Is Taking a Gap Year Worth It?

After high school graduation, students face a pivotal decision: whether to dive straight into their college education or take a gap year to travel, take extra classes, or save money.

While taking a gap year before college or graduate school can be a transformative experience, one of the biggest concerns for students and parents alike is whether the benefits of taking a year off will outweigh delaying college. Let’s explore the pros and cons of taking a gap year to see if it’s the right choice for you.

• Gap year: Solo or group?
• Taking a Gap Year: Pros and Cons
• Pros of Taking a Gap Year
• Travel and see the world
• Gain new skills
• Make new friends and broaden your network
• Try new things and take new classes
• Mature and grow as a person
• Pushes you out of your comfort zone
• Looks good on college applications
• Real-world experience for your resume
• Cons of Taking a Gap Year
• Missing out on college life
• Falling Behind
• It can be expensive
• Can be unstructured and unproductive
• Lack of support
• Is a gap year the right choice for me?
• 1. I want to take a break from school to rest and recharge
• 2. I want to travel and see the world
• 3. I want to get real-life experience in a field before committing to a degree
• 4. I’m not sure what I want to study
• 5. I want to save money and gain work experience
• 6. I want to try something new and different
• 7. I want to work on my personal growth before college
• 8. I want to learn something new but don’t want to fall behind
• When should I not take a gap year?
• Making the most of your gap year

Gap year: Solo or group?

A common misconception about gap years is that students have to plan their own gap year. But that’s not the case: students can join gap year programs that include all the things they want to experience like international travel and learning new skills.

With the aid of a structured gap year program, you can have the classic gap year experience while still preparing yourself to achieve future goals.

Taking a Gap Year: Pros and Cons

If you’re considering taking a gap year before starting college, here is some gap year advice to help you make an informed decision.

Pros of Taking a Gap Year

First, let’s look into all the benefits of taking a gap year after your senior year of high school.

Travel and see the world

One of the biggest reasons young adults opt to take a gap year is the opportunity to travel, which is a central part of many gap year programs. After years of traditional schooling, you finally have the chance to set off on your own adventures, either solo or with friends. At the end of the year, you walk away with increased cultural awareness, a better knack for problem-solving, and a lifetime of memories. You may even learn a new foreign language!

Gain new skills

TTaking a gap year gives you valuable new skills like self-confidence, independence, resourcefulness, organization, and leadership skills. Not only do these skills make you a more well-rounded and self-aware person, but they also stand out on resumes. You can also tailor your gap year to gain experience in specific areas, like sailing with Sea|mester and learn how to handle and operate a ship, navigate the open ocean, or become a PADI-certified scuba diver.

Make new friends and broaden your network

Gap year programs broaden your worldview by connecting you with new people from different walks of life or other parts of the world. Sharing new, exciting experiences and growing together as young adults, the friends you make during a gap year can be friends for life. They may also prove to be valuable connections in the future as you embark on your career track, giving you connections at different companies and organizations.

Kirstyn Guevara, who joined our 80-day Fiji to Bali voyage described the Sea|mester experience saying, “I wanted to be more with a smaller group in a community and I think that’s something Sea|mester did well. I got to see it was kind of like a little family.

Try new things and take new classes

Just because you’re taking a break from traditional education doesn’t mean you have to stop learning. Whether you want to get a head-start on your planned college major by taking accredited courses or try something new, taking classes or participating in extracurricular activities can help support your education goals during your gap year.

Mature and grow as a person

Seeing the world, challenging yourself with new life experiences, gaining new skills: all these things aid in personal growth and help you mature into a well-rounded individual.

Pushes you out of your comfort zone

For many students, a gap year is their first foray into the world outside school. Pushing your boundaries and challenging yourself to step outside your comfort zone helps you learn and grow, expanding your horizons in new and unexpected ways like Kirstyn Guevara did. Growing up in rural Texas, Kirstyn didn’t have much experience spending time in or around the ocean before her 80-day sailing voyage with Sea|mester. Entering a new, unfamiliar environment, she expanded her horizons during her time at sea, growing both personally and academically.

Looks good on college applications

A productive gap year can really stand out on college applications, demonstrating ambition, motivation, discipline, planning, and other life skills that many colleges look for in applicants. Joe O’Shea, Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Florida State University, says that more colleges are supportive of productive gap years, as the students that then matriculate are more motivated, excited to learn, and have better academic performance. Many colleges, like Harvard, also actively encourage admitted students to take a gap year so they can travel or pursue special projects.

Real-world experience for your resume

Looking further down the road post-college to the start of your career path, the skills and real-world experiences you gain during a gap year can make your resume stand out. Studies have also found that having international experience on your resume, like a gap year or studying abroad, translates to better job opportunities and increased earnings.

Cons of Taking a Gap Year

While there are many benefits to the gap year track, there are some potential drawbacks to consider.

Missing out on college life

Taking a year off from school while all your friends start college can make you feel left out and isolated as you watch your peers share those rites of passage without you.

Falling behind

It can be natural to feel like you’re “losing time” in a gap year, whether it’s losing academic momentum or falling behind on your career path. But just because you’re on a different path doesn’t mean you won’t achieve your goals.

