In a recent post by The Iranian, she discusses the downside
of high schoolers rushing into college, costing themselves tens of thousands of
dollars on generic liberal arts degrees.
“… but it’s important to inform our kids about the implications and consequences of attending college. It shouldn’t be somewhere they go to hide away from fear of what the world has to offer and it certainly shouldn’t be somewhere that provides them with less real world experience and knowledge than other options.”
Especially among American middle and
upper class families, all of high school, hell even middle school, is about getting
accepted into college. Every decision and performance is framed as series of
behavior leading up to and affecting future success. With college acceptance
rates lower than ever, there is an insurmountable amount of pressure on young
people. Many join band, Varsity soccer, student government, and take four AP
classes, not necessarily because of a genuine passion, but because they believe
it will affect college admissions. Needless to say, by the time students reach
their senior year, they are burned out. Maybe they’ve been accepted to their
dream school, maybe they’ve settled for something less, but now many think to
themselves “now what?” After spending the last few years focused on the
singular goal of getting into college, many lack the time for self-reflection
to explore what they are really passionate about.
Having graduated high school in Europe,
I was lucky to be surrounded by another paradigm – the question was not “what
college are you going to?” but rather “are you planning on going straight to college
or taking a gap year?” Probably one-third of my graduating class took gap years.
My decision to do so was invaluable, not only in my ability to travel, gain
fluency in French, and explore my interests, but I believe it made me a better
college student. I came to college with a newfound independence, confidence,
and energy for learning I never expected. As astutely put by Ethan Knight, the
Executive Director of the American Gap Association:
The gap-year phenomenon is still not as popular
in the U.S. as it is in Europe, but it is gaining popularity. About 40,000 Americans participated in gap year programs in 2013, an increase of nearly 20%
since 2006. Colleges are catching onto the potential benefits of gap years on
their students too. Tufts University recently started a program that will
provide full aid for certain accepted students interested in taking gap years.
Princeton and University of North Carolina also grant gap year need-based aid,
removing the financial barriers to make a gap year more feasible for
cash-strapped students. While taking a gap year isn’t for everyone, the
automatic high school-to-college pathway should be challenged, and it is a
concept that I hope gains even more traction in the U.S.
"One of the things I see students frequently asking and coming up with is what success looks like to them. We’re handed definitions of success by our peers, by culture, by media, by school, by parents, and we’re not asked what it looks like for us. A gap year asks you to consider that question."
