Gap Years: An Updated Perspective

Reese Foster '16, Nepal 

As a college counselor at a college prep school that prides itself on each of its seniors earning admission to four-year colleges, it feels weird for me to say this: I want some of my students to consider not going to college.  Ok, that's not entirely true.  I want them to go to college, but just not yet.  As a matter of fact, maybe I should make a different suggestion.  What if I instead told you I have the secret to increasing your college GPA, graduating on time, and finding a fulfilling career path?  Because really, I’m saying both.  Don’t go to college just yet, and have a better, more successful experience when you do. 

I know what you might be thinking: gap years are for kids who need a little more time to ‘figure it out;’ gap years are for kids who weren’t happy with their college choices; gap years are a distraction, a siren’s song beckoning away from the serious business of completing your formal education on your way to adult life.

To be sure, gap years are not for everyone.  The majority of our students will always find it more appealing to continue directly to college than to step away for a moment.  But whatever stigma might have once been attached to a gap year is long gone, replaced by a substantial and compelling amount of evidence showing the overwhelmingly positive effects of a gap year. 

Many elite colleges, including the likes of Harvard, the University of North Carolina and Middlebury, actively encourage a gap year based on their research of its impact on students.  Places like Princeton and Tufts specifically arrange their own programs for “bridge” years.  What these schools find is that these gappers enter freshman year reinvigorated.  They come to campus with a sense of academic purpose.  They see college as something more than just what you’re supposed to do after high school.  After a gap year, students’ first year GPAs are higher compared to their traditional freshman peers.  Gappers are more likely to graduate on time and to report fulfillment in their jobs after college.    

Two students in last year’s HIES graduating class opted for a gap year.  One will continue on to Harvard, the other to the University of Denver.  Both universities are the right fit for each student, and both institutions were happy to defer admission so that these HIES alums could spend a remarkable year learning.  And indeed, they are learning.  It might be in canoes instead of classrooms, in tents instead of dorms, but there is learning happening.  And they will embark upon their college experience energized by the education they’ve received during their gap year. 

A gap year is not for everyone, and I expect the bulk of our students to enroll immediately in a traditional four-year college experience.  But for those wondering about a brief adventure off the beaten path that leads directly from May high school graduation to August college enrollment, there is strong evidence that a gap year might be a life-changing experience with immediate benefits for your college performance and a long-term impact on your career.  HIES history teacher and assistant director of global studies, Chris Yarsawich, recalling his own life-changing experience on a pilgrimage hike in Spain, sums up the idea well: "A college degree is important, but what matters even more in your life is what you make of it.  Passion needs free air to breathe and space to grow, and a gap year is one way of providing yourself just that."