@JenJenJenJen He’s fairly adventurous for a first-born. We’ve done a lot of hiking, mountain biking, river rafting, etc on vacations. He loves the mountains but we haven’t been skiing much since we’re in the midwest. Taken the kids to CA, UT, CO, AZ on vacations and he loves being in nature. We stay in resorts and then have guides take us on these types of things. I don’t think he’d make it actually camping somewhere. :)) He’s clear that he wouldn’t be staying in such nice quarters if he RV’d it around with his friends, but I honestly cannot picture it. I think we’d get a phone call half way through asking for money so he could get to a decent shower.
He’s very interested in international relations, the environment, travel. Wants to see stuff. I’m sure he will study abroad but, of course, not sure where. Our niece is in Kenya and, when S19 heard she was going, he said “I"m doing that!”
@homerdog my co-workers son traveled with Where There Be Dragons for 3 months last fall (he is taking a gap year before starting at Dartmouth). He went to China. He is currently in France - not sure which program.
Don’t most rental companies, including the ones that rent RVs, have minimum rental ages of 25 (or at least absolutely horrendous fees for those under that age)?
I back packed all summer after college graduation, it was fabulous. On my dime. I do think there is something to be said for a break from the hamster wheel but I’m personally not funding it
I’m sure they have very good reasons for this. They’re not just being mean adults. They have actuaries and data scientists that tell them that renting RVs to young adults just isn’t a good idea.
Gap Years:@2019hope Gap years are certainly becoming more popular. (Though in the US, I think I read somewhere that less than 1% take a gap year, but don’t quote me on that!) In our district, I talked to several parents that were considering it for their kids, though I’m not sure how many actually went through with it. I think a few of the positives are: it can give kids a break from the high stress and pressures that they’ve had to face so far in life; it can give them a chance to grow and figure out what’s really important to them; with new experiences, they can start to iron out what they might like to focus on in college and beyond. Many supporters say that a gap year can ‘renew’ motivation, create a better sense of self and purpose, and even boost performance once they go to college.
I think critics feel the opposite might happen and perhaps they decide never to go to college.
I think it’s important to note that if a kid does want to take a gap year - the recommendation is to first find out what each college requires first (ie: does a particular college allow it? do they have specific requirements? For example, they will likely expect them to be working or volunteering for a certain amount of time, etc.) Many will want you to apply and then defer enrollment for a year with a ‘plan’ in hand.
@Fishnlines29 Thanks for your post. I think the hard thing is that we don’t know anyone personally who has done a gap year. I’m thinking we should talk to our S19’s GC and see if he knows anyone from his high school who has chosen this path. Would be really helpful to talk to someone.
My D will turn 17 in October of senior year. She was really mature for her age when we opted against a second year of kindergarten, but now, I dunno, might’ve been a mistake. A year of Americorps often seems like a great idea, for a host of reasons.
As far as trundling around the country in an RV, unless you own it, don’t even think about it: all have mileage limits of 100 miles a day or thereabouts, and the cost is obscene because of that alone. Lots of Europeans/Aussies come here, buy a used one on one side of the country and then sell it when they’re done; that makes much more sense.
OR do what we usually do: rent a minivan and throw out some tents if you like, or use an air mattress in the back if you’re feeling achy. Upsides are many: cheap campsite and gas costs costs, learning to cook frugally and well, and much more flexibility in where you go. Minivans are not cheap compared with compact cars, but they do have unlimited mileage.
Only a handful of kid’s from my D’s school did a gap year. One is doing service, one a year in S America somewhere, and one hiking the PCT and then… The latter kid is not so enamored of school so might not be going to college, at least right away. Great kid just more interested in an outdoor life.
Last mini-trip report for this Spring Break week – D19 and I attended U of Mary Washington’s open house yesterday. The campus is quite beautiful, especially with the flowering trees in bloom and the azaleas beginning to open up. The open house was well run, with lots of time to meet with specific departments, including both students and faculty. D19 met with theatre, political science and international affairs, business, and computer science. (I was happy to see she sought out information from all these departments.) We ate lunch in the residents dining hall, and we went on a tour of the theatre facilities. UMW has the smallest set of facilities we have seen so far. Their program is no audition/portfolio review as no one declares a major until the end of their first year at a minimum. D19 has been invited to see a (comp) show, so I think she’ll be seeing UMW’s Macbeth next Saturday, as part of her return trip from a workshop at VCU.
