More High School Students Want to Take a Time Out for a Year Before College

by Mary Beth Sammons (Subscribe to Mary Beth Sammons's posts)
Dec 29th 2010 11:20AM

Filed under: In The News, Teen Culture, Education: Teens

Stress and burnout is leading more students to take a year off before starting college. Credit: Getty

Gimme a break is the new mantra of a growing number of high school students who say they are "burned out" and need to take a year off before heading to college.

Rather than packing for the dorms, they're volunteering in remote villages in India, working full time or venturing off on outdoor travel excursions, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Though this gap year is common in England, an increasing number of organized programs are popping up in the United States that help shepherd the experiences for students who want to take a year off to earn money for tuition, travel internationally or seek service opportunities before heading to college.

Increasingly, these program, such as USA Gap Year Fairs, are bringing together high school students, their parents and counselors with organized programs that focus on "education, service and personal growth," according to the USA Gap Year Fairs website. The programs, similar to college fairs, have grown from seven to 30 nationally, and are held in cities across the country.

Through Gap Years, students are linked with programs such as Dynamy Internship Year, a Worcester, Mass., residential internship program with the mission of offering young people ages 17 to 22 a transformational gap year (or semester) opportunity, which includes full-time mentoring internships with more than 240 organizations.

The programs are located across the country in urban and back country locations and include college and career advisement and optional college seminars, according to Dynamy's website.

A recent survey of 300,000 first-time freshmen at four-year colleges and universities found 1.2 percent waited a year to enter college, according to the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, the survey didn't track the students' reasons for postponing enrollment, the Journal reports.

But some experts attribute the time out to teens being wiped out from high school, according to the newspaper.

Burnout from the competitive pressure of high school and a desire "to find out more about themselves" are the top two reasons students take gap years, according to a survey of 280 people who did so by Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson of Advance, N.C., co-authors of a forthcoming guidebook on the topic, the Journal reports.

In response, more colleges and universities, including Amherst College, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are adopting formal policies allowing students to defer admission, the newspaper says.

ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)

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12-29-2010 @ 12:12PM

Alicia said...

This is pretty cool, I think. As long as kids DO something in that year instead of lazing around eating cheetos, colleges don't penalize them and it can actually help you get into some schools. I briefly considered a volunteer trip to China before college, but I had gotten into the school I wanted, so I've just collected literature on the Peace Corps instead and intend to join when I graduate.

1-01-2011 @ 8:27PM

Susan said...

This stuff can be very stressful! Http://www.answersaboutdepression.com Counseling is what is really needed here!

12-29-2010 @ 1:36PM

Beatrice said...

I can understand this.....I think we have gone just way too overboard on requirements to graduate. To me anybody that had to endure the school districts-and their insane idea's on improving education-the type of teachers that have come out of this era-of super education generation. Should just get a diploma for attending the 12 plus years-Reality has gone out the window for school. And why do I feel this way-because I am a mom that has to pick up the slack that teachers can't do in the classroom-and I don't have a teaching degree-so if I can teach my kid as well as an educated person.......

1-01-2011 @ 10:16PM

jessica said...

Are you kidding me?! If kids are getting wiped out from the current education in the U.S., they shouldn't be working a blue collar job because they are obviously morons. If they want to do internships, then that is fine because community service and internships will help college admission. If they just want to take a year off because they are "burned out" then they need to think about passing up college all together and let some kids willing to work have their place. Our education system sucks right now and these kids hardly have to do any work at all so I don't buy the excuse "I'm burned out." Cry me a river because they don't know how burned out really feels. Let them take 18 credit hours, a certification course, and working full time and THEN they can talk about being burned out.

1-03-2011 @ 4:49AM

I want to go where Jessica's going to school, because obviously my bi-annual end-of-semester meltdown over the phone to my mother about how all I want to do is sleep but the work will never end is unusual.

12-29-2010 @ 5:48PM

Eileen said...

my daughter matriculated directly from high school to community college. After a semester or two she was dropping classes and was overwhelmed stating that she felt that she has been going to school all of her life. In actuality she had been. She took only a semester off because she needed to be going to school to keep her insurance on her father's union insurance and she was asthamatic. But after that semester of being free from books and homework and reading and all of what goes with being a college student she came back and hit to head on and finished her degree in less than two years. Even now she states that that semester off helped her to finish college more rapidlybecause she felt at that time her brain needed a rest. So I fully agree that giving the child some time off is perfectly all right. I teach both university and high school students and I do understand that they can be overwhelmed it getting what they need to in order to finish their degree. They are pushed by parents and teachers to move forward and they are ofter overwhelmed...

12-30-2010 @ 6:17PM

Molly Sterns said...

Hi all,

I actually took a gap year myself and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I spent time abroad learning languages and growing up a little, and when I came back to school I was able to focus and finish in three 1/2 years -- not to say that's the case for everyone, but the time to collect myself and explore the world a little really helped me figure out what I wanted to study.

