Taking a gap year after graduating high school often sounds like a terrible idea for a lot of parents, as well as to the graduates who can’t choose between taking a break from extensive learning activities to go through different experiences and going to the college right away to complete their education as soon as possible. However, taking a year off may be a reasonable idea when the high school graduate finds a purpose for it and compiles a plan to achieve the goals he has in mind to approach college as a more mature individual who has a better view on his future career aspirations and profession he wants to pursue. The main danger taking a gap year imposes is that you may get carried away, extend that break and put your education into the corner of a well-forgotten drawer.
Therefore, if you’re contemplating taking a year off after graduating high school, make sure that you have good reasons for it and that you’ll spend it improving yourself as an individual and experimenting in a positive, beneficial way. If you’re a parent of a child that doesn’t want to dive into college right after getting out of high school, don’t get too upset about it and try to understand why your son/daughter made such a decision, support him/her and render all possible assistance during those challenging, but rather exciting times.
10 reasons to take a gap year before college
1. Discover different career opportunities
Taking a gap year is a perfect chance to try working at different places, discovering various career options and figure out what you love the most and what you’re good at. This way your choice will be based not just on your idealistic conception of a certain job and your presumptions about your performance at it, but on your personal experience of an insider.
2. Figure out which education and program will be the most appropriate for the career you decide to pursue
After trying on different roles and careers, you’ll be able to approach the choice of a college and the specialty to get into more responsibly. You’ll enroll yourself in a course that will help you out in your future career of a choice instead of picking a random specialty right after high school and desperately trying to find an application for your diploma after you graduate college and start your career journey. You’ll get more use out of your expensive tuition if you’ll know that paying attention in class will actually help you in life. Additionally, you may continue working on a career you got yourself into during the gap year and completing your education at the same time. Then, you’ll gain a few years of experience in the industry you enjoy by the time you graduate.
3. Earn money to finance college tuition
Obviously, the matter of finances is one of the major factors that influence the student’s decision to take a gap year after graduating high school. Instead of going for a massive student’s loan or borrowing a lot of money from relatives, you may find a highly paid job and work longer hours to save up for college. Freelancing and working for small businesses (like moving companies, IT groups, and travel agencies) as an independent worker will allow you to receive a higher pay and gain professional experience. Maybe, you won’t be able to save enough to pay the full tuition price, but you’ll certainly earn a good portion of it to avoid paying a lot of money in interest.
4. Work on your resume
Any professional experience is a valuable point for a resume, especially if you’re a young person making his first career steps. It will be highly beneficial not just for your further job interviews, but also for college admission.
5. Experience life outside the classroom
When you’re living within a special environment school or college creates and communicate with people, who have similar interests, behavior patterns and goals as you have, you exist in a bubble that protects you from reality. Leaving the confines of a school classroom without jumping into the college one and exposing yourself to the challenges of independent life, learning how to adjust to different circumstances, protect your own interests, stand on your grounds and communicate with people of different age groups, backgrounds, engagements and interest is a rather practical thing to do.
6. Improve college admission chances and find a great scholarship
Working experiences you’ll gain, internships and volunteering programs in foreign countries you’ll participate in, foreign languages you’ll learn (even on the basic level) and personal initiatives you’ll come up with and hopefully launch will speak much more loudly than your grades. That’s the ultimate purpose of taking a gap year.
7. Travel the country/the world
Traveling the world, discovering different cultures and seeing how people live in are the main reasons why most high school graduates want to take a gap year before college. If you’re willing to go through the budget traveling difficulties, learn to adjust to various circumstances and living conditions, work while going around the word, go ahead and step on that route.
8. Start an independent project
A gap year is a year of experimenting and finding your niche. If you find something you’re particularly passionate about, you may totally launch a start-up or initiate a socially oriented project. Go to HireRush.com to set up your own professional profile to reach to the potential customers and start generating revenue.
9. Learn about yourself and adjust to living on your own
High school graduation is a turning point for many individuals. It’s also the time a young teen who’s supposed to make life changing decisions has more questions than answers. Take your time to figure out who you are, what you want and what you wish during the gap year and learn to take up responsibilities as an independent adult without turning that self-search into a huge distraction from college.
10. Decide if going to a school is for you at all
Sometimes high school graduates decide that they don’t want to go to college after taking a gap year. It’s not always a bad thing, especially if they start a promising career or their own project that is bound to be profitable. College is not for everyone, and it’s becoming more and more redundant in modern society. The only thing you need to avoid is not making any career progress during the gap year and skipping another college admission season. 90% of students go to college after taking a gap year, though.
Inspiring things to do during a gap year
- try to learn a foreign language;
- travel to countries from different continents and try to combine traveling with work not to get into debt or use up all your savings;
- become an au-pair to travel with comfort and work at the same time, as well as avoid visa troubles;
- teach English to students from the countries you’ll visit or to people who seek native speakers online;
- volunteer abroad to help people overcome the consequences of natural disasters, contribute to the fight against poverty, hunger and violence, etc.;
- get a job or experience different careers;
- take courses at community college to gain a few credits, experience the mild version of studying in college and improve your chances to get accepted to the dream school;
- work at resorts and on cruise ships to have fun without spending your own money;
- find a new hobby to make things and sell them online;
- blog about your gap year experiences;
- try to become an English-speaking tour guide abroad;
- help with a family business
- visit as many states in the U.S. as you can;
- improve your fitness game;
- make friends from different countries.
Things you need to be prepared to if you decide to take a gap year before college
- your parents might be completely against it;
- it may be more expensive than you anticipate;
- you’ll be a year behind your friends and schoolmates;
- you’ll have to learn to be independent and take care of yourself;
- traveling to different countries is always a risk;
- you can’t spend it slagging around and not working;
- if you don’t spend it practically, it may lower your college admission chances and do some damage to your CV;
- you’ll forget a lot from your school program during a gap year unless you make a conscious effort to revise;
- if you’ve already received an offer from a college/university, you might be risking your place, as well as the amount of money in your student finance fund;
- you may lose connection with your friends due to the change of common interests and the difference in life stages.
