A small but growing cadre of Minnesota students is choosing to wait — for college, that is. Instead they’re taking a “gap year” first, to travel, work, or study. Advocates say the year can alleviate impending burnout from the social and academic pressures of modern high school life and offer opportunities to explore personal interests and take positive risks.
“I was a hard-working student and got good grades but definitely at a cost,” said Andy Green (Breck School, 2008), who deferred enrollment at Hamilton College until next fall. “I was often very anxious, uptight, and overly absorbed in my studies. I thought it might be a good idea to take a year off.”
Now he’s living in an international dormitory at Ren Da Fu Zhong, a high school affiliated with China’s Renmin University, with Brazilian and Kazakh roommates. So far, “things are going remarkably well,” he reports. “I can already tell that this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Students generally apply to college and defer an acceptance before leaving home. Most will enter college as first-year students, a year behind their age peers, though some earn credits for their experiences. Some students devise their own gap year itineraries, but consultants can help sift through options.
Despite its $2,100 fee — and program costs that can run $25,000 or more — the Center for Interim Programs, based in Princeton, N.J., projects a 9 percent increase in business this year. “This past year seems to be the tipping point,” said Vice President Joanna Lazarek. “[The gap year] is becoming much more mainstream.”
Bridget Thomson, (Benilde-St. Margaret, 2008) decided she wanted to get “out of her comfort zone,” before heading to the University of Minnesota, where she’s been accepted, said her mother, Susan. The Thomsons hired the Center for Interim Programs to help Bridget understand her options. She chose an immersion program in China, where she lives with a Chinese family and will study Eastern medicine and Chinese cooking for three months, then make week-long treks into remote villages to do humanitarian projects until the end of the semester. After a short winter break, she intends to study marine biology for the second semester.
Many colleges look favorably on the gap year, and some, notably Harvard and Princeton, actually encourage it. After securing a deferral from Middlebury College, Kevin Redmon (St. Paul Academy, 2004) seized the year: paddling a river in far northern Canada, interning at a San Francisco writing center founded by novelist Dave Eggers, traveling in Central America and Mexico, and “implicating myself in all manners of mischief requisite of young adults,” he admitted.
Eventually, Kevin ran out of money. Still unsure of his goals, he requested another semester’s time, moved into his parents’ Minneapolis attic, and got a “routine, unsexy” job at a local restaurant. “And it was just that,” he said, “a mundane job — and not the thrill of San Francisco or the exoticism of Guatemala” that helped Kevin to appreciate the privilege of attending college.
Betsy Grether (St. John’s Preparatory School, ’06), now a Wellesley College sophomore, also planned — and financed — her own adventures. With graduation money, plus earnings from housekeeping and camp counseling jobs, Betsy backpacked through Europe for six weeks, along with best friend Erinn Bineham (St. John’s Prep ’06). Erinn continued traveling in Europe with her family, then returned home to St. Cloud, where she helped care for an elderly neighbor with Alzheimer’s disease and “read gads of nonfiction.” Betsy went on to Guatemala and Honduras, where she enrolled in language schools, learned to scuba dive, and volunteered as medical translator. Her parents’ moral support for her solo travels was important.
“If they had any skepticism,” Betsy said, “they hid it well. It was important for me to do my own thing and explore. They did ask questions but didn’t ever disapprove.”
Low-cost options do exist, including finding a local internship or volunteering with funded programs like Americorps or City Year, notes Lazarek. Some students even leverage their gap experiences for college credits or scholarships.
Chandra Parker of Zimmerman (home-schooled, ’03) worried about how to pay for college. “I was extremely concerned about how going into debt would affect my future,” she said. Volunteering for seven months at a mission in Lima, Peru, affirmed her desire for a career in the field, while her experience and skills earned her a full-tuition scholarship to Crown College, where she completed her degree in intercultural studies with a minor in teaching English as a second language in just three years.
And Matt DePaolis (Minnetonka High School, ’08) will enter Willamette University next fall as a sophomore thanks to his International Baccalaureate diploma, plus the classes he’s taking as a Rotary International-sponsored exchange student in Lorient, France.
Matt’s goal is “to dream in French,” says his dad, John De Paolis, but in the meantime, “he’s no longer surprised somebody serves him snails at lunch.”
Kris Berggren thinks a gap year sounds excellent, kids.
Resources
Center for Interim Programs
InterimPrograms.com
The Gap Year Advantage
By Holly Bull, founder of the Center for Interim Programs
