Gap Year News Articles

Gap Years "expected to increase in the U.S. over the next decade"

14 Jul 2010

As many of the USA's top universities, such as Harvard and Yale, embrace the concept of the gap year, it is expected that the option to take a year out before university will gain popularity over the next decade, catching up with trends in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. This is the view of Hannah Bookbinder, an American college-admissions consultant, writing a recent article for Main Line Media News.

The article looks at how the idea of the gap year began in the 1960s, as governments discussed "a formal youth exchange program in an effort to provide the next generation with a cultural global understanding while simultaneously decreasing the chances of a third world war." It also notes that British Baby Boomers took the first gap years, as they travelled to India, following the Hippie Trails.

Bookbinder identifies the great variety of gap year programmes on offer, stating that: "The options are seemingly limitless when it comes to choosing what one will do over the course of the year," and she mentions the options to work, volunteer, take part in community service projects and immerse yourself "in a country's culture and language." With the programmes already in place around the world and College Board statistics being "indicative of the merits of a gap year" (in that many students are able to focus better after a year out), the concept now seems more than likely to gain popularity in the United States.

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