Are you the type of student that is currently experiencing senioritis? The crippling problem that causes your motivation to dwindle and excitement to wane?. You are not alone, millions of students such as yourself find themselves in this repetitive cycle of not being aware of what they want to pursue, which academic disciplines they see themselves diving into for their college years, and the general foreboding of life itself. The gap year might be the perfect solution for you. A gap year is generally defined as a period before the commencement of your college career where you take time off from the hustling and bustling nature of academics and explore the world, work, volunteer, intern, learn languages, etc. all to build experiences that give you better insight into who you are as a person. In essence, a gap year occurs when a student is interested in truly uncovering their identity, likes, and dislikes and find a desire they are willing to expend hard work to transgress it into a passion. There are multiple benefits associated with undertaking a gap year such as becoming more employable, prevention of academic burnout, cultivating various soft skills, achieving language fluency/proficiency, and, it is supportive of performing better academically.
Employability
Students would anticipate the presence of a gap year would hinder their competitiveness of being employed, however, your level of employability or market value is directly proportional to how you promote yourself and your experiences – items a gap year can directly positively address. For instance, volunteering for the red cross or the local NGO or undertaking an internship that develops your work experience all feed your understanding of how the real-world functions. Developing a multitude of pragmatic skills through real-life experiences enhances your resume which makes you a favorable candidate for employment.
Prevention of Academic Burnout:
The American education system requires us to be in schooling for 10+ years, establishing a gap year can be fruitful in helping students avoid premature academic burnout. To inhibit the possibility of academic burnout, undertaking activities such as the ones listed on your bucket list or exploring various cultures of what the world has to offer would be highly advantageous. The newer and more globalized perspectives you would be able to introduce would enable you to become an open-minded learner and student of life.
Cultivating Soft Skills:
The true method of how people grow and become future leaders is by fostering balanced growth of both technical and soft skills. A gap year can be a period that could highly advance your soft skills such as communication, adaptability, teamwork, time-management, self-management, organization, emotional intelligence, and many more. The greatest benefit in fostering such skills is the nature of their applicability to all realms in your life.
Achieving language diversity:
In 2017, the Puerto Rico report recorded that only 20% of Americans are bilingual or multilingual to a proficient level. In order to not be a member of the 80%, a gap year can be highly advantageous. A year is more than sufficient to bolster your capacity in communicating in another language with heightened fluency. The knowledge of speaking another language boosts your brainpower, enables you to communicate effectively with a larger target audience, and makes you more employable. The ability to learn and identify another language is a key trait in immersing yourself in the traditions and customs various cultures have to offer. This enhances your global perspectives as you become more open-minded about different notions and ideologies.
Enhanced Academic Capabilities:
Recent studies showcase that taking a gap year can be highly instrumental to your overall academic performance. According to the TIME news source, Robert Clagett who served as the senior admissions at Harvard detected that students who delay a year of their college studies are reported to obtain 0.15-0.2 points higher on the 4.0 GPA scale than as previously expected for the student’s academic capabilities. Newer studies also suggest that students would not have to focus on undertaking an action whether it would be a highlight for their college application resume but would be able to focus on their passions and uphold an activity for the sake of their love in it.
Aspects to be considered:
With the presence of a plethora of benefits associated with a gap year, it is not without risk – so we must also highlight a few cons which may hinder a student’s growth partaking in a gap year. Firstly, you may lose momentum. For students who relentlessly have been developing various technical skills, a gap year can cause a standstill in that growth. Also, a productive gap year that consists of traveling, seeing new sights, and experiencing various cultures can be quite expensive and cumbersome to plan and manage. Since your college career will be looming ahead, the gap year can withdraw a chunk of money that you intended to spend on your college. Evaluating the pros and cons of a gap year and meticulously planning to ensure you adhere to your designed budget is key to diminish the financial burden you would experience on your journey.
To wrap up
A gap year poses multiple pros and cons. However, it is evident that the pros severely outweigh the drawbacks – presuming you tackle the decision with open eyes. If you are a student who feels lost and unmotivated, who is confused at what their future holds and feels stagnant, then a gap year may be the best solution for you. A gap year can be the very aspect that enables you to successfully transition into adulthood. A gap year can facilitate concretely forming your short-term and long-term goals and give you the necessary mental relaxation from the bustling nature of being a student. It allows you to re-route your perception of life, your likes, and dislikes and gives you a more informed opinion about where you see yourself in a decade. You can finally be a free bird, live uncaged from the academic expectations and regularities society propels onto you.
About Spotivity
Be #neverbored again by using the spotivity app and find activities that fit your needs. We help you find programing that can lead to your passion. Whether that is an art program to practice graffiti, a sports program to engage in competition, an education support class to improve your grades, or just finding someone to talk to – spotivity has your back. Backed by research and continually informed by users, spotivity is the tool to help you unlock your world and expand the list of options you can take advantage of.
