Gap Year Advantages

The Gap-Year “Princeton encourages it. Harvard is a big fan. From Tufts to MIT, some of the most prestigious universities in the nation are urging students to consider something that would make most parents cringe: The idea of putting off college for a year in favor of some much-needed downtime” (Wood 1). A Gap Year is a year taken off from academics and is mainly used to do things such as travel, work, or volunteer. Parents and students, burnout on school is common and overwhelming. Taking a gap year can re-ignite the spark for learning. Thirty percent of college freshman don’t return back for their sophomore year (Wood 6). No parent wants to see their child drop out of college without a degree. Even worse “according to the College Board, three out of five students who enter a public four-year college do not manage to snag a degree within five years” (Wood 6). Saving money and time can be very valuable to the rest of your life. The Gap-Year should be considered by all graduating seniors because it gives them a chance to learn a language, get a better idea of what they are interested in, employers highly value certain Gap Years, and students are able to mature and grow. Some colleges, students, parents, teachers, and employers say that the Gap Year is a waste of time. People say that money can be a big issue for a gap year and traveling can be very expensive (Ling 3). One of the counterarguments against a Gap Year is that you won’t have the motivation to return back to school (Ling 4).
One of the benefits of taking a Gap Year is the chance to travel and learn a language. Acquiring a second language has been proven to be easier at a younger age (Sims-Austin 1). “Learning new words becomes progressively harder until, as adults, it is exceedingly difficult” (Bunnell 5). I have been learning to speak Spanish since I was about 7 and I notice that it has gotten hard the older I have gotten. Even though I am more mature and I can handle more homework,