Taming the High Cost of College (Podcast)

Holly Bull, President of the Center for Interim Programs and Gap Year Counselor for over 30 years, was recently interviewed by Brad Baldridge in this podcast from October, 2021 covering the gap year and gap time.

COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) Health Resources & Effects on the Gap Year

(This post contains sections on Safety, 3 Response Scenarios, & Articles)

Safety:
Interim's primary concern is the safety of our students. Given the current situation with COVID-19, we are monitoring the most informed news about it so that we can share the best information with our families.

The following resources provide reliable and timely sources of information:
The Center for Disease Control
The United States Department of State
The World Health Organization for International Travel and Health
The National Association of International Educators
The EPA released a list of Sanitizers for Use

For updated travel restrictions by country:
IATA - International Air Transport Association 

3 Scenarios in Response to COVID-19 Potential Restrictions:

We understand that families are concerned about COVID-19 and its effects on the current gap year. It is difficult to know for certain what the landscape will be like into spring 2021 and we have outlined three possible scenarios and how it is possible to respond effectively given the range of available options:

1. Ideal Options: If students are eager to attend programs out of the US, they apply and see how things go in terms of travel restrictions - this has worked well this fall with students able to attend programs in Ireland, the UK, and Israel, and some are about to step into October programs in Costa Rica.
2. Backup Domestic Options: Students also apply to US-based program(s) which can range from group gap year options, to shorter skill-based intensives, a few internship options (tougher to find in the US for gap year students), and finally volunteer placements - we have many students this fall on group programs in Hawaii and the mainland US as well as engaged in conservation projects, business and physical therapy internships, and gaining Wilderness EMT training.
3. Backup Backup Options: Our  ORL (Online Resource List) of over 100 links include courses of all kinds, internships, volunteer work, seminars and certifications, arts, fitness, etc. These options can be utilized as filler, if need be, and allow students to buy time if they have to quarantine again before stepping into the next hands-on experience - most of our students have understandably preferred hands on experiences this year, if possible, but some have utilized online entrepreneurial workshops and internships, language or computer training, and volunteer options.

One great gap year benefit, especially this year, is how much flexibility is involved with swift and easy changes in plans as needed. Program variety allows students to still engage in interesting experiences as they wait to see how the world landscape unfolds, and with increased freedom of movement, they can turn on a dime to step into options further afield. Gap year learning is all about rolling with change and the challenge of becoming comfortable with shifting plans, whether due to internal or external factors. Our current situation with this virus definitely poses one of the more challenging external pressures for change, but we are already witnessing this fall that it is possible to successfully carry on nonetheless with the above array of potential adjustments and options.

Articles:

LATimes (7/16/20) - benefits of taking a gap year this particular year and some of the options and resources available:

https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-07-16/college-students-gap-year-best-way-outwit-coronavirus

Chronicle of Higher Education (5/19/20) - see updated list of college decisions about fall classes:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-a-List-of-Colleges-/248626

Bloomberg Businessweek (5/15/20) - Holly Bull, Gap Year Counselor at Interim, quoted in this article on the economic implications for this year's gap year:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-15/the-covid-19-college-gap-year-exposes-a-great-economic-divide

Stay healthy and well,

Holly Bull & Kate Warren
Center for Interim Program Gap Year Counselors 

Holly Bull, Center for Interim Programs President, Interview About "Filling the Gap"

Time Out for Students

Holly Bull was recently asked to speak at the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School in NJ about the "Gap Year Advantage": the many benefits of taking time gap time before (or during) college.

Local journalist, Rose Bennett Gilbert, interviewed Holly who pointed out that in the past young women and men who took time away from school were thought to be "indecisive or uncommitted to their educations," which is no longer the case. The reality is that gap time is "a great option for anyone who is trying to figure out who they are and what they really want."

Another benefit counteracting the effects of our current stressful academic culture, is how gap time leads to more rested and focused students who are typically more excited about their studies following some time to decompress, explore the world, and choose experiences that light them up.

Additional advice Holly offers to parents and students:

• Do your due diligence on possible gap programs
• Plan carefully so you don't have too many gaps during your gap year
• Include some hands-on practical experience

Read more gap year insights in Ms. Gilbert's article on the Adult School website.

Interim alumna Bathsheba Demuth comments on her 1999 gap year

Bathsheba Demuth engaged in one of the most unusual and interesting experiences Interim had to offer during her gap year in 1999. At 18, she headed off to the town of Old Crow in the Yukon to help train sled dogs, some to compete in the Yukon Quest, a 1,000 mile international sled dog race across Alaska and Canada. Her writing about this experience was fascinating as she noted the combination of old and new within the Gwich'in community where she lived: seeing people wearing Calvin Klein jeans and moccasins, or eating caribou meat with Tater Tots. She went on to attend Brown University and is currently an Assistant Professor of History and Environment & Society at Brown with a new book just out called Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait. She is working on another book drawn from her experience in the Yukon.

