Anyone here ever take a gap year before starting college

[LunarShadow 397]

So did anyone here after graduating high school take a gap year before starting college and if so did you regret that decision at all or did you feel you needed it?

[Truffles 2,033]

I took two, and I'm glad I did. It allowed me to get a full-time job and make enough money to pay for the entire first year of college on my own, and then student loans and Pell grants took care of the remaining years, the loan parts of which I then paid back after a decade or so. Of course, public colleges were a lot cheaper back in the 90's....

[LunarShadow 397]

I took two, and I'm glad I did. It allowed me to get a full-time job and make enough money to pay for the entire first year of college on my own, and then student loans and Pell grants took care of the remaining years, the loan parts of which I then paid back after a decade or so. Of course, public colleges were a lot cheaper back in the 90's....

I graduated high school last year and i am still on my gap year. I plan to start college this fall but i nonetheless regret taking such a long gap because its literally amounted to me just sitting at my computer these last 10 months. My day is eat > sleep > computer > repeat. It has made me feel a bit depressed with feelings of worthlessness. I very much regret taking this long off from doing anything. I suppose the only benefit from the whole thing is that it gave me time to really think about what i wanted to do but besides that i really wish i just took a 3 month break instead of over a year lol. I at this point can't wait to start school and i never thought i would say that. 

[Violet_S 785]

I wish I had that option... I was actually considering it but my parents were pressuring me to start college and to not wait any longer so I had no option >.< 

Edited March 13, 2017 by Violet_S

[LunarShadow 397]

I wish I had that option... I was actually considering it but my parents were pressuring me to start college and to not wait any longer so I had no option >.< 

Honestly it was probably for the best assuming you already knew what you wanted to do. Taking a gap year to do nothing but sit and play games after awhile just translates into misery and mild depression. 

[Violet_S 785]

The thing is that even if I know what I wanna do (for now) ..I actually wanted to take some time to think and clear my thoughts to think if I REALLY wanted this in the first place. I feel like I took a leap of faith and ended up choosing something I liked..but I could've been wrong >.> 

[LunarShadow 397]

The thing is that even if I know what I wanna do (for now) ..I actually wanted to take some time to think and clear my thoughts to think if I REALLY wanted this in the first place. I feel like I took a leap of faith and ended up choosing something I liked..but I could've been wrong >.> 

Yeah the first 3 months i had taken off was relaxing after that it just sucks. I needed a bit of time off after pushing myself so hard my senior year. I was originally thinking about being a History teacher or economist but after thinking about it i am going to do Law Enforcement. My gap year helped me reach that conclusion but at the expense of my sanity lol.

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

A gap year can be a good idea if you know what you want to do in it, but I'm glad I didn't - the jump in how academically challenging work was was bad enough as it was without a year in between to forget things.

 

The big problem I had was afterwards - it took me quite a while to find a job, and the longer it takes the more you have to explain the gap since graduating. Gaps before? Probably not such a big issue. Especially as the retirement age goes up, I suspect I have plenty of time to get where I want to go career-wise, so the feeling of losing time isn't too acute. 

[LunarShadow 397]

A gap year can be a good idea if you know what you want to do in it, but I'm glad I didn't - the jump in how academically challenging work was was bad enough as it was without a year in between to forget things.

 

The big problem I had was afterwards - it took me quite a while to find a job, and the longer it takes the more you have to explain the gap since graduating. Gaps before? Probably not such a big issue. Especially as the retirement age goes up, I suspect I have plenty of time to get where I want to go career-wise, so the feeling of losing time isn't too acute.All i

All i did was play games so it was a total waste of time.  

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

 

 

a total waste of time.  

 

I had the same feeling a fair few times after graduating (interspersed with job application rejections, which felt like other people's expressions of the same low opinion of me.) What I would encourage is to make a plan and in the long run it shouldn't matter - especially in law enforcement, where I understand having 'a bit of life experience' (read: being older) can help.

