The Gap Year: An Option for Homeschool Graduates

In a previous post, I discussed that college education may not be right for everyone. For some, both parent and teen know with certainty, that college is the right choice and that’s wonderful! However for those who aren’t so certain, there’s another option that homeschool graduates my want to consider – The Gap Year.

Sadly, I’ve spoken with many college graduates who, after graduation, found very lucrative jobs, lamenting, “I hate what I’m doing!” Many confess they would like to quit but can’t because they are up to their eyeballs in student loan and/or credit card debt. Some consider going back to school to study something different, but still don’t know what they want to do. One recent college grad I spoke with, just up & quit her very big-bucks job, because she couldn’t stand it. Would a gap year have helped these students? I don’t know. Would it have hurt them? No, I don’t think so.

The gap year concept – taking a year off between high school graduation and college – is a growing concept in this country. Many high school advisors and counselors are now recommending it to their students. Furthermore, high schools have begun having “Gap Year Fairs”, showing and promoting the many opportunities available to a high school grad during their year off from formal education.

According to an article in USA Today, as colleges’ witness more and more “gappers” arriving on campus with sharper focus, motivation and maturity — all of which helps in their undergraduate years in college – they are increasingly offering deferred enrollment as an option. Even the “big-guns” schools like Harvard, Princeton, and MIT are enthusiastic about the year-off concept noting the fresh focus of their gap year students.

If any of the statements below describe your home-educated high school student, taking a gap year may be an option worth your consideration:

Your homeschooler doesn’t know if they even want to continue their education, be it a trade school or college
They think they want to go to college, but haven’t a clue what they want to pursue or where they want to go. If this is the case, I’d encourage you to dig a little deeper as to why they want to go to college now;
- Is it pressure from you – if so try not to get defensive
- Is it pressure from peers, after all “everyone else is going to college?
- Is it fear – fear of failure, fear of being left behind, fear of “looking stupid”
He or she just needs/wants a break from formal studies (yes, even homeschool grads need may need a break )

Taking a year off, a gap year, can help your homeschooled student grow in maturity, real-life skills, and pursue opportunities that God can use to help them identify His life’s purpose for them.

To explore this option further, let me suggest several books:
The Gap-Year Advantage: Helping Your Child Benefit from Time Off Before or During College by Karl Haigler & Rae Nelson

Your Gap Year by Susan Griffith

Let me know what you think or how you’ve handled the “to-college-or-not-to-college” issue!

Sue

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 3:50 pm and is filed under College. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.