With colleges shuttered, more students consider gap years - but those may be disrupted, too

By ITS Education Asia

ChalkFace has been reporting on efforts around the globe by universities to re-open. The Corona virus closures have also led to many students considering taking a gap year and waiting for things to return to normal. This article from the Washington Post is discussing how the Corona virus is also impacting the ability of students to take a ‘traditional’ gap year.

Parra Jordan, like thousands of students across the country, is thinking about taking a gap year. “I can’t make myself go to college right now,” she said.

On Tuesday — the day Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert, warned on Capitol Hill that reopening the country too soon could lead to suffering and death — California State University, the country’s largest four-year public university system, canceled most in-person classes for the fall. The decision, which will affect close to half a million students, was closely watched amid growing uncertainty about the traditional rituals of college life.

It’s against that backdrop that an unusually high number of students are questioning their fall college plans. About one in five current students is unsure of plans to re-enroll or has decided not to go to college this fall, according to a national survey commissioned by the American Council on Education and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Colleges are usually happy to let students take a year off, Hartle said, with evidence suggesting that time off is often valuable for students. But that’s in a typical year, when the number of requests is low and administrators can predict how many students will enroll in the fall. This year, he said, “the concern is what happens if 20 percent of your students request a gap year?”

Typical gap years include travel, volunteer work, paid work, some career exploration and “a free radical,” said Ethan Knight, executive director of the Gap Year Association. “Don’t over-structure your time — leave a little space for the unknown.”

But this year, international travel and hands-on volunteer work seem unlikely, and good jobs will be harder than ever to find, said Emmi Harward, executive director of the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools.

So students are left with the question of what to do? Taking a gap year seems a lot less attractive if all it means is sitting around the parents’ house and doing nothing. 

 

 

 

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