Each year about 30,000 students defer their university course to take a gap year and if you include those that take a gap year without officially deferring, then the figure is much higher. Why? What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking a gap year?
There are three categories of students taking a gap year: those who have known it and have planned it for a while; those for whom the idea has crept up on them while in Year 13 and studying for their exams; and those who have had their hands forced because they didn’t get the results they wanted or have decided to switch courses.
According to a “Teaching Abroad” survey, the main reason (by a long way) for taking a gap year, is to become independent. The second biggest reason is to have a break from study, the third reason (but only with 16% of respondents) is to earn money while the fourth is to gain work experience.
If you are considering taking a gap year, it is best to plan it. It is very easy to spend a year doing very little and if this happens you could get into some bad habits and find getting out of them very difficult. However, if you plan your gap year: working, volunteering, travelling, there are lots of advantages to be gained.
The advantages and disadvantages of taking a gap year
Advantages
- Learning independence – as identified in the survey, taking a gap year and working and travelling for a year can be a great way of learning to stand up on your own two feet and of helping you to prepare for being away from home or school.
- Travelling and seeing the world – travelling and experiencing different cultures and ways of living can help to broaden your horizons, teach you new skills and meet a more diverse group of people, which will all help prepare you for university life and a career beyond.
- Have a break from education – After studying for exams for two years and more exams before that, having a break from studying routines can be refreshing and invigorating and mean that when you do return to studying, you’ll feel more motivated to get working again.
- Working and saving money – university can be very expensive for a lot of students and many can get into debt. Working for a few months or a year, while living at home, can provide a chance to save money so that you might enjoy university more and not be worried about getting into debt. It can also help fund the travelling.
- Opportunity to reapply – most gap year students defer their place, but others take the chance to reapply to university. Maybe they didn’t get a place on their desired course first time round or a change of mind has meant that they want to reapply to a different course.
- Gaining work experience – this is particularly appropriate to many medicine applicants who haven’t been successful the first time and then get valuable work experience (and life skills) that they can then use for their application second time round.
- Gaining volunteering experience – volunteering experience, whether at home or abroad, can be very valuable for both university and job applications. Volunteering can teach you many vital skills as well as tell an employer or university a lot about you as a person.
- Having a fantastic time – gap years can provide the perfect opportunity to have a lot of fun at an age when you don’t have to worry about other responsibilities.
Disadvantages
- Expensive – taking a gap year can be very expensive. A lot of the gap year programmes abroad have to be paid for and even just simple travelling is expensive. Many students from poorer backgrounds are nervous of the costs. However, working for six months to fund travelling can give you the best of both worlds and the satisfaction that you paid for it yourself. Also, there are bursaries and scholarships available on some gap year programmes.
- Getting into bad habits – as mentioned before, a year can pass by very quickly if you haven’t planned it. Getting into bad habits can be very easy as well as not being very good for your mental health.
- Feeling left behind – watching all your friends leave home and go to university can be quite hard and leave you with the feeling that you’re left behind. This is why it is good to plan ahead, because if you plan a great gap year, they’ll be the ones who are wishing they had done it.
- Becoming too comfortable – working for six months or a year can get you used to both earning and having money, especially if you’re not used to having money to spend. This can then make it much harder to return to a life of overdrafts, saving and having very little spending money.
These are the advantages and disadvantages of taking a gap year. However, if you plan it very well, you can make the most of the advantages and counteract the disadvantages.
At Student Navigator we offer academic mentoring and coaching to young people as well as career coaching and UCAS support. Please get in touch with us to see how we can help you.