The weather in Fredericksburg was beautiful so the open house showed off UMW in its best light. D is keeping UMW on her list.
(My only complaint is I-95 traffic, but that’s completely separate from UMW. )
We had a friends daughter do a gap year. She did a program in a foreign country. She did then go to college. We have contemplated gap year for D17, but have decided for now, to move forward with fall admit. There is the thought with some kids if they are ready to handle the stress of college right away, and sometimes, having that year to earn money might also be helpful.
All of you theatre people may want to consider CofC if you want to consider a Southern school . Urban school, so if your child wants a traditional campus, probably not the best fit . Charleston is a huge cultural city and the location of the Spoleto festival , a huge arts festival including visual arts, music, plays and dance. My son’s good friend is a Arts Management major and the Computing in The Arts major is another major that combines CS with visual arts or music . Just throwing some options out there.
Well, spring break is over and school resumes tomorrow. I’m afraid not as much Calc AP studying happened as should have. Sigh. It feels like a month ago that spring break started though it was only 2 weeks. We did a lot and put lots miles on the car, but alas the planned AP studying and college tours didn’t happen. On the plus side, S and I had many hours in the car, and we listened to about 15 hours of Freakonomics podcasts. I think the ditty on the podcast is burned into my brain.
Though we didn’t manage any proper tours, we did do a walk through of Western Washington University in Bellingham (near the Canadian border). Walk-throughs are kind of useless I think, but I wanted to see the campus. I’d planned to walk the whole campus, but we ended up in the Geology building and spent an hour looking at all the exhibits they have inside (3 floors worth). We ended up walking about half the campus. It was a glorious day and the campus is nestled in the trees. It felt very northwestern though I’d like to go back in “normal” weather, aka rain. I liked the student housing at least from the outside. Nestled altogether on a hillside—a little community in the woods. We finished up with a drive along the coast south of Bellingham, on a glorious sunny day with views over the Puget Sound and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains. A nice one-day respite from this year’s interminable rain. Normal weather resumes tomorrow.
@liska21 there is a nice variety of housing at WWU. One thing they do, that I’ve not seen on any other tours, is that if you go on one of their big preview events, they have open dorm rooms in almost every dorm on campus, probably about 10 different actual student occupied rooms you can tour.
We find it just as pretty in the rain though you don’t get quite the same view of the bay. It’s a very pretty campus, we know many happy kids there and it was S17’s #2 choice.
Re Gap Years. Son19 will turn 18 right when he heads off to college, so he is young for his class. But he has always done fine academically, socially and athletically so he’s fine. I don’t think he would want to take a whole year off. He’s already ready to get out of our house, lol.
I’ve known some kids from our town that have taken gap years to do theatre related things and one kid who just worked and volunteered to save some $$.
@RightCoaster I hear you about the gap year. I think we won’t really know until S19 starts filling out apps. By Nov of senior year, he should have a better sense about whether he’d like to take one. And my husband and I will be better able to gauge his maturity and stress level.
S19 just started really growing this year. Poor guy was five feet tall entering high school. Just grew four inches in the last four months and has hit 5’5". Will eventually be more like 5’11" according to our doctor but men just grow late in both of our families. Maybe sounds silly but being small has really affected him socially and athletically. He’s a really strong athlete but his two main sports were tennis and soccer and the competition just got physically bigger faster and his size became an issue. That’s how he ended up running XC and track because he couldn’t compete well anymore in tennis or soccer. It’s also affected him socially. He just feels like a little kid. Even shorter than a lot of the girls so he hasn’t bit the bullet to ask a girl to a dance, etc. Has lots of girls as friends but they just don’t see him as a boyfriend since he seems young. First born too, so a little naive with no older brother.
Does very well academically so it didn’t make sense to hold him back a grade. Now that he’s growing, though, we see more self confidence. I just hope it keeps increasing!
Back from spring break, doing laundry, trying to recover from 23 hours of straight driving. I’m getting too old for that. I remember we once did a trip to Yellowstone with my stepdaughters and ran out of time and realized we had to get the kids back to their mother by a specific time and so we drove 42 hours nonstop from Montana, continually handing off to each other after 10 hours of driving, and just made it. I quail at something like that now.
A gap year to save some money and gain some maturity seems like something we also should investigate, but it also seems like something for which a decision can wait until essentially the last minute, am I right? It’s not something I have to try and shoehorn into this already confusing and stressful schedule for the next 18 months or so?
