How is a gap year viewed?
Current HS senior has secured acceptance to a top target REA, and a few other target schools EA, and hopefully a few more in the RD round. My state is well known for flouting Covid guidelines since day 1, and my state flagship hasn't required masks for the year (you can probably guess which state I'm from). I'm not completely anti-protocol, I'm vaxxed and boosted, but I'm used to the freedom and essentially normal lifestyle I've been living since 2020. Given that my desired schools are in more liberal areas, they still are very strict on masking, distancing, and capacity limitations, and I'm not optimistic for the near future. Their city leadership has even published information indicating essentially "friendly reminder: covid isn't over :)".
Still, my REA school is essentially an offer I can't refuse, or else I'd attend my state flagship. And since said REA doesn't take transfer credits, it's not like I can just attend my state flagship and transfer.
That's why I'm considering a gap year. I don't entirely know what I'll do, but it's too late to arrange anything productive, and I don't know what I'd even want to do. So, I'd possibly travel, hang out at home, take a few community college classes to keep my mind sharp, and/or get a light part-time job just to kill the time.
But, will having a gap year with essentially no experience during it look bad in college, and when I'm recruiting? It would essentially say high school class of 2022, college would be 2023-2027. Would I look bad in college as being older by a year? Or even in recruiting would they notice the gap, ask what I did, and I'd have to say, "Went fishing, played video games, worked at the YMCA, took Excel for dummies at the community college, and hit up Cabo"?
Looking for advice, take an inevitably unproductive gap year in hopes of achieving the full college experience, or tough it out in the weird world that's blue states?
You’ll be fine. Gap years aren’t super common in the US but very common in Europe. No one will ask about the gap during recruiting. They won’t know unless you put your HS on your resume (and I wouldn’t do that unless you went to a very well know school).
If you’re really worried, just make sure you have 1 experience you can talk about in depth. Learning to surf in Mexico, WOOFing, volunteering in Africa, taking a French course, etc. If anyone pushes you more (and they won’t) just say something lame along the lines of “education is very important to me and after 3 years of Covid learning, I wanted a chance to pursue other opportunities while I waited for my school to adjust to the new normal.”
The only thing you need to be aware of with a gap year is you got to be doing something or you’ll get bored fast. Don’t just sit at your parents house for 9 months. And it’s not too late to plan something fun! Let me know if you need ideas!
Thanks! I'll definitely look into doing at least one thing that has a story, might look into Spanish immersions and put my 4 years of Spanish to use. Plus, I have awhile until I have to tell the college my plans, so if I can't find something cool, I can always just head to campus and hope Covid gets better.
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