American College Graduates are getting squeezed on both ends, competition to get into colleges is increasing, cost is increasing, and jobs for entry level workers are being reduced, with many jobs now going to guest workers and foreign students.

A gap year could help american students fight this with better job experience and ability to see what is happening in the business world.


Senator Charles Grassley called for a ban on OPT (Optional Practical Training). OPT provides work permit for students up to 27 months after completion of Masters, Phd or Under graduation in USA.

Grassley criticized OPT program for the following reasons

US Federal Govt doesn't know where these thousands of foreign students are located, who they are working for and what exactly they are doing. Govt is not maintaining a proper database of these students. OPT program authorizing around 560,000 international students every year to work in USA after completion of their academic program at US University.
Recent Terror attacks were done by immigrants who entered into US as foreign students.
Student are using OPT for Unauthorized employment like working in a different field which is not related to their US Education.
Homeland Security is enabling students to work on OPT without any specific visa or background check. Masters student over here will use old F1 Visa to work on OPT. There is no special temporary work permit visa category for OPT students.
OPT allows unlimited number of foreign students to work in USA which poses threat to opportunities of US Citizens.
There is no payroll tax for Employer or Student for the entire 29 month period which is saving for employer/student up to 10000$ for a hire. It means $10000 is taken away by each OPT job from US Govt. US Employers are considering OPT students over US Citizens for saving tax money.

many of you don't realize the extent to which corporations are gaming the system to get cheap labor. F1 Visa, OPT, H1B visa, O Visa, what was started in 1990 has evolved into another corporate subsidy at the expense of workers including stem workers.

No and I would never suggest to any child they take some kind of break before going to college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just another way of saying my kid is nto responsible to go away to school ontheir own ot they are not up to the standards of the schol they wanted to go to.

I only met 1 "gap year" kid who was doing something useful. She went to south america to work in a health clinic and she wants to go to med school, she was already accepted to a great school but deferred a year. the others are all doing some sort of program that is associated with a lot of drinking. so if youa re doing a lot of drinking, you might as well be doing it as a college student.

I think that's called "college." Like my Korean-American freshman roommate at a top-3 university who was drunk out of her mind four nights a week and kept bringing a series of guys to sleep with her in our bedroom. Maybe all that pressure in high school gets to you after a while...

And we have a winner in the most irrelevant, idiotic, and bigoted comment on DCUM in the last 24 hours! Nice going, PP!

Why is it bigoted to call it what it is? PPs on this thread have been making all sorts of idiotic generalizations about kids taking gap years being losers. Here's a kid who compiled a stellar high school record to get into a extremely selective school. The moment she gets there, all studying goes to hell, she's out until 3am most nights and comes in reeking of beer with one guy after another. Very sweet gal otherwise, even when she was hung over, which was a lot of the time. What would you infer?

The bigotry and idiocy come in with specifying her ethnicity, which is completely irrelevant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just another way of saying my kid is nto responsible to go away to school ontheir own ot they are not up to the standards of the schol they wanted to go to.

I only met 1 "gap year" kid who was doing something useful. She went to south america to work in a health clinic and she wants to go to med school, she was already accepted to a great school but deferred a year. the others are all doing some sort of program that is associated with a lot of drinking. so if youa re doing a lot of drinking, you might as well be doing it as a college student.

I think that's called "college." Like my Korean-American freshman roommate at a top-3 university who was drunk out of her mind four nights a week and kept bringing a series of guys to sleep with her in our bedroom. Maybe all that pressure in high school gets to you after a while...

And we have a winner in the most irrelevant, idiotic, and bigoted comment on DCUM in the last 24 hours! Nice going, PP!

Why is it bigoted to call it what it is? PPs on this thread have been making all sorts of idiotic generalizations about kids taking gap years being losers. Here's a kid who compiled a stellar high school record to get into a extremely selective school. The moment she gets there, all studying goes to hell, she's out until 3am most nights and comes in reeking of beer with one guy after another. Very sweet gal otherwise, even when she was hung over, which was a lot of the time. What would you infer?

I think way back when I was the original gap year person. I knew I wasn;t ready, not motivated, I liked earning money and working. My gap year turned into a huge gap, it eventually became a huge gap in my resume and after many starts and stops with school I decided I was tired of being passed over for jobs due to the gap of lack of education.

I then went back, finished school and now use my experience to tell other parents about my experience when their kids start talking about a gap year.

I am also the PP who mentioned the ones I knwo are jsut using it as a year to screw around. There is a fine line, very fine line where this can work or backfire.

I had the drive to work and save money, notthe drive to sit still in a class room. Once I took the time to get my degree, things really fell into place for me and advanced me even further.

If you use a gap year, get a job that will give you some experience doing somethign peopel will be impressed with not working at the local mall unless you advance to a managemnet position.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just another way of saying my kid is nto responsible to go away to school ontheir own ot they are not up to the standards of the schol they wanted to go to.

I only met 1 "gap year" kid who was doing something useful. She went to south america to work in a health clinic and she wants to go to med school, she was already accepted to a great school but deferred a year. the others are all doing some sort of program that is associated with a lot of drinking. so if youa re doing a lot of drinking, you might as well be doing it as a college student.

I think that's called "college." Like my Korean-American freshman roommate at a top-3 university who was drunk out of her mind four nights a week and kept bringing a series of guys to sleep with her in our bedroom. Maybe all that pressure in high school gets to you after a while...

And we have a winner in the most irrelevant, idiotic, and bigoted comment on DCUM in the last 24 hours! Nice going, PP!

Anonymous wrote:just another way of saying my kid is nto responsible to go away to school ontheir own ot they are not up to the standards of the schol they wanted to go to.

