Invaluable Time

Three years ago, while Lauren Clark's classmates were filling out college applications, the 18-year-old senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, was making her own plans. Instead of enrolling in college right away, Lauren opted to take time off. The following year, when her peers were freshmen, Lauren flew to Ghana for three months to teach English and math to schoolchildren and help build a one-room library. After spending the winter holidays at home, Lauren left again for a three-month trip to Italy where she studied Renaissance art. The time away, she says, was invaluable.

"I know it helped me get into the college I wanted," says Lauren, now a 21-year-old sophomore at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. "I got personal letters from admission officers about the work I had done." Her experience prepared her to enter college with a confidence and self-assurance normally lacking in college freshmen. And, she says, it helped shape her future. "I'm double majoring in international relations and economics. My traveling taught me a lot. There's a lot going on outside the U.S. that I want to be involved in."

In Europe, taking a "gap year" is a common practice. Instead of heading straight to college after graduation, students take a year-long sabbatical that allows them to travel, explore special interests, volunteer, work a job, or perform community service. In the United States as well as in Canada, the idea is steadily catching on as students, before, during, and after college graduation, find they need time to recharge their batteries before entering the next phase of their lives.

"Colleges find that students who have made this choice are more mature when they arrive on campus," says Judy Hingle, director of professional development for the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Alexandria, Virginia.