and wants to just go straight to college and in a way I think it’s too bad he’ll miss out on the potential growth experience his sister had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are considering a gap year for DS who will be 18 next month. He has EF issues and we hope the gap year will give him time to mature. He does have admission into a few schools and we'd defer admission at one of more of those schools for a year. I don't think it's a good idea to apply for college while on your gap year.

What will your son do during the gap year? - not op