Why More College Students May Want to Consider a ‘Gap Year’

American Rosalie Stoke is one of the millions of college students with a bright future ahead of her.

college students 大学生

Stoke was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She studies chemical engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, also known as Virginia Tech. But the 22 year-old's path to college was very different from the majority of Americans like her.

chemical engineering 化学工程

In the United States, it is common for young people to complete four years of high school at age 17 or 18. After they finish high school in the spring, those who decide to attend college usually do so two- to three-months later.

it is common for sb to do something 对某人来说做什么事情很常见

complete high school 上完中学

finish high school 上完中学

attend college 上大学

（school指大学之前上的学，比如小学和中学，大学不叫school，大学叫college或者university）

However, Stoke learned about a different way of doing things from an older student. That student said that before going to college, she worked for a year helping with childcare for a family in Germany. This idea appealed to Stoke very much.

"It just sounded like a really great idea to have a year off to figure out more of what I wanted to do in college and after," she said.

have a year off 休学一年，上学中间休息一年

So, after finishing high school in 2013, Stoke decided she also wanted to take a gap year before starting college.

take a gap year 休学一年

starting college 开始上大学

Gap years are much more common in Europe than in the United States, especially among children born to wealthy families. The British newspaper The Telegraph reported that in 2014, five percent of first-year university students in the United Kingdom chose to wait a year before starting their studies. A gap year is often a time when young people travel or work to earn more money for school.

wealthy families 富裕的家庭

Now, more Americans are showing an interest in the idea of a gap year. The American Gap Association offers resources and information on gap years for students and parents. The non-profit group reports that each year between 30,000 and 40,000 young people in the U.S. choose to take a gap year.

choose to take a gap year 选择休学一年

In 2016, Malia Obama, daughter of then-president Barack Obama, received a lot of media attention when she made the same choice.

Like Malia Obama, Rosalie Stoke had already been accepted for admission by her university of choice. Yet they both decided to postpone the start of their studies by a year. In fact, several U.S. colleges and universities are now urging students to delay their studies to make use of a gap year.

accept for admission by the university 被大学录取

postpone the start of the study 推迟入学

delay the study 推迟入学

In fall 2013, Stoke connected with a family in Barcelona, Spain. They agreed to let her live with them and paid her a small amount to help care for their children for seven months. Stoke studied Spanish during her free time in Barcelona. She then used money she earned from a part-time job she had in high school as well as money from her parents to travel for two months.

Stoke told VOA she felt different when she returned to the United States to begin her studies at Virginia Tech in 2014. She said she felt at ease and that she knew more about herself as a person. 

Also, when talking with friends who went straight to college from high school, she found many had a difficult time in their first year of college. Some told her they questioned the field of study they had chosen. 

go straight to college 直接上大学

have a difficult time in the first year of college 大学第一年有一个困难时期

they questioned the field of study they had chosen他们对自己选择的学习领域会有疑问（不喜欢自己的专业，对专业课不感兴趣）

Others said they felt lost at the college or that they were wasting time doing things like partying.

felt lost at the college 在大学里迷失了

Jennifer Powell-Lunder says these feelings are common among first-year college students. Powell-Lunder is a clinical psychologist who works mostly with young people. She says more young people are seeking admission to college than ever before. That means the level of competition is the highest it has ever been. She says young people today have to do more than ever before to be seen as successful.

clinical psychologist 临床心理学家

young people 年轻人

seek admission to college 想要上大学

the level of competition is the highest 竞争水平是最高的

"The pressure to perform and do well is unbelievable. ... And quite frankly, many kids crash and burn, because the pressure is just too much."

crash and burn 完全失败

pressure is too much 压力太大

Powell-Lunder says young people still have a lot to learn about themselves at the age when they usually go off to college. Taking a gap year may help reduce some of the pressure. Having more time to think about one's decisions can help mental health in the end.

mental health 心理健康

However, Mandy Savitz-Romer does have some concerns about the growing interest in gap years. Savitz-Romer is a professor with the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Massachusetts. She notes that many colleges are now looking for students with more than just strong academic records. They want students with strong connections to their communities and knowledge of the rest of the world.

strong academic records 学习成绩好的

strong connections to the communities 和社区关系密切的

Gap years may provide this, she says. Yet gap years are often only a possibility for students from wealthy families.

"As they grow in popularity, they will continue to give more advantage to the students who can afford to take them. ... And if, in fact, admissions offices begin to see that as an advantage ... we have yet one more way in which there'll be a widened gap in access to college."

a widened gap 扩大的差距

But a gap year does not have to be just about spending money to travel internationally. It also does not have to be just one year.

When Steven Johnson grew up in Hammond, Indiana, his family did not have a lot of money. During high school, he got into trouble for bad behavior and fighting.

After completing his secondary education at a military school in 2009, Johnson knew he still was not ready for the demands of college. Instead, he chose to join a U.S. government-supported program called AmeriCorps.

ready for the demands of college 准备好上大学

AmeriCorps organizes groups of mostly college-aged volunteers on long-term projects around the country. These projects include things like building homes for disaster victims and improving grounds in national parks. In exchange, the program gives the volunteers money they can use toward a college education.

Normally, an AmeriCorps project lasts about 10 months. Steven Johnson worked with AmeriCorps for four years. He says the experience taught him valuable skills he needed when he began studying at Southwestern Michigan College in 2016. These skills included how to be a leader and how to work with different kinds of people.

valuable skills 宝贵的技能

how to work with different kinds of people 如何与不同的人共同工作

"I had a different set of ideas than someone from upstate New York or the San Fernando Valley in California. But we all had to bring our collective heads together to work together for the betterment of the people that we were serving."

Ethan Knight created the American Gap Association in 2012. His group connects young people with and sets standards for volunteer gap year programs, such as those with AmeriCorps. He says no matter whether a gap year means a person is traveling, working or volunteering, it will likely be useful to them. His group reports that 86 percent of students who took a gap year were happier with their jobs later in life.

But a gap year is not just about postponing the difficulties of college. Knight says a gap year is only truly useful if it requires students to think about how their experiences have changed them and their ideas about the world.

"Rafting down a river, that's a good experience. Everyone will say they had a good time, but it's not translated into learning until there's some sort of reflection that happens."

a good experience could translate into learning until there's some sort of reflection that happens

只有对经历有想法，有见解的时候才会有所学习

Knight and Savitz-Romer agree that colleges should consider gap year experiences the same way they do hard work. And students who cannot afford a gap year still learn a lot from the struggles they deal with every day.