A Gap Year, Why Not?

Nowadays, some students take a year off after they graduate from their study in senior high school. This activity is known as a gap year. According to PLANETGapYear (2011), “Gap year is a period of time when students take a break from formal education to travel, volunteer, intern, study, work, perform research or any combination of these activities”.  A gap year has different name in each country. Some people define a gap year as an interim year, deferring college, an overseas experience or taking time out. Students who take a gap are also known as "gappers". Most students do not want to take a gap year because they do not yet know the benefits they can get over in the gap year. In fact, a gap year can help graduates improve job prospects in the future time, renew their passion for college, and gain a sense of maturity and self confidence.

The first reason to take a gap year is because it can improve job prospective when they graduate from university. If students use their gap year to improve their skill and experience at work, it will bring a benefit for them. In fact, after they graduate from their study in university, they will have many competitors in finding job. For that reason, of course they should have an excess which can make them preferred to work at the company compared with any other college graduates. It is in line with the survey conducted by PLANETGapYear in 2011. According to PLANETGapYear (2011), “85% of the United Kingdom HR professionals agreed that they preferred a job-seeker who has a suitable work experience than an average non-vocational degree and 63% of them said that they notice a job application from gappers who spent their times for volunteering or gaining work experience overseas”. Therefore, students should use their gap year properly. They can do a language-learning, make a work experience, do a charity work, and develop their networks that could help them in their future career. Moreover, in the article of The Goods on the Gap Years written by Boyd, Bull, who is a president of the Center for Interim Programs in Princeton, New Jersey, suggests that a gap year is the best time to be an open-minded person by learning the other cultures, then it is the best time to discover a possible careers for their future life, and it is the best time to discern themselves better.

The next reason to take a gap year is because it can refresh graduates’ passion for college life. Some students need a gap year because they feel burn-out by their formal education. They need to take a breath for a while after 13 years of studying. They spend the time to pursue their formal education since they were in kindergarten through high school. If the school is like a journey and life goals is an established career or a job, then students need a break occasionally when they have felt tired with their long journey, conversely they should remember that their goal has not been achieved yet, and it needs to be resumed. Therefore, they should continue their journey to a university education after they rest. As written in 11 Amazing Ways to Spend a Year Off Before College (2011), “Students who take a gap year will be more serious in their study because they are ready to face the university life”. For example, Sullivan (2011), one of the gapers, claimed that her gap year had prepared her for college more than high school ever could have. She had a better idea of who she was and what she wanted to achieve than most of her peers. In another case, Sullivan’s parents who was worried by her daughter’s decision to take a gap year, now they are breathing easily because she maintain a 4.0 GPA. She said that taking time off had been the best decision she ever had made for herself.  That is why several top universities such as Harvard and York University support the idea about gap year before they settle in for freshman year. Gappers argue that while many of their classmates come to campus ready to party, they come ready to learn. This is because the gappers have been enjoying their refreshing time when they take the time off, so they are ready to give their best when they return to campus.

The other reason students should take a gap year is to gain a sense of maturity and self confidence. Sometimes most graduate students are not mature enough to decide which course that they will take in university. They need a lot of time to recognize their interest and personality. Therefore, by taking one year off, students can be more mature for a year before making a commitment to a course of study. When they have decided the course which they are interested in, they will study harder and enjoy everything there. Based on information bulletin titled What’s a Gap Year?, there are some advantages of taking a gap year. One of the advantages which student can get is they will get a maturity boost. They can use this opportunity as a time to know about themselves, to make choices about their future, to strengthen soft skills and to develop emotional intelligence. Gappers find themselves thrust into new situations, making decisions and interacting with new people all the time. Some students choose to work, do an internship, volunteer, and find the experiences which can bring the maturity naturally for the gapers. In another way, most students go to the university which they do not want because they are not accepted in their university choices. The writer believes that it is a wrong way because to be success students, they should enjoy and like everything that they do, so it is better to take a gap year for preparing themselves to study harder in order to be accepted in the university that they want.

Considering the conventions that students should have a university experience sooner, for they can graduate from that university younger, some graduates students might claim that they do not need to take a year off after their graduation from high school. Of course, it is true if they have decided what course in university which they will learn and if they are ready to enter the university life. In contrast, based on fact which the writer found, some graduate students fail in their university life because they just enter the university without any preparation. They just follow most Indonesian people who think that sooner is better.  Nevertheless, some students who take a year off before their university life will feel the benefits which they can get in the future time, the fresh brain and body for studying in university, and the preparation for adapting in the university life. Therefore, those can be the considerations for high school graduates to take a year off.

In short, students do not have to be afraid to take a gap year before continuing their study in university. Most graduate students who have taken a gap year return with a better sense of direction and focus on their course of study. Moreover, students who take a gap year are usually not bounded by a usual or accepted way of behaving to continue their course sooner. They can prepare themselves to be better than other students. A gap year does not mean that graduates students are totally free from their duty in study; moreover, they can learn a new thing in their lives.