It can be expensive

From travel costs to program fees, gap years can be pricey. But so is college. Advanced degrees prepare you for life and work, which is why high college costs are considered a worthwhile tradeoff. The same is true for gap year programs: you’re gaining skills and experiences to help you thrive in the real world. To help make this accessible to more students, financial aid is a core part of many gap year organizations.

Can be unstructured and unproductive

Leaving school and the structure it gives to your life can be a jarring experience, which is why wasting time on an unstructured gap year is a valid concern. Taking part in a program helps keep you applied, productive, and working towards goals while also having fun.

Lack of support

Taking a gap year is an unconventional choice and not everyone in your life may be supportive. Family members, advisors, and admissions officers may question the decision and make you doubt yourself, especially if they don’t understand what you’re getting out of this experience

Is a gap year the right choice for me?

If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should take a gap year before you start college, consider the following scenarios. If any of them feel familiar, you may benefit from taking a gap year.

1. I want to take a break from school to rest and recharge

High school can be a busy and stressful time. Between classes, homework, extracurricular activities, and other responsibilities, it’s normal to feel a bit burned out and tired come high school graduation. Realizing you need to take a break before college for your mental and physical health is a good instinct.

You want to go into your college career feeling your best, so a gap year can help you rest, recover, and reevaluate your goals and priorities. But at the same time, you don’t want to spend the whole time sitting around doing nothing. If you need a mental break, balance the time off from school with other things that you’re curious or passionate about.

2. I want to travel and see the world

You’ve spent years sitting in classrooms and are now getting ready to embark on more years of schooling. A gap year is a prime time to explore and see the world before starting college. You don’t have to worry about the responsibilities of school and maintaining your academic performance; you can simply enjoy the experience.

Visit different countries, immerse yourself in other cultures, make new friends, learn new languages, and grow as a person. Traveling teaches you many valuable life skills as well like communication skills, cultural sensitivity, and problem-solving, which will come in handy in both college life and embarking on your career path.

3. I want to get real-life experience in a field before committing to a degree

Choosing and committing to a college degree is a big step. It’s natural to feel some trepidation around whether you’re making the right choice or not. If there’s a field or job you’re interested in but you want to see if you actually like it before getting a degree, you can use a gap year to do so. Apply for an internship in that field or join a gap year program that specializes in that area to get some hands-on experience and exposure.

4. I’m not sure what I want to study

Some students head into college knowing exactly what they want to study, while others aren’t sure. If you’re one of the ones who isn’t sure, you can take a gap year to explore some different options. Take classes in different fields that interest or intrigue you, travel, volunteer, work different jobs…there are many different ways to see what’s out there during a gap year.

5. I want to save money and gain work experience

Even with financial aid, college is expensive. Getting a quality education is always a good investment in your future, but if you want to save money toward attending college, you can use your gap year to work and build up your savings. Being a student is a full-time job and it’s nice to have extra money socked away for rainy days. You can also save for things besides college, like traveling, and it’ll help boost your resume. It’s also important to remember that even if you want to take a gap year to work and save money, you can also balance that with fun experiences.

6. I want to try something new and different

Gap years are often bookended by high school and college, meaning you’re going straight from one type of school to another. Maybe you feel like you want to do something unconventional and out-of-the-ordinary in between. With gap year experiences like sailing programs, volunteering or working abroad, or traveling, you open yourself up to new life experiences that can help you discover new passions and lead you down new and exciting paths in life. Stepping outside your comfort zone and trying out extraordinary experiences are great ways to broaden your horizons, and gap years are a prime time to do so.

7. I want to work on my personal growth before college

For many young adults, college is a first foray into independence. It’s a big transition from living at home, which is why a gap year can be a good stepping stone. Through travel, taking part in gap year programs, volunteering, or working, you take your first steps toward independence and creating a life away from home. It’s also natural to feel homesick once you go away for college, and gap years can help you get accustomed to that in bits and pieces, like taking a three-month gap year program at sea or traveling around the world.

8. I want to learn something new but don’t want to fall behind

If you want a break from traditional school but still want to maintain your academic momentum, you can join an educational gap year program. These programs, which last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, often combine classes and travel into experiential, hands-on learning opportunities, helping you learn and master skills outside of the classroom. Many programs, like Seamester’s sailing programs, also offer accredited, officially-recognized courses that can count toward college credits. These types of practical learning programs are a great way to have a productive gap year and not feel like you’re falling behind in school.

When should I not take a gap year?

As you read above, there are lots of great reasons to take a gap year, from giving yourself a mental health break to getting hands-on learning experiences. And those scenarios aren’t exhaustive; there may be other reasons you want or need to take a gap year.

But the important thing is that you’ve been thoughtful and thorough in planning out your own gap year. If you’re just bored and want to take a year off without doing anything, then taking a gap year may not be the best choice. You can lose momentum and motivation, which can impact your college and career prospects. It’s ok to take time off from school, as long as you have a plan in place and goals in mind to help guide you.

Making the most of your gap year

As you can see, there are many benefits to taking a gap year, and most of the cons can be avoided with proper planning.