Taking a Year Off Before College?

An anonymous reader asks: "I am a high school senior this year and I have been considering a year off before college. Is this a wise move? If you took a year off, were you still able to get into the school you wanted? I have been asking around and everyone tells me it is a horrible move; however, the people who say this are the ones who did not take a year off."

Comments

A professor's perspective....

[philosophyandrew]

The central question is: are you ready to go to college next year or not? If you are not ready -- because you don't realy want to go, because you don't have the academic skills or motivation necessary to do well, etc. -- then the worst thing to do is to go. In that case, you waste time and money and squander the precious opportunity to secure strong educational outcomes for yourself.

So, from my perspective as a college teacher the opportunity to do it right is too precious to waste. As long as you use your time off to become better prepared to succeed, to get a clearer sense of why you want to go to college and want you want to achieve, or to have interesting and enriching life experiences then educationally taking a year off is well worth it, and it will be recognized as such by nearly anyone within higher education.

One of the other things to consider

[mhesseltine]

My understanding is that, most of the time, if you are a college student full time, you can stay on your parent's insurance program. Depending on your work/living situation, this may be beneficial.