Gap Year.......did you take one?

[PottytheVampireSlayer]

Following on from the 'uni' thread, did you take a Gap Year? What did you do and was it worthwhile?

Ds1 is looking at universities and for numerous reasons I wonder whether he should take a year out first. I'd be interested in your experiences, good, bad and ugly

No I didn't do a whole year, but over the summer between A levels and going to uni I did summer camp in the USA followed by a month of travel.

I think it's good to go off and travel but I don't think you necessarily need a year to do it - the holidays in the summer are quite long and you could always do it after uni too.

I don't think taking a year out before uni would be harmful though.

I wanted to take one and tried to through VSO but they wouldn't accept anyone who wasn't qualified and there weren't the easy and obvious routes to follow then like there are now..

Dd1 went to Argentina and taught english, it also meant that she didn't apply to uni until she already had her exam results and was offered places from all her choices without interviews. She is now in her third year which is a year abroad as she is doing international politics and languages and having a fantastic time.

I did not
Big mistake, really big mistake. In my case it just prologned my adolescence til 21, I so wish I had gone away and learned a bit about the real world and what would be expected of me whenI joined it.

I can see that point Suzy - I think I did do a lot of growing up by going off to America on my own with just a backpack at the age of 18.

Yes. My father (academic) instructed me too. I went back to see family in India for a few months (again on family instruction) and then I.....dossed on the dole. It was utterly fabulous. After 18 highly pressured years of being a very very very good girl and getting the grades required of me and playing two musical instruments and wearing velvet ribbons in my long hair (in 1979ffs) I finally found out what I wanted to do if I could doss around and actually have to fill my own time through choice. Found out I liked going to political meetings rather than doing violin practice, and hanging out with idealistic lefty types, and knitting my own jumpers, and wearing lots and lots and lots of badges. My father was absolutely furious, especially since I took to getting up later than 7.30 am. Oh, and I discovered people who actually liked me, too. I've never regretted any of it for a nano-second.

Ds1 is a late August birthday, I think it's too young to be committing himself to a 3 year course. A year out would maybe give him some more options and more clout on his application if he does then decide to go to uni.

The downside is that I'll then have him in his 3rd year, ds2 starting his first year and me financially bereft!

I didn't but I wish I had done. I did do camp america and that was good. You don't even need to travel nowadays as the gap website can help set you up with all sorts of things. Worth having a look.

Also, another thing to think about is that with so many more people having a degree, an interesting gap year could give you the edge at interview. DH is sure it has done this for him.

I took a year out to experience the world of work and found that I loved having money, got married, partied hard etc etc etc. Ended up at 24 feeling very burnt out and unfullfilledand went to Uni. It meant I was older than the rest, had a house and responsibilities so I couldn't be a real student IYSWIM but I did work hard and got a blinkin good degree out of it

I was an au pair in Orléans, France, for 10 months. Then I travelled around Europe with some Canadian friends before going to Uni to study french and italian. I was still v naive when I arrived at uni, but had a head start as my French had become quite good.
It was definitely worth it, as I learnt a lot about children, (and boredom!) and gained a lot of life experience in that year, although au pair work is definitely not for everyone.

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Enlighten me then cod, what did you do??

Think I might have a further chat with ds as most seem to think it's worthwhile.

i spent a very miserable month in switzerland, came home & worked in a shop 'til christmas, then spent 6 months in budapest with the organisation gap. it was tough, i was very homesick, but i am still good friends with some of the group i went with & we had great fun. and it made going to university so easy.

my god, haus, that's the kind of thing that would make you grow up in one go

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Ds1 went straight to uni and I think it was the right thing for him. I suspect that if he'd taken time out at 18 he may never have gone back to studying.

Ds2 had three years out! When he left school he had no idea what he wanted to do, except maybe computer or business studies. Also he'd finally thrown off the curse of the brittle asthma he'd had for 13yrs so he wanted to spread his wings a bit and do the things other kids had taken for granted. So he had six mths in a remote rural India Buddhist monastery then worked for British Gas for two yrs. By the end of that, he decided to go to uni and study psychology and sociology and he's now taken on psychology PhD.

Dd1 wanted a gap year but changed her mind when she found out dh and I wouldn't be funding it. She's just started in first yr at uni.

I worked for a year to save enough money to go to university as my parents couldn't help. It's sods law - I went to university in Ireland when you paid fees there but not in the UK, now I'm bringing up my kids in England you pay fees here but they've abolished them in Ireland!!!!