Running Head: A PRODUCTIVE BREAK 1

A Productive Break from Academic Grind: Deferring Your College Admission

Christelle Elvinia

Period 4

A high school senior experiences many things during their last year. Some seniors

experience the joy of being accepted into their chosen college and some feel the sting of
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rejection from not receiving an acceptance letter. There is, however, a portion of seniors

that defer going to college. Why do some students prefer to defer from their college

admission? Maybe it is the lack of financial funds, or the lack of confidence in their

intended career path that hinders them. Another reason might be that they are simply

burnt out from their eighteen year academic grind. Whatever the reason might be, these

people will choose to take a gap year. A gap year (the popular name for deferring from

your college in European countries) is a time where a high school graduate will take an

indefinite amount of time to do whatever they want before entering college. Deferring

from college admission is a wise course of action because it can alter one’s perspective in

a positive manner that can benefit the society as a whole.

A gap year can only be beneficial if one takes the right course of action before

said break. Three very popular routes to take during the break is volunteering for an

organization, work to raise more money for tuition, and/or a personal agenda to

accomplish. So how do these options actually benefit the society? In today’s culture,

education is a necessity. A post-secondary education is almost always needed for any

career nowadays. However, society does not need an intelligent individual. They need an

intelligent and driven individual. The rise of taking some sort of break before college

“…has been on the rise for the past fifteen to twenty years, rocketing from only a few in

the early 1990s” (Maslen & Tarica, 2012, para. 11). Furthermore, all Ivy League

Universities endorse gap year programs for interested students, and Princeton even

subsidizes these costs (O’Shea, 2014, para. 16-18). This suggests that by taking a break,

there is some sort of benefit that one can take from the experience and not just become a
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bum over the deferment time. More perspective people are needed in this world to

become more of an effective citizen.

An effective citizen in today’s culture has probably been raised up from

overcoming challenges. So when do we tend to develop maturity in our lives? We

develop most when our surroundings are radically opposite of our comfort zone and our

inner self is being tested. By volunteering for a nonprofit organization that is exactly

what is happening. An organization, such as Global Citizen Year, takes you to developing

countries to better serve the world. A few activities one might encounter includes

“…build[ing] houses, work[ing] with children, work[ing] on environmental projects, or a

host of other activities” (National Association for College Admission Counseling, 2014,

p.1). An individual can also broaden their understanding of how the world operates in an

environment much different from their own. Being in a new surrounding can teach a

person an independence and a level of self-confidence that cannot be taught in a

relatively safe environment. Catia Rizio said that by taking a gap year, she “…felt like

[she has] gained a better sense of the world than what [she] knew back home” after her

trip to Machu Picchu (Maslen & Tarica, 2012, para. 27).

Opponents of the whole gap year idea will say that these volunteering endeavors

can be expensive and they do not need to go outside of the country to reach maturity

level. However, with proper and detailed research, people can find thousands of

organizations out there that will finance all of their traveling expenses. Colleges or

universities (just like Princeton) can pay a fraction, if not the whole trip, for the allotted

time break. Also, reaching maturity does not need to involve going outside the country,

yes that is true. Despite this common knowledge, overcoming adversities and different
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situations unlike a protected environment, graduates are more likely to learn from the

many lessons thrown at them. Gap year takers are most likely to be innovative thinkers,

persistent, and better adaptive at things such as task and plan managements (Sparks,

2010, para. 3).

Others choose to work for more financial funds for tuition instead of volunteering.

Graduates choose this instead “[t]o avoid huge college debt, [because] there’s a trend to

work full-time and attend college part-time” (Bell & Michelau, 2001, p.1). Because of

this said trend, it takes a lot longer for a student to finish school because of financial

issues. According to Hannah Stevens, a gap year taker, she “earned enough [money] to

qualify for the youth allowance and set [herself] up for the first year to pay for rent and

textbooks… [because if she had not done this], [she] would not have been able to afford

[tuition] (Maslen & Tarica, 2014, para. 4). Any extra funds for college is a major plus

because college is highly expensive. According to an early October survey by

scholarship-search website, MeritAid.com, “…60 percent of 2,500 high school seniors

[considered] a less prestigious college for affordability reasons” (Khadaroo, 2008, para.

5). Another reason why some graduates choose this over volunteering is to gain

experience on what is it like to work in the real world. It teaches young adults to better

handle their expenses and not constantly ask their parents for money whenever they need

it.

However, people will disagree on taking an indefinite amount of time to work just

for financial issues. Some say it is unnecessary for students to pursue a full-time job to

pay for tuition when they can work part-time during college. Also, some students will not

go back to school once they can make money, which makes college worthless. In fact
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many students do take part-time jobs to help pay for their education, regardless if their

parents are aiding them or not. That fact is not hidden nor discarded. However, education

comes first. Many students who have part-time jobs require them to be at work on days

they need to study or make them work long and tiresome hours.

Likewise, college is not useless just because students are already earning wages.

By working part-time at low end jobs, these students will have more incentive to come

back to school and earn a higher degree to gain more money in the future. Although there

has not been an extensive amount of research done in America about deferment, many

places abroad, such as Australia, has. Nine out of ten students who do partake in

deferment return to college and their time off has led them to change or confirm their

academic major (Sparks, 2010, para. 11). Hannah Stevens also declared that when people

tried to change her mind about deferring from college because she might not want to

return to school, she said that “[she] always wanted to go to uni[versity]” (Maslen &

Tarica, 2012, para.2). Undergraduates will also benefit from the break due to the fact they

do not have to rethink their career choices. By taking the extra time to think about what

the students want to be when they grow up, they become a productive adult in the near

future.

Although there are legitimate reasons why people deter from the thought of taking

a year off before entering college, there are massive benefits a person can gain from the

whole experience. As in Hannah Steven’s and Catia Rizio’s experiences, they did not

waste their time. They gained more than what they gave up, such as going straight to

college. They got to explore the world and offer their services to better the whole

community or partake in raising more funds for their college needs. A structured plan or
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schedule for the break is definitely a must for it to be a reward. It also depends on the

individual’s motives to make it a worthwhile break. Whether or not an undergraduate will

volunteer or work during their time off, their experience will transform them to become

leaders for the world’s future, as Rhodes Scholarship Trust would say (O’Shea, 2014,

para. 15).

References

Bell, Julie D., and Michelau, Demaree K. (2001). Making college affordable. State

Legislatures Vol.27 no.9, 19-23. Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com

Khadaroo, S. T. (2008, October 23). Students eye cheaper colleges as crisis

deepens. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com

Maslen, Geoff, and Tarica, Elisabeth. (2008, September 18). Students leap into the gap

year. The Age. Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com

National Association for College Admission Counseling. (2014). Gap year. National

Association for College Admission Counseling. Retrieved from

http://www.nacacnet.org/studentinfo/articles/pages/gap-year-.aspx
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O’Shea, Joe. (2014, January 16). Don’t go to college next year. Inside Higher Ed.

Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/01/16/more-

students-should-take-gap-years-going-college-essay

Sparks, Sarah D. (2010, September 22). Research suggests that a ‘gap year’ motivates

students; studies tout the motivational power of time off after high school.

Education Week. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com