Stepping off the fast track
Filling the ‘gap’ year between high school and college

Taking a year off between high school and college has become so popular that there's even a term for it: the &#8220gap year.”

Some students take a year to travel or to live away from their families and work. But Megan Prichard of Northfield chose to stay home for the most part during her gap year.

&#8220I wanted to complete some extra academic projects, work, and spend time with my family. I did travel to Costa Rica on a mission trip,” says Megan, now 21. Megan traveled with a group of college students from St. Olaf, with a few high school students thrown in. During this and previous trips to Costa Rica, Megan taught English to &#8220everyone from kindergartners to adults - anyone who wanted to learn.” Like her mother, who homeschooled six of her seven children (Megan is the oldest), Megan loves to teach. She aspires to become a college professor.

Alongside academic work and family time, Prichard worked two jobs. &#8220I worked at a coffee shop and as a waitress for a bus company. I'd worked there since I was 14; it was a lot of fun.” And she also spent time thinking about where to go to college.

Students who take a gap year generally apply to colleges at the same time as their high school peers. Some plan on a gap year ahead of time; others decide after they've been accepted to college.

&#8220Most private schools will let students defer their entrance for a year,” says David Breeden, a guidance counselor at Edina High School. &#8220With public universities, the student has to reapply.” Although Prichard started visiting colleges in her junior year of high school, she didn't apply to any until she'd graduated and was into her gap year. Growing up near St. Olaf, Megan explained, helped her decide that she wanted the experience of attending a small liberal arts college. Megan applied to four small, selective liberal arts colleges, all in the Midwest but none in Minnesota: Beloit in Wisconsin, Earlham in Indiana, Knox in Illinois, and Wooster in Ohio. She was accepted to all four.

&#8220At first, I wasn't interested in Wooster,” Megan says, &#8220but my mom said, ‘Meg, I really think you should look at it.'” The more Megan looked, the better she liked the school. Wooster, one of 40 schools listed in the popular book Colleges That Change Lives, (Penguin, 2000) is renowned for its senior capstone project, which involves a student working one-on-one with a professor, but it was the school's academic excellence and emphasis on community involvement and volunteerism that attracted Megan most. &#8220I also like Wooster's emphasis on self-directed learning. That works well for me,” she says.

Today, Megan is a junior at Wooster, majoring in classical studies and history. She has learned Latin and Greek, and says her self-taught Spanish is very rusty. &#8220I love languages,” she says. &#8220I hope to pick up German next year.”

Megan has mixed emotions about the way she spent her gap year. &#8220If someone's going to take a year off, I would encourage them to consider going somewhere else, maybe abroad.” But at the same time, she enjoyed her own experience. &#8220It wasn't a change of environment, but I enjoyed myself. It was fun being with my family in a more laid-back sense. I knew that at the end of the year, I would be going away. It worked out well for me.”