A Year Off Before College Beneficial?
July 11th, 2005 by RebeccaAn article on CNN.com discusses the topic of time off before college, or as they refer to it “a gap year”. According to the article, college admission officers are supporting the idea of students taking a year off between high school and college. The idea is that during this year, your time would be spent doing something educational and worthwhile, like teaching in Costa Rica and trying to figure out exactly what you want to do with your life. While the idea seems good, I feel that it would only be beneficial to a small group…..those that are over achievers. Most 18 year olds would us this time to be lazy not for educational reasons. The article does admit that some, like Sarah Lawrence, have encouraged a gap year simpy because they didn’t anticipate the number of students that would be attending in the fall. So even though it appears that administrators are looking out for students best interest, they are really fixing a problem for themselves. I don’t consider myself to be a slacker, but I know that when I was 18, I wouldn’t have used an entire year “for growth” to my advantage. Going to college right after high school actually pushed me to grow up faster and realize what I wanted to do.