[LunarShadow 397]

I had the same feeling a fair few times after graduating (interspersed with job application rejections, which felt like other people's expressions of the same low opinion of me.) What I would encourage is to make a plan and in the long run it shouldn't matter - especially in law enforcement, where I understand having 'a bit of life experience' (read: being older) can help.

I already got a pretty solid plan in my mind which should hopefully lead to success. I am going to try and get a basic college degree in Law Enforcement. Something like an associates which takes 2 years. After that i want to join the Marines and be apart of the Military Police. I figure with all that i should have ample experience in law enforcement to make the likelihood of getting a job in the Michigan State Police easier. Once i have a job as a state trooper i will be pretty much set. Law Enforcement is one of those most stable, secure careers out there. Even in the worst of economic situations the possibility of being laid off is small.

[Sovereign Leader Rarity 12,006]

I would, but I can't. I can only have one AFTER I complete college.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But when I do, I AM GOING TO MAJORCA AND I AM NOT COMING BACK!!!!

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

I didn't have anything to do and I didn't want to get left behind so I didn't do a gap year.

[LunarShadow 397]

I didn't have anything to do and I didn't want to get left behind so I didn't do a gap year.

kinda wish i did what you did.

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

kinda wish i did what you did.

 

Yeah that's the thing, college/university is technically an excuse to live relatively easily for another 3 years. I wasn't sure what I would do with a year off and didn't really feel like seeking out a job so I just went straight into university so I could think more about what I'd do after.

[Envy 6,163]

I did not. A local community college was offering free tuition and even books (in the first semester, that did not last.) for those coming straight out of high school with at least decent GPAs. So it seemed like the only logical thing to do.

 

I'm curious to see how I would have handled the issues that came into my life that first semester (which would have happened regardless whether I was there or not), because I think being in college allowed me too easily to not handle them too properly. But I will never know.

[SONICchaos 824]

I really wanted to, or at least slightly regretting I didnt when I had the chance after high school. But given a particular situation it was beneficial for me not to.

 

My dad was a wounded Vietnam veteran and was receiving a disability payment from them every month. It really helped us out. But it also stipulated that any children of his can receivie VA stipends for going to any accredited secondary education. Meaning I get paid by the VA (not a loan so I dont have to pay it back) for every class credit I take per semester. It honestly wasnt THAT much considering University tuition and fee's but for Community College it was effectively a free ride. The caviot was I would continue to be paid until I turned 23 or stopped going to school. So it was in my benefit to start going as soon as possible to take advantage of the most amount of payments.

 

On its face its perfect but all the way through high school and even Community College...I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was going through SEVERE depression which completely killed my motivation, optimism, interests and desires. Nothing felt worth the effort but I had to commit to something because I knew I at least needed a 4 year degree. So I stuck it out picked a major that seemed interesting 3D Art and Animation and graduated college in 2011. Unfortunately there was no happy end to the story. I dont have the motivation to use my degree to find a job in the field and find the work involved to be boring. I also STILL dont have the any motivation, optimism, interests or desires to where I am or where im going in life.

 

So thats why I almost wish I could have taken a year off before college to find myself, or at least hoped to. Maybe I would have turned out different I dont know but it wasnt meant to be I guess.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

After I finished highschool, I only worked for the summer then enrolled in for digital animation at a technical institute. It was okay but the job market I advanced into was not very good, and I didn't take it seriously enough. After that, I worked for two years doing odd jobs and warehouses. Then I upgraded my high-school courses and enrolled for engineering, and now I've got an opportunity that's more than twice the pay of any work I've ever done for starting wage.

 

All in all, it will have been 7 years since I finished high-school. It's all been worth it in terms of how my wisdom has changed since then.

[LunarShadow 397]

I really wanted to, or at least slightly regretting I didnt when I had the chance after high school. But given a particular situation it was beneficial for me not to.

