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Value of the Gap Year in the College Admissions Process
- 1. WHY TINA FEY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN A GAP YEAR The Value of a Gap Year in the College Admissions Process Presented at IECA: San Diego, CA, November 15, 2013 Susie Rinehart Director, Where There Be Dragons susie@wheretherebedragons.com
- 2. Bold explorers who traveled beyond the familiar were said to go Where There Be Dragons Ages 14-22: summer gap year semester study abroad all programs include: language immersion, home-stays, mentorship, wilderness exploration, learning service, culture & development studies susie@wheretherebedragons.com
- 3. Right now, 124 students are with Dragons on a Gap Semester in Senegal, Nepal, India, in the Andes & Amazon, Central America, China, Indonesia, and the Middle East.
- 4. In the recent movie, Admission, Tina Fey stars as a straight-laced Princeton admissions officer. Our culture views university as a place to “get in to” Or just a stop on the “cradle-to-college-tocubicle-to-cemetery” cycle.
- 5. Increase in Gap Year Interest – USA Gap Year Fairs & Enrollment
- 6. Why the Increase? • Increasing pressure from admissions process • Increasing recognition by students of benefits of taking time “off” (but it’s really time “on”!) • Maturity, focus, drive, etc. • Academic benefits • Career benefits • Increasing recognition of benefits by colleges • Important caveat: have students put the college admissions process behind them before doing a gap year and defer
- 7. Data from IECA • Mark Sklarow, CEO of IECA, sent out survey • 20% of consultants included “Gap Year” on first college list as conversation starter • Of those 20% of consultants who included it, HALF the students ended up taking a Gap Year • Take Away: put “Gap Year” on students’ first college list to at least have the conversation
- 12. Top Two Reasons Given Why Students Take Gap Years 1. Burnout from the competitive pressure of high school 2. A desire "to find out more about themselves” [Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson, independent study of 280 Gap Year students co-authors of a forthcoming guidebook on the topic. [http://online.wsj.com]
- 13. The three highest rated outcomes of the Gap Year I gained… 1. “A better sense of who I am as a person and what is important to me” 2. “A better understanding of other countries, people, cultures, and ways of living" 3. “Additional skills and knowledge that contributed to my career or academic major." [Haigler & Nelson, independent study of 280 Gap Year students]
- 14. Where Can I Find Out About Gap Year Options? • • • • • USA Gap Year Fairs – www.usagapyearfairs.org American Gap Association www.americangap.org Gap Year Advantage by Karl Haigler & Rae Nelson The Complete Guide to the Gap Year by Kristin White ... Be wary of pay-for-space websites like gapyear.com
- 15. What is the AGA? • Non-profit Association • Accreditation of Gap Year organizations. Not individuals nor individual programs • Data collection hub and reporting • Resources for Students & Parents to: • Find good organizations • Construct their own Gap Year • Financial Aid options & advocacy
- 16. Top reasons given NOT to take a Gap Year: Not ready Can’t pay for it Won’t go back to University FOMO: the Fear Of Missing Out
- 17. Reasons TO DO a Gap Year: • • • Find out your passions 40% of university students are taking 5-6 years to graduate. Gap Year students go to college and outperform peers Gap Year graduates say they were surprised at how little they missed
- 18. Recent Research (Clagett, Middlebury College, UNC, and Harvard) Demonstrates That Gap Year Students: • • • Graduate on time, with higher GPAs Are more focused Have a clearer sense of who they are
- 19. How Do Gap Year Students Perform in College Afterwards? • Myth: • Lose academic momentum, drop out of college at higher rates, etc. • Reality: • On average, perform at higher levels than those who don’t take a gap year
- 20. Results at Middlebury College
- 22. Results at UNC Chapel Hill Average Overall GPAs of Gap Year vs. Non Gap Year Students - UNC 3.65 n=23 3.60 3.55 n=21 n=22 n=18 n=19 3.50 n=20 3.45 3.40 n=14 n=15 n=25 n=19 n=13 n=19 3.35 n=17 3.30 3.25 3.20 n=3,82 n=3,68 8 3.15 n=3,59 1 n=3,39 6 n=3,78 7 n=3,55 7 n=3,65 5 n=3,35 2 n=3,89 9 n=3,74 2 n=3,64 7 n=3,89 4 n=3,76 5 3.10 FYGPA SOGPA JRGPA 2011 SRGPA FYGPA SOGPA JRGPA SRPGA FYGPA 2012 Gap Year Students SOGPA 2013 Non-Gap Year Students JRGPA FYGPA SOGPA 2014
- 24. Why do a Gap Year When They Can Study Abroad? Better prepared for real challenges & college choices Real immersion, not just college classes in another country
- 25. Finding the right match: Comparing & Assessing Gap programs 1. What are the student’s personal goals? 2. Safety 3. Access to rich experiences 4. Quality of mentorship
- 26. Safety Not just the way a program responds to an incident but a mindset that permeates every aspect of programming • • • What risk management & communication systems are in place? Is there an evacuation policy and plan? A critical incident protocol? How will families be informed of students’ health & safety?
- 27. Access The difference between looking out a bus window and being INVOLVED in the community • • • Will they have a tourist experience or a local experience? What are the language skills and on-the-ground knowledge of instructors? Will they have opportunities for mentorship with local musicians, artists, journalist s, businesses? Service organizations?
