Comments on: Gap Years: Taking Time off Study to Learn

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 21:19:40 +0000

Gap years are also very, very common in the Modern Orthodox (Jewish, not Greek) world, particularly in the U.S. In this situation, the kids usually go to a Yeshiva or Seminary to do a year of Jewish learning before going away to college. Some schools will tend to give college credit for this (mostly lower tier and Yeshiva University or other degree granting Jewish schools), but some of the higher tier ones will give limited credit as well (4 classes’ of general elective credit at University of Pennsylvania if you’re doing a Jewish or Religious Studies degree).

Most of this subset goes to Yeshivas/Seminaries in Israel, but there are some in New York as well.

By: Mike in Texas

Mike in Texas — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 01:40:49 +0000

I have taken a gap year, my freshman year in college. It probably didn’t help that I went to the University of New Orleans which has a bar on campus.

By: graycie

graycie — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:28:43 +0000

My ‘gap years’ (3 of them, several decades ago) between high school and college came from necessity — I had to earn the money to pay for college. As it turned out, the time away from academia was beneficial in a way far more important than simply getting the money to pay for a college degree. I learned that I did NOT want to spend my life in the kind of job I could get without a degree. I found that I LIKED learning and missed it when I was working at various nine-to-five mundane jobs. I found that when I returned to school, I could look at what the professors were showing me in a way that I never could have without the 3 years out in the real world. I was more grounded and motivated and had learned about what was important and what mattered and what was real.

By: Heli

Heli — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 11:38:07 +0000

As someone who took a gap year – a forced one, thanks to the Finnish education system and my own meagre efforts to get into a university – reading your post made me smile and nod in agreement.

I’m a person who wants to have an education and life experience. While my gap year wasn’t a personal choice, it was beneficial and it is something that a lot of Finns do. It allows you to see the world from a different perspective, to get work experience and to travel. In short, you get some very necessary “me-time” while figuring out what to do with your life and where you might want to go.

Very few of us actually know what we want by the time we finish high school. I know a lot of people who’ve gone into a university straight after graduating and ending up changing majors or even quitting their studies because they’ve found out that it’s not for them. I have friends that are in their forties and just beginning their studies after working and travelling and maybe having a different career before. Everyone has their own pace and way of learning. There’s no need to adhere to the pressures of the society by going for the two-and-half-kids-by-35 goal.