Reflections on the benefits of spending a year traveling and learning.
In a 40-word statement this week, the White House announced that Malia Obama will take a gap year before starting college (at Harvard, to no one’s surprise). We don’t yet know what Malia will do, but I think she made a smart choice. She can recharge, mature and explore her interests before returning to an intense academic environment. I know that choice was right for me.
When people hear about my gap year, they have one of two reactions. One group groans and says they should have taken one; maybe they wouldn’t have wasted as much time searching for purpose or passions in college. Another group raises an eyebrow and asks, “Didn’t you forget everything you learned in high school?”
No, not really. After 12 months outside the classroom — no homework, no papers, no tests — I easily slipped back into academics. The main thing I forgot was that school requires school supplies. I showed up to orientation without any binders or notebooks, so I scrambled to get ready for my first college class.
Notwithstanding that memory lapse, I gained more than I lost during my year away from school. I wouldn’t give up the experience, even for a year of free college tuition. A gap year offers a chance to learn things you can’t find in a textbook or a classroom: self-reliance, real-world skills and a better understanding of your passions and yourself. You might enter college with a better idea of what you want to get out of your degree. Over the long run, the exploration might end up saving you a lot of time and money.
By the winter of my junior year in high school, I knew I wanted a year off before starting college. Like many students, I was burned out by a heavy load of hard classes. (Memories of calculus still nauseate me.) I wanted to travel, serve, learn and, yes, take a break before taking more tough classes.
My university encouraged my gap year, as do many others. “It’s something that colleges are welcoming when it’s something that’s a thoughtful part of the process and the goals are clear,” said Julie Browning, director of undergraduate admissions at Rice University.
Do something worthwhile
Once a British phenomenon, gap years have become more common in the United States, according to the American Gap Association. Attendance at gapyear fairs quadrupled between 2010 and 2014. Enrollment in select programs has grown by more than 20 percent almost every year since 2006. Google Trends data show that U.S. searches including the term have increased steadily over the past decade.
Most colleges accept or even encourage gap years with a few reservations: Do something worthwhile, don’t apply anywhere else and don’t get a degree from anyone else. (Think of it as demanding academic fidelity. Browning said that’s important because colleges accept about three fewer students for every student who defers.) Harvard even suggests the idea in its admission letter. “Normally a total of about 80 to 110 students defer college until the next year,” their dean of admissions writes. “The results have been uniformly positive.”
Why? Browning said students arrive to college “more mature and really hungry and ready to dig in.” Though she said Rice has only a handful of deferrals each year — about four on average — she counseled that “not all straight-A students are still excited about school after high school.” After time outside the classroom, students often come back refreshed and more focused.
During my time off, I pursued my interests in Christianity and inner-city poverty by working three months at a church and youth center in New Orleans, where I learned that effective service is usually grounded in relationships. I lived five months in Costa Rica, interning at a bilingual school in the middle of a cloud forest. To pay for the travel, I bused tables for a few months at a restaurant near home — which turned out to be a major learning experience in itself, as I got to know my Honduran colleagues and their culture.
One of the most important experiences wasn’t planned, or even wanted. My grandfather checked into the hospital the same day I returned home from New Orleans; he never left his hospital room, dying a few weeks later. Since I didn’t have classes to tie me down, I got to spend much of those final weeks with him.
Browning, the Rice admissions director, said gap-year plans vary as much as the people who take gap years. “Some students are wanting to just take a break and work a job … or do an internship. Many are interested in community service.” She gave a few examples: working at an orphanage overseas, hiking the Appalachian Trail or climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
You can do anything during a gap year — or bridge year, as some call it. I know a guy who worked with the National Park Service and explored his interest in environmental science. One young woman moved to Buenos Aires to take classes, improve her Spanish and immerse herself in the culture. Others complete organized service programs such as City Year or AmeriCorps; some go on fun but pricey wilderness adventures such as National Outdoor Leadership School, which can cost nearly $20,000 per semester.
A gap year doesn’t have to cost much, though. I covered my expenses and travel with restaurant work, so my adventures were revenue-neutral for my family. The delay may have even helped, giving our college savings a chance to recover after the 2008 downturn.
A luxury?
A gap year isn’t right for every student. Lyle McKinney, a University of Houston professor who studies college completion, distinguishes between deferring college entry and delaying it. It is one thing to get accepted to a school and get its blessing to defer enrollment for one year to do something worthwhile. It is quite another to delay by waiting to apply to colleges until after high school graduation.
“In most cases,” McKinney said, “the evidence suggests that enrolling at the conclusion of high school and not delaying enrollment is in the student’s best interest and increases the likelihood they’ll graduate from college.” And after a few years, he added, college costs will likely increase since remedial classes might be needed to sharpen skills that have faded.
A gap year is “somewhat of a luxury,” McKinney added. “Students like that aren’t typically coming from a background in which they … need to work and support their families.” Delaying graduation by a year delays the increased income likely to come after college, so it may be an unattractive choice for students with pressing financial needs.
So though gap years can be affordable, they likely will remain a middle- and upperclass phenomenon. That owes partly to limited awareness of the option. As Browning said, “I would guess St. John’s has a lot more experience with that than, say, some of the larger public schools in the area.” Hopefully, Malia Obama’s decision will encourage more students to think about it.
When I requested a deferral from Duke University in 2010, I got an encouraging response from Christoph Guttentag, dean of admissions both then and now. “Frankly,” he wrote, “I wish everyone considered the possibility of a break in their schooling.”
So do I.