UpClose: Between Yale and peers, a gap year thinking gap
For Alice Hodgkins ’11, it was simply a matter of checking a box on a form — and then, instead of walking through Phelps Gate with the class of 2010 last September, she was soaring above the clouds in North Carolina at the controls of a Cessna 150, earning her pilot’s license.
That fall, as her would-be class adjusted to life on Old Campus, Hodgkins traveled to Nepal to distribute clothing to villagers in the Khumbu region near Mount Everest. Then, after a stint waitressing in New Jersey at a bar and grill called “Winberries,” Hodgkins spent the next five months backpacking over...
fascinating article
It is interesting that the socioeconomic backgrounds of students who take a "gap year" before coming to Yale University are not discussed. Many students who are able to "pilot their planes" across the world are probably more wealthy than the students who go to at-risk schools and need a waiver just to submit an application to Yale University. Many students would love to take a year off before going to a $40,000 a year university, but it simply is not a financial possibility. Perhaps traveling across the world does give someone a sense of maturity, however I think students who overcome poverty stricken schools and gain admission to an ivy league school know a little more about the "real world" than students with the financial resources to travel across the world do.
The life experience gained by traveling and living abroad is invaluable for "knowing yourself" and knowing "the world" while managing to live independently in a new and unfamiliar environment.
The fact that "our world" is becoming more and more global combined with the detrimental effects of lack of world awareness by the American young and not so young anymore people are powerful enough causes of taking action by encouraging and helping admitted students to take that "gap year" abroad.
Princeton's is not just a "gap year" program but a full year of providing their students with opportunities to become mature and knowledgeable enough to manage later in their lives inner or outer world challenges.
I can't emphasize enough how beneficial it is to take a year off before college. You will know yourself better and make more mature decisions as a freshman. For so many people, freshman year is looked upon as a waste because of so many poor decisions made. A gap-year can make your freshman year really count.