My son lived at home after high school and just worked for a year, so that was his gap year. He was not a great high school student but has always felt good while he's earning money!

He tried to take a few classes at HCC while working, but failed one and barely passed another. Later he decided to go back to community college full time. He did a full year there (no degree), did ok and then applied to 4-year schools. Transferred to a 4-year school, spent a semester on academic probation, and all has been good since then. Not every kid is on the same timeline!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from the UK where gap years are very common. I appreciate it is very different here but it is common in the UK for kids to either get a job for say 6 months to save money and then use the money to travel for the remainder, or to go work and travel somewhere else (e.g. in Australia or Thailand or somewhere with a lot of travelers). Some kids also do gap year programs which usually involve a combination of volunteering, working or studying. Some of these are expensive but others are not.

What is the purpose of doing any of that, what does that do for these kids? They could easily do mall of that stuff either during summer between college semesters, or after they graduate.

The overwhelming majority of people I know who went to college, did not take a gap year and they all turned out just fine. I don’t see the point, seems to just delay getting college over and done with.

In the UK, one applies to a "course" within a university/college, which would be the equivalent of a major here. It's 3 years. It's hard to transfer out of if student has remorse. So the gap year is that year of exploration of the self before heading into an intensive 3 year program.

Anonymous wrote:I’m from the UK where gap years are very common. I appreciate it is very different here but it is common in the UK for kids to either get a job for say 6 months to save money and then use the money to travel for the remainder, or to go work and travel somewhere else (e.g. in Australia or Thailand or somewhere with a lot of travelers). Some kids also do gap year programs which usually involve a combination of volunteering, working or studying. Some of these are expensive but others are not.

What this sounds like to me is gap year is for rich kids from wealthy families who have money to blow (waste on non-productive adults), and these kids travel for 6-12 months to basically party, smoke weed and sleep with people in other countries. That is my takeaway.

No thank you, my kid is not interested.

*all (not mall)

Anonymous wrote:I’m from the UK where gap years are very common. I appreciate it is very different here but it is common in the UK for kids to either get a job for say 6 months to save money and then use the money to travel for the remainder, or to go work and travel somewhere else (e.g. in Australia or Thailand or somewhere with a lot of travelers). Some kids also do gap year programs which usually involve a combination of volunteering, working or studying. Some of these are expensive but others are not.

What is the purpose of doing any of that, what does that do for these kids? They could easily do mall of that stuff either during summer between college semesters, or after they graduate.

The overwhelming majority of people I know who went to college, did not take a gap year and they all turned out just fine. I don’t see the point, seems to just delay getting college over and done with.

Sorry for typos but Here’s my story: I struggled in my last year and a half of high school. Had been an excellent student prior. In hindsight it was that my hs was a poor fit for me and I had some moderate mental health issues that went Unaddressed. I got into a number of colleges that were second tier or state schools.
I went to one state school, dropped out of it after two months, worked in retail and then a restaurant until starting another state school Later that year. While there I saw an ad for a program abroad for the summer. Went abroad and had a wonderful experience which changed my perspective. Came back to cc, ( I had dropped out of the second state school impulsively) got all A’s at Community college or close to it, it has been a long time so I don’t recall details, transferred to a good four year school, met my husband through friends there, have had jobs that require a college degree, got a masters degree, have a thriving life now years later with my family.
This is a quick post to say, if you yourself are college educated and so is the norm within your family, your child will likely get there too even if they have major bumps in the road like I did. I would support looking at schools they would be interested in attending and let them drive the process ( my mom was obsessed with my college search in hs and it turned me off completely) if they want to work for a year do it through a program that ends at a certain date and have a plan for when they will apply to college during that year.
Good luck!

I’m from the UK where gap years are very common. I appreciate it is very different here but it is common in the UK for kids to either get a job for say 6 months to save money and then use the money to travel for the remainder, or to go work and travel somewhere else (e.g. in Australia or Thailand or somewhere with a lot of travelers). Some kids also do gap year programs which usually involve a combination of volunteering, working or studying. Some of these are expensive but others are not.

Anonymous wrote:I would not encourage that and help him find a good school fit as he may never want to go after a year out.

I agree. I think gap years can work for kids who are focused on using that time to prepare for a near-future college endeavor, with a defined end date and plan for that gap “year”. I honestly don’t know of any person that had a successful gap year. The ones I know ended up being bums and dropouts, and in some cases became drug addicts.

Otherwise this just sounds like a bullsh#t term used by parents who don’t want their friends and family to know that their kid just doesn’t want to go to college.

I would not encourage that and help him find a good school fit as he may never want to go after a year out.

Americorp is a great program.

Get a job at Congressional, Riverbend or Chevy Chase country clubs so that he can start building up his "networking" there. He will help him immensely in the future.

I think AmeriCorps pays a small salary, but in general gap year "programs" are ones you pay for. Take a look at the websites for WWOOF and Workaway. My dd had really good experience with both of those during her gap year (essentially exchanging work for room and board) and you can find cool opportunities all over the world. So not paid, but only costs involved are getting to the location and there are truly options for so many different interests between those two orgs.

A lot of companies are starting to offer apprenticeships similar to Europe. These are targeted at kids who may or may not ever pursue university education, but they are still working at a F500 organization with very respectable career options and far above min wage pay. However These are hard to search for as there is no clearing house or aggregator for them… so it will take homework… but look at individual company websites or linkedin or indeed and use search terms like early career, apprentice, high school internship, etc.

I don't think this is a formal program, but I'll just throw it out as a suggestion as it's the only "gap year" I've heard of from my real life.

Child of a friend went to Walt Disney World in FL to work for a gap year. She lived on her own (or maybe with WTW roommates). It does seem like WDW has some sort of housing program.

Of course, I also don't think she went to college after the year, since she's now on like year 3 down there.

Their family is really into Disney, so it was a good idea for them. I'm sure that idea would be a disaster if a person hate Disney.

Our senior has struggled a bit through high school and has some learning differences. He does not seem interested in college at this point, and honestly, he is not ready. Our hope is to have him enroll in a couple classes at community college, but an alternative would be to have him do some sort of gap year. I think he still needs to "find himself" and discover something he is passionate about. He seems open to a gap year, but he currently has a part-time job and wants to continue to be able to make money. Are there any gap year programs where the kid can earn money? I'd rather not have a gap year where he is just working because I think he would benefit from being away from home and distractions here.