Time out, or Burn out!

For soon-to-be college freshman, what options are available to remedy the crisis of academic burnout, overwhelming stress and the uneasy feeling that maybe I’m just not ready to start college? For some, the solution is found in taking a break called a “gap year.”

Deferring college entrance for a year is a tradition that has been well established in both Europe and Australia. In the United States the idea of a gap year is just starting to catch on.  American students are beginning to realize the benefits of taking a year off before shouldering more stress and the heavy workload of college.

High school, for most students, is a tenuous, stress-ridden journey --- a rat race amongst America’s youth, all striving for that coveted place in the “right” college of their dreams.

Reports show that the chase for prized admissions starts earlier and earlier in children’s lives. Childhood is scripted for a hopeful future of “success” with academic and extracurricular activities often based on the direction of hired outside tutors, counselors, and consultants.  Admissions to selective pre-K, Kindergarten and grammar schools are proving to be statistically more difficult to gain entrance to than Harvard.

Senior Omeed Ansari commented, “Senior year is the cumulation of a lot of hard work, but our final year of high school isn’t a cakewalk, college admissions are stressful down to the wire, only then do people really feel like they can relax.”

Continuous high levels of pressure and stress at an early age are taking their toll. High school students endure late nights often walking around in a fog of exhaustion trying to focus on their required tasks or preparing for the next big exam.

Sadly, some teens turn to binge drinking, drug use, abuse of prescription psychiatric medication and other self-destructive behaviors in an attempt to deal with their adult levels of stress and uncertainty in their teenage years.

A recent study reported in the New York Times reveals that, “The emotional health of college freshmen, who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school, has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago.”

After understanding what a gap year was, Jordan Kiss, a junior,  seemed enthused about embarking on one, “I’d love to take a gap year, it would be awesome to have a year off and just refocus for college.”

A gap year can be a time to recharge between the life stages of high school and college. The goal is to remove yourself from the regular routines and pressures of academic life and engage in something completely different such as getting a job, pursuing a personal passion of music or the arts, traveling, working, volunteering, or living abroad.  

Admission officers from highly selective colleges including Harvard, Princeton, the University of North Carolina and Middlebury have come out strongly in favor of this approach, citing a year off as contributing significantly to their students’ overall college success.  

Bob Clagett, a former director of admissions at Middlebury College, says taking a gap year can help students gain a renewed focus on academics. “By stepping off the treadmill, they frequently remind themselves of what their education is all about,” he says. “They kind of reinvent themselves.”

A Gap year does not have to be an expensive year of travel and leisure, as long as it benefits the student in the long run and extends their academic success.