Find a college you want to go to, apply to it, and hopefully get accepted. That is the normal process which every high school senior goes through. In Europe, many take a year off before going to college, they call it a gap year. A student takes a year off and uses that time to save money, travel, or volunteer. If done right, they will have a year of new experiences and a welcomed break for all students.

Those against the gap year think it is a year to goof off. Also, after a year away from school it will be a waste of the student’s time. Teenagers fresh out of high school will not want to return to traditional schooling. Even if they did return to the routine of school, the knowledge they accumulated will be fuzzy from not studying for a year. It has also been seen that it hurts students choosing to do this when all their friends and classmates have chosen and go off to college. Unless you plan and make full use of a gap year it is just wasted. That is why most parents and counselors try to talk students out of it and make it perfectly clear that a gap year is to find out what they want to do in college and gain experience outside the realm of schooling not a time to stay on the couch, surfing the internet.

Those who take a break from school for traveling or volunteering to explore will be more mature when they go to college, and will be able to engage more in their studies. Even now colleges like Princeton and the University of North Carolina give out scholarships to those taking a gap year, Harvard has already been encouraging this practice for many years. Organizations to support those to make of the most of their gap year are also around. USA Gap Fairs and the American Gap Association are a couple well known ones. It is a great time to explore life outside the road of schooling and something that everyone should at least think about.

Not all high school students are ready to go to college right out of high school. Students who have to pay for college want to get a degree that will be useful in the future, but they also want to study for a job they would enjoy. A gap year needs to be geared towards finding things you enjoy, gaining experience and knowledge that can only be found first hand. This is hard to do when you are focusing on studies and working to pay thousands of dollars for schooling. Some of the most important things you will learn will be outside the world of education. The outside world is where you put the knowledge you’ve learned to use.