When looking at the increasing numbers of students who take a gap year between high school and post-secondary study, some people inevitably wonder if this delay is due to laziness and irresponsibility. What other reason could there be? Can these young people possibly have a good reason for taking time off, after being accepted by a university or college, and deferring the start of their university studies?
The answers, of course, are as varied as the young learners themselves. But one answer is that they are often simply burned out. For twelve long years of public school, their entire childhood, in fact, they and their mothers and fathers have probably been focused on them getting good grades and being accepted at an excellent school. But Jim Bock, Dean of Admissions at Swarthmore College, said in 2008 that he thinks this single-minded focus on creating the right image and grades, even during the summers between terms, is part of what has led to student burn out and the popularity of the gap year. As Bock put it, “Summers have disappeared completely…so I actually think the gap year may be the new summer.”
Some parents who have really pushed their children so they would get excellent grades all through public school and be accepted by one of the better universities might find that this strategy has backfired. By engaging these young people in this adult preoccupation, all through their young lives, mom and dad might simply have overwhelmed them. The students may need the chance to learn some independence and replenish their energies before finally going to university or college.
Whatever the case, many elite schools have now recognized that burn out among students is a serious problem. For example, Harvard actually recommends to its accepted applicants, right in the acceptance letter, that they consider deferring their attendance for a year so they can start refreshed when they do arrive at school. Yale happily allows its own successful applicants to take a year off. And Princeton has even started a “Bridge Year” program to send freshmen out on service trips.
Undoubtedly there are some students who want to take a year off because they don’t feel like getting serious and just want to goof around. But even among these, the impulse might not be from laziness, but simply from the need to rejuvenate. For others, the issue is independence and the chance to stand on their own two feet before starting on their degree. Often, by taking the time to do some traveling or engage in gap year work, they return home as mature and responsible people, now ready to live in the world as functional adults.
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