Argumentative Essay About Gap Year

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According to “Facts About A Gap Year,” the definition of a gap year is “a break typically taken between high school and college that might include travel, work, study, volunteering, or research.” Several colleges encourage their admitted students to take a gap year before starting their freshman year. Done the right way, a gap year can help students excel, while if a student completely puts aside their responsibilities, it can plummet their success in college. Students who take a gap year after high school not only mature, but also are prepared for college and the rest of their lives. An opposition brought up about students taking a gap year after high school is that they will fall behind and get stressed trying to play catch up after a long …show more content…

Going into gap year programs has the students mature from the amount of manual labor and community work they do. Brandan Goth and Christie Haas participated in the NCCC team in 2010 and both parties said that participating has benefited them in the long run. Haas said, “ "With NCCC, you 're going out on your own, taking care of yourself, having to cooperate with different people, and moving every few months. It gives you insight into how other people live." Students who take a gap year are more mature and do not participate in risky behavior once they attend college. The Chicago Tribune had an article written by Jeffrey J. Sellingo that says “Research has found that when gap-year students arrive on campus, they take their studies more seriously and don 't engage in risky behavior, such as alcohol abuse.” In addition to maturing, taking a gap year also prepares students for college and their …show more content…

Others do not have the same advantage of knowing what they want to do once they go into college. This leads students to take a gap year to figure out exactly what it is they want to do for the rest of their lives. Taking a gap year helps students explore different fields and help them figure out if they will truly like to do, or what they do not enjoy. Goth said in an article in U.S News and World Report "NCCC has driven work ethic into me. It 's broadened what I think I could do with my life because all of these projects are things that I would 've never even consider doing ... Then you go and do them, and think, 'Wow, I 'm actually pretty good at them. '" This brings to show how taking a gap year is truly beneficial to the students. Colleges and universities such as Harvard encourage students by suggesting students to take time off before they start school (Kern, 2010). The current President’s daughter Malia Obama is taking a gap year before Harvard and more students have been encouraged from this. Taking a gap year differs in the student. If one does not plan thoroughly and prepares for the gap year, the results could be devastating, but if planning is done right, students excel

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