Path to College: The Gap Year

By Christie Theriot Woodfin, M.Ed.

Kids Enabled puts students on the path to college. There are some students who may need to take a detour following high school graduation. A gap year is a possible fork in the road that can eventually keep students on track for college success.

A student’s academic career can sometimes resemble underwater swimming. One student may be able to dive in, hold his breath and reach the other end. For another, the opportunity to come up and take a breath can be life saving. Coming up for a breath by taking a year off between high school and college is called “taking a gap year.” This is not a year spent watching TV and munching Fritos. On the contrary, a gap year is an opportunity to do something meaningful between high school and college.

Should my senior take a gap year?
Often parents have keen radar and an accurate ability to evaluate their own child’s readiness for college. They should consider a gap year in the following instances:

if they sense a greater than average anxiety or passivity in their senior as the college application period wears on
if they are concerned that their student is less ready than his peers to engage in totally self-sufficient living
if they find themselves wishing that their senior had one more year of emotional maturity under his belt or better grades on his transcript before college
if they are worried about their child continuing a hard slog through academe without a significant break

Educational consultants and parents choosing an appropriate program need to weigh the program’s:

• Understanding of kids with LD and ADHD issues
• Level of supervision appropriate for what that student needs
• Opportunity to emphasize student’s talents & strengths
• Opportunity to broaden experience
• Opportunity to identify career goals
• Opportunity to increase independence
• Opportunity to undergird the organizational and learning skills that will be necessary for college

If parents and their student agree that well-directed time off may be beneficial, they should still continue with the conventional college application process. Many colleges have come to recognize the wisdom of letting admitted students use a year to broaden experiences, mature and contribute to society and they are usually receptive to deferring an applicant’s enrollment date. However, they may require that the year not be spent studying for credit at another college. Students who are disappointed with the college acceptance letters they receive can use their gap year opportunities to gain additional credentials. Students can then reapply with an enhanced resume highlighting the new experiences and skills garnered during the gap year.

Gap year opportunities
Gap year experiences vary greatly, depending on the needs and interests of the students engaging in them. Three types of common gap year experiences are:

Boarding school
Supervised living experience
Exposure to career choices

For graduating seniors, many boarding schools offer enrollment to a small number of 13th year students. These students are adolescents who have attended other high schools and want a different experience which will bridge the transition to college. Some of these kids are athletes honing physical skills one more year in preparation for an athletic scholarship. Others are students who wish to improve some of their academic and living skills before tackling college work – and play. The opportunity to live in a dormitory and take some responsibility for their own lives in a setting where interested adults are close-by provides a great rehearsal for college living.

Another type of gap year program provides a supervised living experience and exposure to possible career choices through a series of internships with different businesses and community service organizations. The young people in these programs share a common housing arrangement and meet on a regular basis with the supervisory staff to review their experiences and reactions. They often gain insight about what they’d like to study in college.

There are also gap year programs which are structured around volunteering. Students in these programs are assigned to communities throughout the United States to lend a hand in non-profit undertakings. Another alternative is to study at sea, either on a big cruise ship that serves as a floating classroom or on a sailing vessel where the students are responsible for manning the sails, as well as studying their lessons. Programs abroad give adolescents the chance to experience a different perspective and culture. For students who can handle a foreign language, a year abroad allows for language immersion. Outdoor programs can build self-confi dence as students participate in supervised trips where they are challenged physically and gain a whole new appreciation of their capabilities.

The gap year and learning differences
How appropriate are these programs for students with learning differences? As always, the answer must be, “it depends on the child.” It also depends on the program. The aim, after all, is to ensure a student’s chance of success and minimize the possibility of failure. For many students with learning issues, an organized, systematic approach to getting through high school and college works. Getting out of the routine of classes and homework would be disruptive rather than rejuvenating. They would be best served to continue on the classic academic track. Other students who are challenged by immaturity, lack of organization skills and low self-esteem may be unprepared or too exhausted for university life. A gap year offers them a chance to improve skills, gain confidence and take appropriate steps toward preparing for college.

What do some of the experts say? “A gap year gives a kid time to mature, establish some competencies and develop independence,” says Marcia Rubinstien, an educational consultant in Connecticut and an expert in nonverbal learning disabilities. She often recommends gap year programs to appropriate students with learning differences. Jean Hague, an Atlanta-based educational consultant, says, “Many students appreciate programs that help them tangibly grasp what careers they might pursue in adulthood.”

One thirty-something veteran of The National Outdoor Leadership School said, “I firmly believe in respecting and using formal education, K-12 and on through graduate school. In addition, experiential education provides valuable options because it allows a person an out-of-the-ordinary experience in which to grow. These experiences are also professionally managed so, whether we’re talking about rock climbing, or doing ceramics, or mastering a language or learning to dance, a person is still striving to expand her skills within a group of other people and with the professional leadership that makes the experience directed and safe.” If academics is not where a child’s talents lie, having a chance to feel competent in something else for a year is a blessed reprieve which can help a student reevaluate his gifts and potential!

Christie Theriot Woodfin, M.Ed. is a Certified Educational Planner who works with individual families to identify appropriate programs for their children and adolescents. She is past chair of the LD committee of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) and is a current member of the organization’s Board of Directors. Christie can be contacted at 404-249-9898 or through her website, www.bestschoolforyou.com.

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March 1, 2008 | In Feature Articles | 1 Comment

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Great article and just in time. We have been thinking about a gap year for our senior. Great resources to start the process.

Comment by Lori — March 18, 2010 #

Path to College: The Gap Year

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