Abigail Kelly
Gap Years
As most high school graduates head back to the classroom this fall to begin their first semester of college, others will head to exotic destinations like Peru, India or Tanzania, doing service-work, a language immersion program or whatever their hearts desire. These students have decided to stay out of the classroom for a year and take a "gap year", a practice that is becoming increasingly common in the U.S..
Reasons for taking a gap year vary widely. Rachel Bergman, a member of the Princeton High School class of 2011 will attend Princeton University in the fall of 2012, after spending most of her gap year abroad. She said, “My decision to take a gap year was definitely …complex. From the academic perspective, I was afraid of burning out. I always pushed myself very hard in high school, and the idea of jumping right back into a competitive and highly intensive environment for four more years was mentally exhausting.”
Besides a break from academics, a gap year can give high school graduates a chance to mature while experiencing the world. Abigail Kelly, a graduate of the Class of 2010 from Beverly High School in Massachusetts spent her gap year in Hamburg, Germany and will attend Princeton University this fall. “I did not feel ready for college and I wanted to learn a new language", said Kelly, "I was sick of the U.S..”
Ilana Gelb, a 2011 graduate of the Byram Hills High School in New York, agreed: “I want to take the time to see the world and to be a kid, before going to school again. I think I will have a more enriching college experience if I see the world.”
Gap year experiences can range from working with marine life in Hawaii to teaching children in Cameroon. Bergman said, “During my gap year, I will first be in Cusco, Peru for four and a half months. I'll be at the Amauta Spanish School, where I will take a Spanish course for a month while participating in a home stay with a local family, and I will then be placed in a volunteer position at an elementary school.”
Although gap year experiences are drastically different, the benefits of a gap year seem to be universal. Holly Bull is the President of the Center of Interim Programs, which provides gap year counseling. “What we’re hearing is that colleges know they will get a much more mature and interesting student", Bull explains. "At Skidmore, they tracked students that had taken a gap year and found that their GPAs were a few points higher than those of students who hadn’t taken a gap year. At Middlebury, Bob Clagett, Dean of Admissions said that a single gap semester was the strongest indicator of achievement at Middlebury.”
Abigail Kelly agreed that her gap year was extremely beneficial: “I am unbelievably glad that I took a gap year - it changed my life, and made me a far better-directed and better-grounded person.”
While speaking of the gains of a gap year, Holly Bull added, “You may not know what you want to do. By taking a gap year you are getting a richness of experience and a range of perspectives. Whatever the awareness that you gain is, it comes from departing the familiar, stepping away from the family or community that defines you.”
