Gap Years: Why Most Adults Say, ‘I Wish I’d Done That’

I didn’t take a gap year, but in retrospect wish I had—how much would I have learned about the world and grown as a person? It would have been especially relevant as I studied international affairs as an undergrad. Today, Ethan Knight, Executive Director, and Jennifer Sutherland-Miller, Director of Education with the American Gap Association, explain the benefits and logistics of taking a gap year.

By guest bloggers Ethan Knight and Jennifer Sutherland-Miller

For quite some time now, national excitement has been building around gap years, and in the wake of Malia Obama’s May 1 announcement that she will take one, the momentum has only grown. Both students and colleges are recognizing the profound academic and personal benefit to taking an experiential year to deepen practical, professional, and personal awareness.

Why Take a Gap Year?
From all available data it is clear that gap year programs have profound impacts on young people, including personal growth, academic attainment, and post-college success. The two most common reasons students cite for taking a gap year are (1) “burnout from the pressures of getting into college” and (2) “a desire to know more about myself.” Increasingly, the achievement bar has gone up for the most competitive colleges, forcing students into a relentless flurry of performance for the sake of college. It’s no great surprise then, that the second most common reason would represent a deeper pursuit of self-alignment, because we all know that chasing another’s dreams is a great way to fail at your own.

In support, data from several studies have shown that students who take a gap year return to college at a rate of 90 percent within a year and pursue their studies with renewed focus. There are significant academic benefits to the gap year as demonstrated by over performance on GPAs and a shorter path to graduation as compared to non-gap peers. The average student will change majors 3-5 times in college, contributing to an average graduation time of six years—and that doesn’t even factor for the almost 40 percent of students who simply never complete any college degree. By contrast, students who have taken a gap year typically graduate in just four years (with a median of 3.75 years!). Plus, over the longer haul, taking a gap year also improves a young person’s employment prospects and boosts civic engagement.

At a more personal level, research is showing that millennials want their work and their lives to matter in this world. What better time is there to explore the world and figure out your place in it than during a gap year before you commit to a career path? Eighty-six percent of students who have taken a gap year report that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their careers once they get there—this indicates that gap year participants have a better sense of what their purpose is in the world.

Examples of AGA-accredited organizations providing structured programs abroad include: National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), with a focus on leadership and outdoors skills in some of the most awe-inspiring locations in the world.

Read the full story here.