Should You Take a Gap Year?

A gap year is between your final year of high school and your first year of upper-level learning. The gap year has served as a tool for young students to pause their lives and sit and think about what they genuinely want to pursue. Taking a gap year could significantly help a student and clear their mind of confusion and worry, it gives them time to plan, research, and prepare.

A gap year could also have some setbacks to a student's track to finishing school. Because the gap year is typically taken directly after high school, after a gap year you are technically a year older than all your classmates and it may feel like you're a year behind compared to others. Gap years in general can prove to be difficult to execute as well. If not well organized, spending a whole year out of school may derail you more than help you, because once a student is taken off the traditional road of schooling, it is hard to get back on. 

Taking a gap year has proven to have many benefits if planned out well and used as it should be. A gap year should be for students who are not quite ready to start their upper-level academic career and need more time to think about what exactly they want to do. If not executed properly, a gap year could be more harmful to a student's success by derailing them and making it harder for them to get back into the habit of academics. All in all, I personally think a gap year can be a really good idea if the right person is doing it and if they have a good, well-structured plan. If they don't have a good plan, I think it would be a better idea to just go to school and get the basic classes out of the way and then consider a gap year if you still need time to think.

 

Is taking a gap year a good idea?

Would you take a gap year?

Do you know anyone who has taken a gap year?

 

https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2020/article/gap-year-update.htm 

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  • I think that for me personally a gap year would not be a good idea at all. One reason for this is that I am going to do something in the STEM field which is all high paying so if I stopped for a year to save money it'd be better to just pay off debt after school with a higher paying job. Another reason that it would not work for me is that I already have a plan for schooling and what I want to do.

  • Personally, I will be taking a gap year as I will barely be 18 when I graduate so not only will I age a bit before college but I will be able to work full-time during that year and make money to pay for my college and during that time I can do shadowing jobs for my career choice so for me I think its a good idea but for others, it's not necessary.

  • I personally don't think it is a good idea, although you can make some money in that year. Who's to say you don't spend that money on random things that you don't need. I won't take a gap year, you can do other things to help yourself get ahead financially than take a year off.

    • I agree, a gap year could be beneficial if the person who is doing it executes in correctly. If not done well it could completely derail your future because it takes you out of the cycle which is very hard to get back in.

  • I think there are very valid reasons to take a gap year. If you aren't completely sure of what you want to do post-high school, a gap year can help you figure it out before you agree to pay 30k a year on school. I know someone who considered doing a gap year to establish residency for an out-of-state school. Gap years can be bad if you let it go on for multiple years or if you don't continue to exercise your brain.

    • I agree with you completely. I didn't think about using a gap year as a time to establish residency if you're considering out-of-state college. That is also a very good idea in order to get lowered, in-state, tuition.

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