@tkoparent what a great post. Your son is fortunate to have you.
@tkoparent thanks. One kid is almost taking a gap year now or may be more as he starts a business venture. Second one is still debating.
Honestly I wouldn’t pay that for in-person attendance at any college.
But, if you can afford the school you have chosen, I would likely roll the dice and assume that you might have to do online for a semester (or worse case a year) and then you would have the following years in person. Then you would still get whatever advantage you foresaw when you picked that school. If you give up that your chosen school because of (hopefully) one semester of different, then how do the feel the remaining years, especially if transferring to original school after first year/semester is likely not on the table.
We can definitely afford college. Just wondering if gap year is a good option or not. One kid is already taking gap year. Second one is on the fence and may do so.
For the Ivy League that my S21 aspires to attend, I would pay it as long as it counts as a reg year without any other make up.
We don’t pay anywhere close to $70K OOP for S19, but we do pay significantly more than we would pay for him to attend a public in our state. He missed the classroom discussion and interaction on campus a great deal when they went remote in March. He chose that college environment for a reason! Far from perfect, but by the end, I think he, as well as the profs, were beginning to adapt and feel comfortable with their Zoom discussions.
We initially debated whether it would be worth the tuition cost to us if they’re online again in the fall. But when we really thought about it, there were no other scenarios that made much sense. He wasn’t able to get a summer job due to the current situation, and we don’t see that as a possibility this fall either. So, taking time off doesn’t make sense from a financial perspective. And, it also means that there would be no way to fill his time. Doing nothing and delaying college graduation didn’t seem like a smart financial option for him in the long run either. That left us to consider whether it was worth taking classes at a public U this semester rather than paying tuition at his school.
First, it became obvious that from a practical standpoint, it didn’t make much sense - he basically has Junior standing, so he is not just taking general ed courses, making it much tougher to transfer courses that would count toward his degree. It would really mean that he would need to withdraw and finish at the public U, which he hated. And he still has three years of college to go.
Beyond that, even though it was far from ideal, his college worked hard to keep students engaged as part of the community after they went online. There were still discussions in classes (because they were synchronous) and meetings with his mentor. They held club meetings on Zoom. They had activities like Trivia night, etc. He’s not likely to get that from a larger school, where he could wind up watching a recorded lecture. It’s still a much different environment.
Ultimately, he only got 1.5 semesters on the campus he chose. Because we committed to paying for it (with some loans for him), it feels unfair to take the rest of the college experience away from him. If and when this is over, we hope that he will be able to go back and re-join his campus community.
So, I think this is a question where the answer greatly depends on each family’s unique circumstances.
For a semester, yes. For a year, maybe. For more than that, definitely not.
Thanks everyone. Both son’s are going to take gap year!
Curious, what do they plan to do with it?
@SJ2727 One is running his start up business. Second one just got recruited for a full time paid job by the start up firm where he was doing summer internship. Plus he wants to read books and to develop other skillsets besides coding and math.