The deadline for most college applications is coming up, and seniors around the country are racing to throw their hat in the ring at their dream college or desperately waiting for an acceptance letter, but should they be?
For most people, college is the next step that follows their senior year in high school, but it isn’t their only option. Instead of worrying about the stress of college stacking on the stress of high school, any student has the option to take a gap year. While some might discard this idea as the lazy man’s option, it may actually be a better one for some upcoming graduates.
According to Imed Bouchrika, the Chief Data Scientist at Research.com, around 40 percent of college students drop out because of burnout. Gap years allow students to rest and can greatly reduce the likelihood of them dropping out of college later. They also give students a more flexible schedule and time to expand their resume through work experience, time to participate in different programs and time to develop important skills. It’s also increasingly common, as over 130,000 students took a gap year in the 2022 school year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Child development teacher Nancy Nye took three gap years between high school and college, as she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do for a career. She started working in retail, and then, after deciding that she wanted to pursue something new, she took up nannying. After nannying for some time, she decided that she wanted to work with kids in a school setting, which led to her taking college classes and working in a school today. Nye said that “[taking gap years] helped me mature” and “helped me save a little bit of money… and it just helped me decide … that I really need to take some classes to do the things that I wanted to do.”
So if you’re on the fence and don’t know what to do, I encourage you to slow down and consider taking a gap year. It will help you during college, after graduation and even the rest of your life.
