THE PROS AND CONS OF TAKING A GAP YEAR
A gap year is taken after a student graduates from high school, but before a student officially starts college. It’s basically a yearlong break from formal education. However, this is not always the case, as a gap year can be taken after any year in college.
What are the pros and cons of Gap Year?
Let’s see the Pros
Time to prep for college: Some students take this time to prepare themselves for bigger schemes like targeting IVY league colleges.
Discover new things : Extracurricular activities are as important as Curricular activities. A student can take this time to learn a hobby, travel or even learn music. Some might take it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel the world and learn about various cultures and places.
Gain Professional Experience: Some students might be confused or need better clarity in the choices of career they make. Such students can take a gap year to gain professional knowledge about such decisions. This can be done by undertaking internships in similar companies and trying to get in-depth knowledge about the core functionalities. Or doing an observership .
Let’s see the Cons
Expensive: Taking a gap year is extremely expensive, as you will not be able to rely on any financial aid or scholarships. You might find that it’s a better choice, financially, to use the money towards a year of college education.
Peers and academic break: Your friends and classmates will be ahead of you academically and you might have reservations making new friends.
How to handle gap year
A student should undertake a gap year if they are able to justify later how they benefited from the same and achieve higher aims. A gap year should nowhere reflect poorly on the choices made.
Deferrals in university have to be made only if the student has a clear understanding of how it will benefit in seeking admissions to the desired university.
Financial aids will have to be reapplied and there is a fair chance one might not be the best befitting package. So the family has to be ready to bear the financial burden.
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