Should High School Seniors Take a Gap Year Before Starting College?

With the pandemic severely disrupting all aspects of student life, more students than ever have opted to defer their enrollment in the past few years. In 2020, an unprecedented 20% of students who were admitted to Harvard’s Class of 2024 chose to take a gap year and join the Class of 2025. Even as COVID restrictions are lifted and college campuses return to normalcy, many seniors are wondering whether taking a gap year would be the right choice for them. The guiding question for these seniors should be: will taking a gap year help me make the most out of college and start my college career as prepared as possible??

Some seniors might feel strongly that taking a gap year is the right option for them. Since the start of the pandemic, many students have taken a gap year in order to avoid dealing with the turmoil of remote learning and constantly-changing public health policies on campus. Although the pandemic is still unpredictable, deferring enrollment can give students more peace of mind that they have a better chance at a “pre-pandemic” college experience, without harsh restrictions on academic and social experiences. More generally, students who feel burnt out from high school or simply feel that they would benefit from taking the time to reflect and reorient themselves are also often drawn to the idea of taking a gap year. Many institutions, including Harvard University, Princeton University, and Tufts University even encourage students to take a gap year before beginning college. Tufts’ admissions office states that “a gap year can be a fulfilling experience and contribute to a student’s preparedness to enter the university and be ready to engage with our community. Using the gap year as an opportunity to take a break from intense academic work, students often take this time to pursue a personal interest, travel, work and/or meaningfully engage in service.” Tufts University, Duke University and Princeton University offer grants or structured programs for students to pursue gap years. These programs can be excellent opportunities for students to travel with the sponsorship and supervision of a university, create or continue a passion project, and connect with a cohort of other classmates who are also deferring enrollment.?

Without the structure of a formal program, however, one common challenge for other prospective gap year students is making and executing a clear plan for their gap year. A student may enjoy the idea of traveling before beginning college, for instance, but they would need to arrange logistics, choose an appropriate itinerary or a travel agency, and locate the resources and funds needed to support themselves. Likewise, if a student would like to pursue a part-time job or internship, they would need to be proactive about applying for and securing a position. Without clear goals and deliberate plans for their gap year, students may risk finding themselves feeling stagnant, demotivated, and disconnected from their peers. However, in a best-case scenario, devoting a year to travel, work experience, family commitments, and/or service can give students useful perspectives and experiences, allow them to build new skills, clarify a desired academic or career path, and leave them feeling invigorated, inspired and ready to begin college. A national alumni survey conducted by both the American Gap Association and Temple University in 2015 reported positive feedback from most students about their gap years: “98% said their year had helped them develop as a person, 96% found it increased their self-confidence, and 93% agreed that it had increased their communications skills.”?

While gap years can be meaningful and formative for a particular subset of students, many do not have the desire, funds, or capacity to plan for a productive and meaningful gap year and opt to begin college right away. Especially after the intense stress and social isolation of the past few years, most seniors are very excited about the prospect of exploring their academic and creative interests at a higher level, meeting new people, and generally moving on to the next phase of their lives. Some students also worry that they will feel socially or academically “behind” their classmates after taking a gap year, or experience “FOMO” (fear of missing out) as their high school friends enter and experience life in college a year earlier than they would. Despite studies conducted at Middlebury and UNC showing that students who took a gap year attained higher GPAs than peers who did not take a gap year and many gap year students reporting developing resilience, tenacity, and grit that can help them navigate academic and social challenges, these students’ concerns are valid and might prevent them from benefiting from a gap year. For a student who feels that starting college at the traditional time will help them feel more motivated and less isolated, a gap year would be unnecessary.

Since colleges typically ask admitted students to let them know whether they will defer their enrollment or not prior to the start of the summer, seniors should already be thinking about whether or not a gap year is right for them. As each student is in a unique position, both the decision to postpone enrollment and what a meaningful gap year would entail will be highly individualized. In any scenario, students should communicate openly with their families about the possibility of taking a gap year, and discuss the specific pros and cons of a gap year, the associated financial costs, and what activities would be most feasible and productive as they make their decisions.?