Should you consider a Coronavirus Gap Year?
Students born in 2002 are facing TWO WHAMMIES this year. First, they’re graduating high school without the pomp and circumstance that every senior class since WWII has celebrated. You know the senior prom, graduation day, and grad parties. Second, they may miss out on the freshman experience this fall. Colleges don’t know if they’ll open their campuses or if they’ll conduct online classes like they did this spring semester. So what’s a high school grad to do? GAP YEAR!
Taking a traditional gap year may be the only option that grads can take if they want to have some sort of control over their future. Many colleges offer gap years to allow students to postpone their start date by one or two semesters and start the following year without having to reapply.
By delaying their matriculation to college, they won’t be at the mercy of the college or university’s decision to offer online, on campus, or some sort of hybrid instruction this fall. It takes the uncertainty away and puts the student in the driver’s seat. Parents love this because they won’t have to pay tuition or room/board during this turbulent time.
Other gap year options include doing independent research or projects, taking community college classes or doing structured programs that the college/university offers. Unfortunately with the coronavirus, students won’t be spending time travelling abroad as they have in previous years. Taking any kind of gap year will require working with your college’s advisors to navigate the newly emerging programs that every college is frantically organizing.
Talk to your advisor at your college to discuss options that work for you. Taking a gap year can be a double win: You get to choose what you’ll do this year and you get to have your freshman experience next year — presuming we get the coronavirus under control by then.