Since the pandemic upended students’ educational paths, more and more young people have opened their minds up to taking a gap year between high school and college.
Taking time off felt natural for Evan Collins, after being homeschooled for his entire life. The 19-year-old from Boxford, Massachusetts, says he’s “used to just looking at different methods of gaining education.”
“I didn’t want to rush right into college, and part of the reason for that was I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” he told The Post.
“People are realizing that you don’t have to rush. I can’t tell you the amount of times that I heard, ‘I wish I had done that when I was your age.’”
Collins graduated in 2024 and is at the conclusion of his gap year, which he organized with help from the Center for Interim Programs. After spending time at an immersive cultural exchange in the Patagonia region in Chile, he traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, to intern as a co-manager with a football academy.
“I wanted to get an internship in my hopeful field of choice, and, if I could at least eliminate the things I don’t want to do, I would have considered that a success,” he said.
“I don’t want to spend a lot of money on an education that I don’t ultimately want to use.”
The experience confirmed that he does, indeed, want to go into the sports industry, and he learned that his passions lie in management. In September, he’ll start studying sports management at Crestpoint University.
Looking back, Collins says time off helped him grow more than school ever did.
“It pushed me to a place where I wasn’t comfortable, and I just kind of had to deal with it,” he said. “I feel like that exposure is pretty limited in our day to day lives in the US school system, where we have a pretty routine life.
“I think it’s actually insane how much I’ve grown in, like, eight months. I’ve probably grown more than my entire high school experience.”
He’d recommend gap years to anyone, albeit with a small caveat: “You have to go into the year having a clear plan. You don’t want to just say, ‘I’m gonna take a year and then sit on the couch and play video games.’”
Collins is part of a small but growing cohort of young people who are opting to take a break before pursuing higher education.
There’s limited national data on just how many kids take gap years, but, according to the Gap Year Association, the percentage soared from 1.8% to 4.9% during the pandemic, and leveled out to 2.6% by the time the class of 2023 graduated.
“Gap years have definitely become exponentially more popular amongst students in the years since the pandemic,” boutique college admissions counselor and Command Education CEO Christopher Rim told The Post.
He estimates one in four of his clients are opting for some form of a gap year, and noted that “even students who did not work with us in the college admissions process have requested our support in planning a bespoke gap year experience.”
Rim says some top institutions, including Princeton, Tufts, and the University of North Carolina, explicitly encourage students to take a gap year: “Not only is the real-world experience students glean from the gap year attractive to top colleges, it’s also highly desirable for employers.”
At just 17, Hudson Juenger is coming to the conclusion of his gap year as he gears up to go back to school in September.
The Richmond, Rhode Island, native decided to take a gap year in September of his senior year to buy more time to decide whether to go into the workforce or to college, after he worked an apprenticeship in a marina during his senior year.
“I had applied to a bunch of colleges, and I got accepted, but I wasn’t super enthusiastic,” he explained. “I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to college or just permanently enter the workforce, and it took me until April to make the decision.”
His family was accepting of his choice, but he says he often got condescending comments from peers: “I did well in high school, and I could have gone to college, but a lot of people would be kind of belittling, like, ‘Oh, that’s good for you. I’m glad you found something that works for you.’”
During his year off, he did another apprenticeship at a marina and worked full time as a mechanic. He also completed the Marine Systems Program at the IYRS School of Technology and Trades.
“I was looking to determine if I wanted to pursue a career permanently as a mechanic and what kind of financial opportunities there were in the industry,” Juenger said. “Before possibly going to college, I wanted to be confident I knew what I wanted to study. Taking four years and spending that money is a big deal.”
After months of deliberation and on-the-job experience, Juenger decided that going to the University of Rhode Island to study mechanical engineering was the right move: “Now, going into mechanical engineering, I feel super confident with my professional work experience.”
He also believes he has a more pragmatic view of the world after taking time off.
“I actually know what it’s like to move out and go to work every day and live in a more realistic work environment than going straight to college, which is kind of a phony four years because it seems to be like, fun, fun, fun, unlimited parties, all you can eat buffet,” Juenger said. “I think I’m going to be a lot more appreciative of my college experience than a lot of my other friends are.”
19-year-old Ontario native Kaylyn Klumper used her gap year, which is now coming to a close, to figure out what professional path she wants to pursue. When it came time to apply to colleges in her senior year, she opted for a gap year instead, making her just one of two in her class to go down that route.
“My friends were all posting pictures of how much fun they were having in college, and I was honestly pretty upset about that for a while, but eventually I came to terms with the fact that it’s okay, I’m on my own path, and that, honestly, it’s all gonna work out,” she recalled.
Because she wants to go into the medical field, Klumper felt it was important to have some real-life work experience before jumping straight into pre-med, so she worked as a chiropractic health assistant, while holding side gigs as a landscaper and at McDonald’s.
“Balancing all of those through the year helped me realize that, if I never went back to school, I’d have to keep working three jobs like this just to sustain myself,” she said.
Over the course of the year, Klumper got the answers she was looking for: an acceptance letter from Fanshawe College, clarity she does not want to be a physiotherapist like she initially thought she did, and a realization that nursing would be a better fit.
“Taking a gap year is the smarter move for this younger generation going into school, if they’re not sure of what they want to do,” she said. “My confidence has really grown over the last year, and that’s really important heading into the first year of moving away from my family and friends.”
Since graduating, she’s noticed that gap years are more popular with the class below her at her high school: “When I graduated, it wasn’t common, but a lot of the younger age group are now doing it. I just had a friend come to me asking for advice about whether to take one, and I told her absolutely you should take the year off.”
Alex Weldon says his gap year was key to his success in college — and to improving his mental health after the lockdown ruined his senior year.
“I graduated during Covid and wasn’t in a good headspace, being stuck at home and kind of down in the dumps,” Weldon, 21 of Brandon, Mississippi, told The Post. “So I decided to get a job and get out a little bit before going to college.”
After graduating in 2021, Weldon worked for a year in fine dining, but found double shifts and the monotonous routine unfulfilling. So he took a second — far more adventurous — year off, hiking, mountain climbing, and whitewater rafting at Warriors Adventure Academy in South Africa.
“The whole experience taught me that I’m capable,” he said. “I realized high school was only difficult because I didn’t apply myself. Now I have this new passion for learning and improving myself.”
The rising sophomore at Mississippi State said his “head space improved,” and he went from “barely passing” his senior year of high school to straight As in his freshman year of college.
Weldon is studying biological science and considering pursuing veterinary or medical school, and he owes his newfound academic successes to his time off: “There are straight A high school students who come into college and flunk out because they’re not used to all of that freedom that I got to experience on my gap year.”
His father, Patrick Weldon, a neurologist, says he watched his son blossom over the course of his time off.
“As his Dad, I can attest it did him a lot of good,” he told The Post. “He came home a brand new man. He learned you can actually live without a cell phone. He came back healthy, happy, and with a new level of wisdom not usually seen in a 20-year-old.”
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