Who Makes A Good Gap Year Candidate?
As pre-university gap years become more popular, counselors and educators have an opportunity to help potential gap year students (aka “gappers”) plan meaningful journeys. Gap year experiences can be great options for:
- High-achieving students who want time to recharge and pursue passions that lay outside of a traditional classroom.
- Students who want to explore majors/careers before pursuing a 4-year degree. They want to ensure that the average $9,400-$39,800 per year [http://nces.ed.gov] in tuition costs will be well-spent.
- Students who weren’t accepted into their college(s) of choice.
- Students who were granted a spring acceptance and now have a semester of time during which they want to do something intentional.
- Anyone desiring a deliberate break from a formal educational/career path in order to grow, explore, and clarify future goals.
Taking a gap year is often about clarifying goals before investing heavily in specific college or career choices. Most gappers will likely require some support as they expand their comfort zones and further define themselves in the world.
Best Practices In Working With Gappers
Whether you’re an Independent Educational Counselor or Consultant, an Admissions Counselor for a college or university, or a high school or college counselor, you can play a pivotal role in the definition of a young person’s gap year.
For students who are considering a gap year before college, encourage them to apply to college, get accepted, THEN ask for a deferral to take their gap year. Oftentimes, colleges and universities will want to see that a student has a clear plan for their gap year time: help your student structure their time, leaving the door open for plans to evolve, so that they have direction for themselves and also for their deferral letter.
Here are a few pointers for advising prospective gap year students, from GYA Accredited Gap Year Consultants:
- Let the student lead the way. This is their experience. The natural consequences of their choices are fundamental to learning and personal development as they prepare for their post-academic lives.
- Start with a list of exciting ideas: browse GYA’s Accredited Programs List and spend no more than 45 minutes, writing down 5-20 activities. Note the activities, rather than the specific programs.
- Encourage students to keep a reflective journal while on their gap year.
- A gap year stands to benefit anyone who takes one, although they might not be right for everyone: if a student is focused and dedicated to a path of institutional learning or of higher education, then they should pursue that. If a student is searching for their focus in higher education, or needs some perspective to make a more informed decision based on new lived experiences, then a gap year might make sense for them.
- You as a counselor have an excellent opportunity to help a student gauge whether or not a gap year is right for them, and to cite research for families who would benefit from the data on the positive outcomes of taking a gap year. How does your student respond to stretching their comfort zone, and in which contexts? What do they see as pros and cons for taking a gap year?
- Work with your student to identify core priorities, career explorations, learning outcomes, and hobbies. The intentionality behind a gap year is key.
- Start a gap year plan with more structure and work your way into less. This helps students finance their gap years by considering the heavier costs up front, and can help your student save money.
Many gap year students find themselves drawn to volunteering in global and domestic communities during their gap years. It is vital that gappers and those advising them recognize that volunteering, or service-learning, is a complex endeavor. At GYA, we use the continually-evolving Fair Trade Learning Standards, adapted from the Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative, as our metric for engaging in ethical volunteering and service-learning.