<p>Congratulations, revoltxo, on your admission to BU. Kudos, as well, for now considering a gap year and for so appropriately articulating your thoughts and concerns.</p>
<p>Having been raised and educated in the U.S. at a time (the 1970’s) and place (the Midwest) where a gap year would have been considered - and was - unthinkable, and now having lived the whole of my post-BA/JD life in Australia where gap years are common, I hope I might offer an additional perspective for you to consider. The short, anecdotal version is this: for monetary reasons, I compressed my two degrees from 7 years to 5 and a-half. While I truly enjoyed my education, it was rushed. I knew it then; I continue to consider it to have been so, now. The one thing I didn’t do - didn’t have time to do - was to truly consider my academic subjects either in the depth or with the respect they deserved. So, of course, that’s what I needed to do in subsequent years!</p>
<p>Partly because of my experience, our D is taking a much-needed gap year to re-charge, reflect, work, travel, read books at her leisure and, frankly, from her parents’ vantage, mature a bit more, etc., prior to commencing at Columbia late next month. Another young woman from her year in her school has done the same thing in her lead-up to Oxford, although a third, who will be attending University College London, elected to start university coursework here prior to her departure. In our family’s experience, regardless of university location, about 25-30% of the young people we know elect to take a gap year. </p>
<p>In just a quick scan of more authoritative Australian perspectives, you might care to have a look at the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>from the University of Sydney ‘Gap year can prepare students for uni life’: [News</a> | The University of Sydney](<a href=“http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=5559]News”>http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=5559) </p></li>
<li><p>a discussion paper with regard to the University of Canberra’s for-credit ‘Gap Year Plus’ program which contains an interesting history of the ‘gap year phenomenon’ entitled ‘Gap Year Plus: Preparing Professionals, Professionally’: <a href=“http://www.waceinc.org/papers/vancouver/Australia/Milne,%20Kennedy,%20Ward.pdf[/url]”>http://www.waceinc.org/papers/vancouver/Australia/Milne,%20Kennedy,%20Ward.pdf</a></p></li>
<li><p>and, for those who worry that taking time off might mean one is tempted never to start their university studies (and, of course, some do not), a comparison of tertiary education rates among OECD countries, including both the U.S. and Australia: [Tertiary</a> Graduates - NSW Department of Trade and Investment: Business in NSW](<a href=“http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/invest-in-nsw/about-nsw/people-skills-and-education/tertiary-graduates]Tertiary”>http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/invest-in-nsw/about-nsw/people-skills-and-education/tertiary-graduates).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>While it always depends upon the individual, I think the reasons you outlined for deferring the start of your college education are imminently supportable. I do hope that you will be able to persuade your parents to condone travelling as part of a gap year. We know kids who have traversed the gamut of gap year travel options, from travelling solo in remote Mongolia for several months to small groups of friends meeting in various European and Asian venues to ‘packaged’ gap year travel groups to kids working their way across Europe or the States (and two of these are working overseas to earn enough to support their university costs once they return).</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision(s). And if you are taking a gap year, you ought to get the BU deferral organized asap.</p>