I only met 1 "gap year" kid who was doing something useful. She went to south america to work in a health clinic and she wants to go to med school, she was already accepted to a great school but deferred a year. the others are all doing some sort of program that is associated with a lot of drinking. so if youa re doing a lot of drinking, you might as well be doing it as a college student.

I think that's called "college." Like my Korean-American freshman roommate at a top-3 university who was drunk out of her mind four nights a week and kept bringing a series of guys to sleep with her in our bedroom. Maybe all that pressure in high school gets to you after a while...

It seems to becoming more and more common. In my DD's recent graduating class from a top academic independent, my quick calculation indicates at least 15% of kids took a gap year, and to my knowledge none did so to try and reapply and get into a better college (kids going to Harvard, Yale, Middlebury, Colorado College, Wesleyan, Pomona, Dartmouth for instance). Most, including my daughter, worked for part of the year to make money to then cover the remainder of the year traveling and in some cases volunteering overeas. At least for my DD, it greatly increased her independence, gave her a bit of a breather to actually think about what she wanted to study in college, and in her case resulted in absolute fluency in one language and becoming adept in a new language she was interested in learning. Now back at college she is thriving academically and socially, and her experiences did inform course selection and likely her major.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's becoming more common among many students in this area, including kids graduating from a range of schools. In almost all cases, these students have already applied to college and been accepted. They work as volunteers at a range of different organizations, travel in the US and overseas, and in some cases work at "grunt" jobs to help pay for their travel (e.g., bussing tables, clerking at Giant, etc.). I don't know a single kid who's done this who regrets it , and their parents are just as enthusiastic. For many kids who've been in highly competitive high schools, the gap year is a chance to think about what they really want to do with their lives -- not just what they should be doing in order to gain admission to a selective college.

Agree. The kids I know who have done gap years have already been accepted at college. In the last couple of years that includes kids deferring Yale and Dartmouth so these are not kids struggling to find themselves or reapplying to better schools. I know one kid who did City Year. Another spent 1/2 the time getting fluent in a language and the other half working. Another did an internship in Africa.

A few other examples --

volunteer work with a faith-based program in New Orleans
volunteer work in the Dominican Republic
volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity
exchange program with French high school
exchange program with Chinese high school


these students deferred admission at Duke, Swarthmore, Rice, Kenyon and Stanford

I'm not sure that the kids need to do organized programs. Learning to manage their lives and work out where their next dollar/meal is coming from is a great education in itself. Not sure you'd get this with an organized program where they still manage your time/lodging/meals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's becoming more common among many students in this area, including kids graduating from a range of schools. In almost all cases, these students have already applied to college and been accepted. They work as volunteers at a range of different organizations, travel in the US and overseas, and in some cases work at "grunt" jobs to help pay for their travel (e.g., bussing tables, clerking at Giant, etc.). I don't know a single kid who's done this who regrets it , and their parents are just as enthusiastic. For many kids who've been in highly competitive high schools, the gap year is a chance to think about what they really want to do with their lives -- not just what they should be doing in order to gain admission to a selective college.

Agree. The kids I know who have done gap years have already been accepted at college. In the last couple of years that includes kids deferring Yale and Dartmouth so these are not kids struggling to find themselves or reapplying to better schools. I know one kid who did City Year. Another spent 1/2 the time getting fluent in a language and the other half working. Another did an internship in Africa.

A few other examples --

volunteer work with a faith-based program in New Orleans
volunteer work in the Dominican Republic
volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity
exchange program with French high school
exchange program with Chinese high school

these students deferred admission at Duke, Swarthmore, Rice, Kenyon and Stanford

Anonymous wrote:I think it's becoming more common among many students in this area, including kids graduating from a range of schools. In almost all cases, these students have already applied to college and been accepted. They work as volunteers at a range of different organizations, travel in the US and overseas, and in some cases work at "grunt" jobs to help pay for their travel (e.g., bussing tables, clerking at Giant, etc.). I don't know a single kid who's done this who regrets it , and their parents are just as enthusiastic. For many kids who've been in highly competitive high schools, the gap year is a chance to think about what they really want to do with their lives -- not just what they should be doing in order to gain admission to a selective college.

Agree. The kids I know who have done gap years have already been accepted at college. In the last couple of years that includes kids deferring Yale and Dartmouth so these are not kids struggling to find themselves or reapplying to better schools. I know one kid who did City Year. Another spent 1/2 the time getting fluent in a language and the other half working. Another did an internship in Africa.

We're considering this for DD, who is not mature enough to go to college now, but who knows how she will be six months from now.

I think it really depends on the kid. We want DD to get into a good college, then defer for a year. She's looking at a job working for an agency she's done volunteer work for. I think it would give her time to mature, to get used to the demands of earning a weekly paycheck, getting to work on time, etc. She's done that in summer jobs, but doing it for a year might make her appreciate college that much more.

But if you have a slacker kid, then it's probably not worth it. My cousin did it many years ago. He went down to South American and worked on a farm. It changed his entire political outlook and has colored his life to this day. He'd already been accepted to his first choice college, so he was free to spend a year working and growing. It did great things for him, but not all kids will benefit from it.

I know a kid who's doing a gap year in Spain because he didn't get into a college that met his parents' expectations. He's applying to colleges again this year. I don't know if he's retaking the SAT but from the pictures I've seen on Facebook he's learning a lot about Spanish culture, especially the food, the drink and the women.

16:45 has it right. Apply and get an acceptance and then ask for a 1 year deferral. Be realistic, if your DC is "gapping" in Europe, how will he/she retake SATs and apply on time, send high school transcripts, etc.Today's admissions have higher expectations during gap years.