Of her gap year she noted, "I can honestly say my gap year experience set the course for the rest of my adult life - from what I studied in college to my choices in graduate school to what I research and write about now, as faculty. I wouldn't be the same person now without it!"

Given College Costs, Can You Afford Not To Take a Gap Year? NYT Slide Show on Paying College Tuition

This recent NYT Opinion piece, filled with comments of College Graduates and Parents, highlights the potentially debilitating costs of college and college loans. The fact that students often take more than four years to finish college adds to the debt issue. According to the U.S. Department of Education, students take 5.7 to 6.4 years on average to complete degrees.

In comparison, Gap Year student research reveals that gap year students typically finish their degrees in four, or fewer, years. And their interests are more focused when they land on campus and they are more prepared to step into the work world post college after experiencing a half step into the world during a gap year.

Note the following potential savings when comparing 4 years of college costs to the 6 year average.

q

Public College Out of State:  

4 years = $149,720 versus 6 years = $224,580  

$74,860 extra cost 

§Private College:

4 years = $194,040 versus 6 years = $291,060

o$97,020 extra cost

It is also important to note that the cost of a typical gap year rarely comes close to a year of college tuition.

Feel free to contact us to learn how gap year options can save you time and money.

A Gap Year Can Help Make College Less Expensive

(This is our third post in a series on the economics of taking gap time.)

In the last ten years, the gap year concept has received widespread growth and acceptance nationwide. Anecdotal and empirical evidence often states that a well-planned gap year can be just as educational as a year of college, so it is not surprising that we are frequently asked, “Is a gap year really as valuable as we keep reading and hearing about? How does this all happen?”

The Gap Year Association website posts research conducted by Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson from their second book, “Gap Year: American Style”. Many of the gap year students used in their research are actually Center for Interim Programs alumni since we had one of the largest available pool of students - over 8,000 - dating back to 1980. Their research found that 90% of students who take a structured gap year return to college within a year.  98% of these students claim that their gap years helped them develop as a person while 97% claim that it increased their maturity. Additionally, 84% stated that their gap year helped them acquire skills to be successful in future careers and 73% say that their gap year increased their college readiness. 

With all these recognized advantages, colleges (e.g. Colorado College) are finding that gap year students are more likely to complete their studies in four years or less. In comparison, non-gap year students take 5.8 to 6.4 years to complete their degree which means 5.8 to 6.4 years of tuition and fees. Parents budgeting for four years of college tuition may not realize how typical it is for students to take more time than that to complete their degree as they change majors or schools in their efforts to sort out who they are and what work they might want to do in the world. Being a more efficient and focused gap year student minimizes this searching time within the classroom as well as college costs. And most gap years do not involve the expense of a full year of college tuition.

We have witnessed many of our gap year students finish college and continue on the path they discovered and decided upon with the help of their gap year. They often head straight into a career or further education with fewer doubts about their choice and direction. An added benefit is that a gap year resume can help students more easily land internships or jobs given the work skills they have accrued, along with a compelling sense of self and self-confidence that is palpable during interviews. 

If gap year college graduates start their careers immediately, they will begin to earn salaries and likely have the discretionary income they ideally planned for when they chose their major. They can more quickly pay off any college debt they might have incurred. All of these elements offer true economic value and the gap year plays a unique part assisting students position themselves more powerfully for the rest of their working lives.

Parents, Be Advised that a Gap Year Can Benefit a Student's GPA and Mental Health

Marcia Morris, M.D., is a psychiatrist at the University of Florida

What we at the Center for Interim Programs have been witnessing in the thirty-nine years we have been counseling students through the gap year process, is finally being seriously considered and researched by colleges and mental health counselors: the value of gap time in terms of student maturity, college attendance, academic performance, and mental health.

Marcia Morris, M.D., a psychiatrist at the University of Florida, looked into the benefits of a gap year after she was interviewed on NPR's radio show, On Point. The subject was the rising rate of mental health problems on campus and the role this played in one of three students leaving college during freshman year. A discussion on the show brought up the subject of a gap year and how elite colleges have long encouraged a gap year to increase maturity before college.

The Gap Year is Assisting More Students at All Economic Levels

A Gap Year is now proving to be beneficial to a wider pool of students who wish to attend college. The articles featured here explain how supporting efforts to discover our interests and become more mature are not only valuable to our personalities but to our educational, economic, and professional directions.

Value Colleges sees the Gap Year in this way, "A gap year gives young people the chance to mature, to learn more about their career goals, and to decide what path is right for them. Colleges lose when students aren’t prepared and drop out; students lose when they choose a college or major that isn’t the right fit." Please read how Value Colleges views the Gap Year and how 35 of their top rated colleges are fully in support of a Gap Year. Many are well known and prominent.

An article from PRnewswire looks at Value Colleges and states clearly that it considers Value Colleges "an independent online guide to the best values in undergraduate and graduate education". And that "Gap years have become a common way for students to improve their chances of admission and figure out their college and career paths."