Reply to Why are gap years trendy?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Why are gap years trendy? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think people are getting confused because there are two very different types of kids who are pursuing gap years these days.

Group 1 are the kids who are kind of middling students, not particularly motivated or interested in school, whose parents think they need a year to mature so that sending them off to college won't be a complete waste of money as they party through their days and flunk out.  This is the group that most parental-aged people think of when they hear the words "gap year".

Group 2 are the kids who have spent the past four years working their butts off in a Big 3-TJ-type intense academic environment, who are highly motivated and have been accepted to top 20 colleges, and who may be considering careers that require graduate school as well.  As they look ahead, they think "is this really all there is to life?"  They are kind of burned out from the intensity of their high school experience and want a little break before they plunge back in for the next 4-8 years.  They are the ones who start exploring volunteer trips or internships in other countries, travel, etc, because they want to experience something different and meet people who are not just like them.  In this group, the kid is the one doing the research and planning the year, not the parent.  This is the newer group, at least in the US (apparently this has been more common in other places like Europe).  These kids are already fairly mature, and there is no question that they will be going to college, and probably excelling there, when the year is up.  For this group, a year of sitting on the couch in the basement is the last thing they would do with this gift of time. [/quote]

Mom of two "group one" kids here. Sneer all you want. Both have now far outperformed many of their peers who went the traditional route. Very few h.s. grads, no matter their resumes, are prepared for the wild partying on college campuses.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics