Post by Holly Bull, President of the Center for Interim Programs
Are Gap Years Worth It is the heading of a Sept 8, 2026 interview conducted by Larry Mantle on NPR's LA "Air Time". I was the expert gap year counselor speaking from 40 years of experience in this field.
The topic was inspired by a recent gap year article by Bloomberg News (for which I was also interviewed), then picked up by other media sources such as the Financial Advisor and LA Times. Its title, Parents are Paying $95,000 for Gap Years to Give their Kids an Edge, set off a disturbed ripple through the gap year field. The program with this particular price tag is a recent anomaly among the many high quality, long running gap year group programs whose semester costs are far lower. In this instance, it is a shame to automatically equate higher cost with higher value. And, it does the gap year field a major disservice to imply that one has to spend inordinate amounts of money to derive the many benefits that emerge from a gap year experience.
Ironically enough, many effective skills come from the most independent and low cost placements, e.g. helping to rebuild homes post hurricane damage, or assist teaching students in schools or coaching sports. These options still provide students with enough support and oversight for success. There is no need for a full year of facilitated group program experiences which can actually miss key independent learning opportunities. In other words, the very skills parents might want to see in their son or daughter may not develop if there is too much facilitation throughout a gap year.
Are gap years worth it? Of course they are. I say this unabashedly from Interim's 46 years of experience doing nothing but gap year counseling with over 9,000 alumni. I and my co-counselor and director of research, Kate Warren, hear feedback from students and parents underscoring the value of having time to explore interests, to rest from schooling, to transform through new experience. Students often land jobs as a direct result of increased clarity of focus and purpose, along with practical in-the-world skills and self-confidence.
And, because we have been in this field since its inception in the early 80s, we hear from alumni who are now themselves parents, personally attesting to the long term benefits of taking gap time before or during college.