- 28. Mentorship Instructors cultivating the best in students • What experience & training are instructors bringing to the program? • What kind of training and professional development do instructors receive? • How long has the organization worked with the community?
- 29. Gap Programs are now encouraged by top academic institutions Harvard, Princeton, University of North Carolina Princeton’s Bridge Year Program awards scholarships
- 30. My advice to Tina: Take a Gap Year In the movie, Tina Fey has a midlife awakening when she finally realizes that she wants to belong somewhere, not just get in somewhere.
- 31. Connection
Editor's Notes
- Grace in pular village in Senegal. Grace comes from the most sheltered and structured generation in US history. She is used to a full schedule each day, and the ability to express herself freely. But she also comes from a generation that is afraid of expressing who she truly is, for fear of being average. Tom Friedman says average is over. So high school students have to be uniquely above average. But this is a logical impossibility—they can’t ALL be above average. And you have to be innovative and creative because companies are only hiring is they absolutely have to.
- So a student like Grace might internalize that message like this: I better be exceptional, perfect. And when I look around at school and see others who are far more worthy of the exceptional tag than I am, I give up, eat a sandwich, and zone out on facebook. But in Senegal—no facebook—not even a sandwich.
- How do we help students express their true selves in a world where average is over?
- Especially if the world needs people who like to figure stuff out where there is no obvious answer. And especially if the academic world they’ve been in is mostly about figuring out what the teacher wants and giving him or her that. The answer lies in a question: What do I love as this student in the center? Connection. And we, as educators don’t know of a better way for students to learn to be brave in the face of the unknown, to be resilient, and to connect deeply with someone who is different from them by first connecting with themselves than by getting far outside their comfort zone into a place where they have to be creative and innovative to succeed!
- I could say that taking a gap year will ultimately reduce the cost of college because you're more likely to finish within four years, and the average graduation time these days is five years. But the chances are that if you're considering a Gap Year, then graduating in four years for your student is likely the expectation. That being said, students who go directly on to college now have to face the prospect of not only finding what they want to do for the rest of their lives, but more importantly identifying WHO they are. A Gap Year, however, is largely positioned developmentally to find out who you are and THEN find out what you want to do with the rest of your life. I often say that students who take a Gap Year make the most of their four years of college education. However, those who go directly onto college I will contend spend 2 1/2 to maybe 3 years actually learning within the context of their four-year degree. I think you all can guess what happens to the other year to year and a half. Data is showing that Gap Years propel students to be more satisfied with their careers and in my opinion, the reason for this is that students are taking time to reflect about their previous 18 to 20 years, BEFORE making a decision about the rest of their life.
- students who have taken a gap year between high school and college not only have, on average, higher college GPAs than those who don’t, they actually have a higher GPA than would have been predicted, based on their high school academic credentials. At Middlebury College in Vermont and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, for example, undergraduates who had taken a gap year before enrolling in college had, on average, a GPA .1-.4 higher than would have been expected.
- several studies showing that students who take a gap year end up doing better than their non-gap year classmates. At Middlebury College in Vermont, for example, this was true even when controlling for the academic credentials that gap year students brought with them from their high schools. On average, those students have shown a clear pattern of having higher G.P.A.’s than would otherwise have been predicted, and the positive effect lasts over all four years.
- In fact, most do both! 70% of Gap Year students go on to do a Study Abroad which tells me that the experience is sound - so much so that they're clambering to do more of it. But, a Gap Year addresses a different need than a Study Abroad. Gap Years are done at a specific developmental stage - one in which big decisions are being made: identity questions, career questions, even which college they want to go to, but this is typically also when students are asking what "success" means to THEM as opposed to what their culture has dictated it to be. Typically students will choose their college - and its costs - based on what they THINK they want for their major and a Gap Year gives them an opportunity to experiment with possible fields of study. Perhaps one of the most root issues here is that students who take a Gap Year are fundamentally going to be better prepared for college having first experienced a larger world with real consequences. While a Study Abroad is also a fantastic experience, it's not an opportunity to explore possible careers but instead usually takes the form of four-walls-and-a-classroom learning ... just in another country. Finally, many students end up emerging from their Gap Year not only with a clearer direction for their studies - re-charged and ready to go - but many change their university-choice based on their experiences on their Gap Year.
- Career exploration / academic recharge?Earn money for college?Community service / volunteer work?Understand global issues & cultures better?“See the world”?Develop independence and self awareness?
- “My family knows nothing of Grace, of Seattle, of Reed College or of my life at home. And I also, am eternally ignorant of much of their lives. But what we do know of each other is worth more than I ever recognized. We know of the effort made to communicate, the laughter shared at awkward moments, the sound of chewing, the look of bleary, morning eyes, the smell and feel of our different bodies, the emptiness of our silence together. I am realizing that this is all my family needs to know about me. My life here may be stripped of context but I have been given the freedom to be simply, beautiful human. I am grateful to Nene Balde, (my home-stay mom) for my week of freedom.”Dragons programs are about connection: connecting students to the self and to their home-stay mother in Senegal and to recognize the impact their choices make on their families on all sides of the world.