Gap year(s)

[Melalvai]

My daughter is a senior in high school and I want to encourage her to at least consider not going straight into college. She's a great student, responsible, has excellent grades, I just want her to consider the option of delaying college (or even...dare I say it...not going to college at all!) It's fine if she decides to go to college right away anyway, but her decision will be stronger if she thinks about other options. And I want her to feel like it IS a choice.

I'm browsing around looking for ideas, maybe something will catch her attention. Money is an issue, but you can throw out ideas as if it isn't, if you like. Her plan at the moment is to become a civil engineer (bike lanes and traffic lights!). She is interested in math and traveling. She wants to do Engineers Without Borders. She speaks decent Spanish.

So if you could go back and have a gap year between high school & college, or perhaps you did, or perhaps you didn't go to college, what would/ did you do? (Habitat for Humanity seems to have some good programs, so if you have experience with that, that would be useful to know about.)

[OakLeaf]

I went straight to college out of high school, but I had two years between college and law school. Most of that time I worked as a legal secretary, and it was really great experience learning the language and how law is actually practiced. If she can find an internship in a county engineer's office or a civil engineering firm, maybe that would be a way to go?

[Veronica]

I got married after my freshman year of college. It's worked great for us - but I don't advise it! I tried going back to Wash U. after we got married and my honey was stationed at Camp Pendelton. I was on a full scholarship and didn't want to give it up, but wanted to get married. I dropped out of Wash U that December; it was just too hard to be separated once we were married. I took a semester off and transferred into UC - Irvine. I worked retail and then taught swimming. Retail sucked! But I was a lot more serious about my education when I had to start paying for it when I went to UCI. Yeah, it was loans, but those grades became a lot more important when it was OUR money.

I grew up poor and wanted the house in the suburbs - picket fence optional. But once you settle down and have obligations, you lose some options. I didn't really think about when I was 19, not sure I was capable of thinking about it. I'm not sure what I would tell my 19 year old self.

I know my gap time convinced me I did not want be"stuck" working retail and I definitely wanted my degree.

Veronica

[Crankin]

My younger son wanted to take a gap year very badly. To him, it meant living at home, rent free, and racing. We said, fine, but you have to get a job of some kind and defer your admission one year, no waiting to apply. We also said he could do City Year (your daughter might like this, it's basically Teach for America without a degree), go to Israel and do volunteer work, or work as a teacher's aide, as he had done this in HS. He turned his nose up at our suggestions, so off he went to U of A. He came home in May with good grades and promptly enlisted in the Marines. He is getting out in March and has essentially had his 9 year Gap year! At 27, he is going back to school as a second semester sophomore.
In retrospect, we should have given him a little more leeway. It was not usual for kids around here to take a year off and I was frantic he would never go to college. While he was an excellent student and graduated HS with a full semester's worth of college credits, he's always marched to the beat of a different drummer. He was close to leaving the military a couple of times in the past 9 years, but he got really huge bonuses for staying, so he stayed. He also had the opportunity to go to the Naval Academy or do a college completion program for NCOs and keep his rank and pay while in school. He turned both down and said he had to do it "his way." So, he's set for $, has tons of investments and his education is paid for. His wife is in her junior year at Cal State Long Beach and I think her influence was a lot stronger than mine.
I haven't changed my mind about the necessity of a college education, but I am pretty sure I would have handled him staying home and racing for a year a lot better than I handled him enlisting. I guess what I am saying, is listen to your daughter and set some boundaries at the same time.

[tulip]

I would have liked to have been an exchange student somewhere after high school and before college. I went straight to college at a large university, but I don't think that's necessarily the only option or best option. I think I might have done better to go to a community college and transferred to a regular college. I also REALLY wish I had spent a year abroad in college. I just didn't have my act together to pursue it. I wanted to do it but somehow I thought it would just happen, magically, by wishing for it. When no one offered it, I figured I must not be good enough. Youth is wasted on the Young!

My brother worked as a carpenter's helper for a year before he went to college, learned about paying bills and being on time and teamwork--stuff you don't learn in art history classes! He was ready for college and life after that; it's taken me a lot longer to figure it out.

I think a gap year should be required!

[Becky]

I wish that I had felt like a gap year was an option.

[shootingstar]

I would say the opposite for me:

I did my 2 university degree years immediately after one another after high school. But the caveat here is that during my 3rd year in university, I was volunteering several hrs. per month at a non-profit org. on cross-cultural education and studies.The organization provided information resources tailored to people ready to work overseas in developing countries and for locals ie. high school students, college and universities on third world issues, historical colonization, race relations and immigration issues. It was difficult for people to get this information other than academic tomes which is not easy for the lay public. Hence, our organization provided more accessible information.

It was through this organization/volunteer experience, I understood the power of providing information to the right people at the right time in their lives. This motivated me to pursue my information science degree...after my English literature degree.

I couldn't have been able to afford to take a gap year. I might have easily lost some student grant money.