I'm such a fan of this idea that I actually now work for an organization which offers a structured, supported gap year program that gives students the chance to live and work in a developing country after an intensive training in the US. It's all about giving them the global awareness and skills that they'll need to succeed in the 21st century world they're inheriting, so it's kind of a departure from the traditional gap year model. There's also hefty financial aid, so the program is available to anyone who wants to apply.

Anyone interested in learning more can contact me at molly@globalcitizenyear.org or check out the website of this organization: globalcitizenyear.org. I'm happy to talk more about this and other specific options. Thanks!

pat said...

what a joke theres no pressure in high school. i did nothing but sleep through all my classes and graduated with a 3.9.

1-01-2011 @ 11:03PM

Fred said...

Because you went to some ignorant little high school and took easy classes.

1-01-2011 @ 11:09PM

You need to get your buck teeth off this site and go to NASCAR or some ignorant mess like that. Or go feed the hogs. something.

1-01-2011 @ 8:39PM

qq4lbfm said...

I've looked at the reports on the high school students here in Nevada. They've been on time out for 4 years now. They have no reason to be stressed. They are a waste of tax payer dollars. Every student who drops out or fails should be required to pay back the cost of their education. Or their parents should be.

1-01-2011 @ 8:50PM

Erinn said...

I'm going to graduate from highschool this summer and I wanted desperatly to take a year off before going to college, a semester for a job and a semester for study/volunteer abroad. My high school years were intense, filled with AP classes and as many other classes as I could take. I loved it, but it was highly stressful and I would have liked some time to travel and expirence what I plan on doing with my life before paying all the money to go to college. My parents rejected the idea though, despite all my research. I can only hope that freshman year doesn't burn me out.

1-01-2011 @ 11:08PM

You are old enough to start making your own decisions. If you feel you need a year, work in a store or something for a year, for crying out loud. Tell your parents, respectfully, that you are in charge of your life. God gave your life to ----YOU, not mom and dad. They had their turn.

1-01-2011 @ 10:01PM

Holly said...

Oh,the poor stressed out little darlings! This is a great scam for kids whose parents are well off. I'm burned out and stressed out from my job; will someone please be kind enough to fund a year long European tour for me? The kids have the whole summer off to sit on their tails before going to college. I, personally, found college to be a breeze compared to my accelerated high school curriculum. Most kids don't even have the priviledge of attending college and go straight to work from high school. No one is giving them a break from the tedium of daily living. The pampered kids who have college assured should thank their lucky stars that they're able to go instead of whining about needing a break from studying and time to "find" themselves.

1-01-2011 @ 11:16PM

eulerckt said...

Difficult...need a break...That's only because you dipsticks are only looking for easy money. If you were pursuing a passion or something you had a natural talent for, this would all be fun and all consuming. Welcome to the 21st century, I suppose.

1-01-2011 @ 10:27PM

Chief said...

Statistically, those who take a year off; Never go back to school. The reason they (HS Students today) are getting burned out is due to all the Social interference while attending High School - and in most cases earlier - such as Cell Phones, iPods, Internet activity, and even too much TV. Combine that activity with the fact that today's Public School system has failed miserably to actually, educate our children, and you have a guaranteed formula for failure, burn-out, and depression when they come to the realization that they are ill prepared for the adult/free market world.

1-01-2011 @ 10:31PM

Amen Holly. I have NEVER been without a job and have worked since I was 10 years old starting with yard work, shoveling snow; what ever it took. I need a paid break also for a year; Ha! So where to you want to go for a year?

1-01-2011 @ 10:40PM

LJ said...

The colleges are the one fueling this burnout, what with early admission and early decision, quotas and "diversity" . Then the parents are forced to push the kid into every AP and advanced HS class they can in order to compete to get into those colleges. If you have an "average" kid who actually spends time to work, play a sport or follow a club interest, too bad for you, your kid is not getting into their choice of schools. I find the whole system disgusting. Add to that teachers who won't back off on the homework, making the kids work day longer than their own. As a parent who has been through this before, I am tired of seeing my kid struggle to learn useless crap they will never use, including multiple years of foreign languages. How about making them fluent in ENGLISH, which is what they will need in real life in THIS country.

1-01-2011 @ 11:11PM

Great, you made an A in gym, an A in the easy math for dumb kids, an B in the remedial reading, also for dumb kids, and an A in art. Good, boy, Pat. There are kids who actually took advanced classes and were in sports and band. Real stuff. As opposed to your tobacco spitting club. Go back to sleep with the beer cans and the fake TV wrestling you love.

Laura said...

I remember when I graduated from high school. I wanted to take time off before college but my parents said "NO!" I burned out at college during my third year and never went back. I really believe that if I had taken the time to rest up between HS and my 1st year I would never have left. I'm 46 and I'm just now going back to try and finish my degree.

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