After a huge spike in Gap Year deferrals during the early part of COVID-19 to avoid online learning and campus lockdowns, Gap Year numbers appear to have settled back to their pre-COVID levels.
Jonathan Kyed is 21 years old and on his second Gap Year. He’s also from Denmark, where a remarkable 80% of students take a Gap Year after high school.
Is the most recent change in focus for Gap Year students a sign of things to come in higher ed? Perhaps. One thing we can say with confidence is that the steep and ongoing decline in acceptance rates at selective colleges is almost certainly going to increase the number of students taking a Gap Year.
Find data and research related to Gap Years at the Gap Year Research Consortium at Colorado College website.
At last fall’s Gap Year Association Annual Conference, Bob Clagett, Gap Year Research Consortium Coordinator, reviewed results from a post-gap year survey that seven colleges and universities sent out to their gap year students from 2020-21 after they finished their gap year.
My third son just started college, after deciding not to take a Gap Year…At the end of the day, he exemplifies what I hope for all students: full awareness of the Gap Year option and its benefits, and then a thoughtful CHOICE about whether or not to defer the start of college.
Although taking a Gap Year before college is popular in Europe and almost a rite of passage in the U.K., the practice of taking a Gap Year in the U.S. has been slower to develop.
A big part of the mission of Gap Year Solutions is to raise awareness of Gap Years and help understand the many benefits of taking Gap time. So we thought it would be useful to provide answers to some of the questions we commonly hear during our educational webinars.
Schools with the highest rates of Gap Year deferrals were also those with 100% remote learning in fall 2020. With one exception, every school responding to our survey indicated that their policy for Gap Year deferrals for the Class of 2025 will be the same as last year. Visit our latest post to access the full list and deferral data.
Our analysis estimates that the number of high school graduates opting for a Gap Year increased to 6.1% in 2020. We started with 2019 data from 55 colleges and universities indicating that 1.8% of admitted first years took a Gap Year in 2019.
If you are interested in learning more about Gap Year Solutions, please submit your information here. We look forward to speaking with you!
If you are interested in learning more about Gap Year Solutions, please submit your information here. We look forward to speaking with you!