Melavli: She might want to consider something in geotechnical engineering or biomedical /biomechanical engineering (ie. making of prosethses and devices for the physically disabled) or transporatation...where tomorrow I will be meeting with electrical and mechanical engineers specialized in transit rail power traction, communications and signalling systems. Mission-critical stuff. Bridge design engineers, if highly experienced, are elite group in civil /structural engineering world. There is aerospace engineeriing which my brother-in-law's engineering faculty is side by side with this specialty area.

There is also the world of fire protection engineering ...civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineers with a focus on fire safety design.

I did work with all these specialty engineers ...from the information provision side. I never worked in a public nor school library. All specialized areas of knowledge and serving adults.

[Crankin]

Also adding that all I did in college was study and work. I lived with my then boyfriend/fiance. Although I went to 4 schools (small and private, community college, 2 year upper division school and large state university), I was totally focused on getting out and getting a job. I looked wistfully at my older son's college experience: living in the dorm in a wonderful college town, finding a major he loved by "mistake," spending a semester abroad, getting a great liberal arts education, and doing an internship that ultimately became his first job in a field he is still employed in. I could have done all of that, but I was too focused on work and not enough on the education part of college.

[thekarens]

I'd vote against it. I know way too many people who took a break either in the beginning or middle and never finished their degree. In this market it's hard to find even an entry level job with a degree much less without one.

I told both my boys they didn't have to go, but if they didn't they had to get a job and pay rent.

My oldest boy is a junior at a liberal arts college and will graduate debt free. He can take time off then if he wants to.

[Kiwi Stoker]

+ 1 thekarens. I wen striaght to 3 years uni after high school, then went working and went back and did night school. It was sooo hard to get back into the swing of studying, exams and researching. To be honest also the lure of money is hard to ignore as well.

If you know what you want to do at university, just go and do it. Even if you don't quite know but defineitely want to go, do it as the first year is really feeling out the direction you want to take, what department and lecturers are good etc.

I would only do a gap year if I had no idea what to do and then it would have to be organised (like employment or volunteering). Australia armed forces are offering a one "gap year" trial with no issues if you don't want to continue that is be interesting. You get paid plus get training credits like leadership skills etc which would be totally useful out in the real world.

[Owlie]

I'd vote against it. I know way too many people who took a break either in the beginning or middle and never finished their degree. In this market it's hard to find even an entry level job with a degree much less without one.

I told both my boys they didn't have to go, but if they didn't they had to get a job and pay rent.

My oldest boy is a junior at a liberal arts college and will graduate debt free. He can take time off then if he wants to.

I agree with this. I went straight from high school to college, but took a year off before I started my master's. It was a strange thing to get used to studying again.

[lph]

I hadn't heard the expression gap year, but I guess that's what I did - take 4 of them. At the time I remember being very convinced that many more should do something of the sort. I don't know the corresponding age groups in the US, but I quit school when I was 16 to work as a jockey apprentice. I come from a family of academics, and felt that this was my only chance to try it out or it would never happen. I was sure that I would go back to school at some point though. Worked full-time for four years, growing up and out of jockey stature ;-) and went back to school. I was then raring to go and got top grades the first year. Dwindled a bit the last year before university, but I was still incredibly motivated and a lot more mature compared to my fellow schoolmates, who were for the most part just dragging their heels until they were "done". Many of them were actively considering re-doing subjects at a private school later on, to improve their grades...

Maybe it doesn't have to be a gap year, but balance is good for you, whether it's a part-time job or volunteering or anything else. If you or she can afford it I'd say go for it. I wouldn't think of it as a break, though, but as a chance to work doing something different.

[Catrin]

I have a couple of co-workers who went to the Peace Corps between high school and college - and it worked well for them. It provided a different perspective of the world and the people who live in it.

[NbyNW]

I knew a handful of people in college who took a year off -- I think they applied while still in HS, then deferred for a year. They seemed so much more knowledgeable about the world as well as assured as to their reasons for being there. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I was doing. I spent the better part of my 20's trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was 36 when I finally finished grad school, barely time to get things going with the career while running out of time/opportunity to start a family.

I grew up in a family where my parents were adamant that all my energy should go towards academic achievement, and there was no value in working part-time or summers, unless it was candy-striping at a local hospital (step 1 towards putting together a med school application). Looking back, I really wish I had worked through school. It seems like employers want to know about work experience even coming out of school. It's a great way to differentiate yourself from the pack if you've got it.

If I had taken the time off, I think I would have benefitted by spending my time working/volunteering in fields that I was considering professionally. Maybe travel a little, but with an eye towards whether I wanted that to be related to my career.

[shootingstar]

If the high school grad. is motivated and knows their own natural likes/strengths plus has some paid part-time/summer work experience, then they should capitalize on their drive/motivation. I knew several people who didn't go for college/university but they delayed going back to school too long (several years) or some just never pursued it, but kept on working same type of jobs.

I was working part-time for large blocks of months during my 5 years at university. Coming from a poor family, the options became very tight. None of my siblings took any gap year...all were like me.