Gap years on rise for incoming college students

Malia Obama plans to take gap year before attending Harvard

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Taking a "gap year," as President Barack Obama's eldest daughter, Malia, intends to do, is becoming a trend among local students.

A gap year is when a student takes a year off before attending undergraduate or graduate school to explore different interests or study abroad.

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The White House announced that Malia Obama will attend Harvard after her gap year.

Counselors at Jacksonville University said a gap year is not for everyone, but if it's done right, it won't hurt but only help a student's college experience.

“They have higher GPAs, they're more involved with campus involvement when they come back, and they're more mature and have more of a self-confidence and self-awareness,” JU admissions director Allana Forte said of gap year students.

After 13 years of elementary, middle and high school, some young adults want a year of learning outside of the classroom before continuing their education. During a gap year, students traditionally either travel abroad, volunteer or study other cultures or career programs.

Forte said taking a gap year is a growing trend, but the percentage of students varies from school to school.

About 1 percent of JU's students take a gap year, but at Harvard that number is about 20 percent.

"It's typically a more affluent student, so there's more economic resources to fund that year,” Forte said. “Schools do not typically provide money to cover the gap year expenses."

Statistics show gap years are more common for graduate students, like Will Baxley, who said he didn’t even know it was an option until he was already in college.

"I wish I would have known about it, because they got to go and travel and see some amazing things that influenced their decisions thereafter,” Baxley said.

He graduated from JU after studying music, then spent some time as a Presidential Fellow at Jacksonville University.

"I wasn't totally satisfied with that being my whole identity or my whole career, so I was wanting to get some diverse experiences, see different areas of the professional world,” Baxley said.

Before he goes to law school, Baxley is taking a Gap Year to study human rights law in Uganda through an internship program.

"(I'm) hoping to utilize this experience as some leverage for getting into better programs,” Baxley said.

Students considering taking a gap year, should keep up communication with the counselors at the college they plan to attend to help secure scholarship money and their spots at the college, officials said.

Many colleges require students to provide documentation or even a separate application pertaining to what they're going to do during their gap year. 

For more information about gap years, visit the American Gap Association website.