Gap Year

Not Quite Ready for College

By Amy Henry

From the moment her first son was born, Annie Kelly of Amherst, Mass., expected he would excel in school and then go on to the college of his choice. "It never entered my mind that this wouldn't be his path," she says. Today, Kelly's son has found a niche between high school and "the next thing," building houses and serving on soup lines as a member of AmeriCorps.

His experience is typical of a growing number of young people who are opting to take a gap year or two before deciding on college. Gap-year opportunities for volunteer service, internships and travel are proliferating, as are Web sites devoted to making the most of the gap-year experience.

Teens offer almost as many reasons for taking time off after high school as there are opportunities to do so:

• They don't know what they want to study.
• They're sick of sitting in a classroom.
• They'd like to explore the realities of a career, through practical work experience, before committing to a major.
• They're not sure college is for them, period.

Dr. Brad Crenshaw, a neuropsychologist from Amherst, Mass., says that,in his experience, the reasons teens opt to take time off fall into two categories, the most pertinent being the pressure of academia. "It can be a killer," he says, noting the rising incidence of suicide on college campuses. "A kid coming out of high school has already spent seven hours a day, for 12 years, tolerating intense scrutiny and judgment. He, or she, might be saying, 'I need to back away. Find out what it is I want to do.'"

The second reason Crenshaw cites is the narrow preparation high school offers. It prepares kids for college, he says, but what if a teen wants to work on cars or be a chef? They may have been discouraged from pursuing these interests in school, but now they're asking, "How do I want to spend my life?" or "What is most practical?"

Discovering college is not on your teen's agenda can unnerve even the mellowest of parents. Kelly admits she experienced a huge insecurity attack when her son decided not to pursue the traditional high school-college-career track. "There's so much pressure from everyone the media, advisors, parents and neighbors to stay the course and follow the path defined by our society," she says.

College offers a structured environment with a wide range of opportunities to explore. "A parent can be anxious about a child missing these opportunities," Crenshaw says. "It's legitimate for parents to ask, 'How else am I going to prepare my child for life?'"

Want to see more?

• The Next Step: 5 Creative Ways to
  Help Finance College
• NOT College Bound: Options in Post-High School Education
• Packing for College: 10 Must Haves
• How Much Is Enough?: Two-year vs. Four-year College
• Check out our Article Library.
• Talk about it!