 

My dad was a wounded Vietnam veteran and was receiving a disability payment from them every month. It really helped us out. But it also stipulated that any children of his can receivie VA stipends for going to any accredited secondary education. Meaning I get paid by the VA (not a loan so I dont have to pay it back) for every class credit I take per semester. It honestly wasnt THAT much considering University tuition and fee's but for Community College it was effectively a free ride. The caviot was I would continue to be paid until I turned 23 or stopped going to school. So it was in my benefit to start going as soon as possible to take advantage of the most amount of payments.

 

On its face its perfect but all the way through high school and even Community College...I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was going through SEVERE depression which completely killed my motivation, optimism, interests and desires. Nothing felt worth the effort but I had to commit to something because I knew I at least needed a 4 year degree. So I stuck it out picked a major that seemed interesting 3D Art and Animation and graduated college in 2011. Unfortunately there was no happy end to the story. I dont have the motivation to use my degree to find a job in the field and find the work involved to be boring. I also STILL dont have the any motivation, optimism, interests or desires to where I am or where im going in life.

 

So thats why I almost wish I could have taken a year off before college to find myself, or at least hoped to. Maybe I would have turned out different I dont know but it wasnt meant to be I guess.

I suppose more or less it is a good thing i decided to take a gap year then. I mean when i graduated high school i had no clue what i wanted to do so just jumping right into college probably would have made me feel even worse if i wasted an entire year on something i wasn't interested in. I will be getting federal financial aid so i want to try and make the most of it.

[Princess_Bellalatanya 1,053]

i havent gotten to college yet but probably not due to ill be going to florida gateway college

[Corgis 574]

I took half a year off so I could work full time to get money since I only had a job for a few months during high school.  Worked great since I made a pile of money so I don't have to work during University except for the summers.  Also got some good workplace experience and learnt how terrible some no requirement full time jobs can be so I am even more motivated to stay in school then before.  I think it was a great idea overall for me since I learnt so much from working full time like that and I made above minimum wage for 42 hours a week on average so I was making close to 3 weeks pay at my part time job in a single week at my full time job so I did not have to worry about being behind in that department since most people work during high school but in half a year I had almost entirely caught up.

[Nerdy Luigi 2,065]

Originally, this year would have been my gap year and I would have went to UT Austin next year, but I wasn't quite accepted (though I was offered to transfer there from UT San Antonio).

 

Now, I'm unsure whether I'll even go to college or not. I'm thinking I may just take online coding classes because I don't have to move, they're a lot cheaper, and.. yeah. Better in my situation than getting stranded in the city of Austin without a car (and possibly a home because apartments there are RIDICULOUS...) because my dad won't fix my current options for vehicles, or even get anyone else to help him do it. Plus, I also have other ideas for things I could potentially do that could occupy me and generate income, in theory at least... (If I'm not too lazy to accomplish anything, like I seem to have been for the past 6 or 7 months...)

 

If I do, I'm probably just going to go to San Antonio next summer, but I'm really iffy about going to college at this point, just because it's REALLY FREAKING EXPENSIVE. I mean seriously. $9K a SEMESTER (That's on the cheap end). At the moment, I don't even have that much to my name, probably a good couple of thousand off (it's from Social Security checks). Meaning, student loans. Meaning absurd interest. Meaning I end up paying something astronomically insane at the end of it all. Something in the realm of a total of $150,000 or something just for a piece of paper that gets me a meh job after a few months of looking and possibly getting evicted from my apartment, because I can't pay for it. (My brother was REALLY lucky to be living near college with his friend's family that's willing to take care of him and bring him to college.)

 

So yeah. This is probably not a gap year as I may not go at all, instead finding an alternative that's way better in the short term.

[Stone Cold Steve Jobs 22,440]

The kids at my high school called it taking a year off, and it was as it sounded. They didn't even work in that year. As for me, I started college as soon as I could, I kept my nose to the books and manuevered my schedule around my class work, and I graduated with a 3.8 GPA. And now I am struggling to find a job I won't hate while simultaneously making use of my degree, and that's the story of the last six years of my life.

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

I did take a gap. I'm not sure if I've needed it, but I'm sure that college was unfulfilling, so I guess it would have been the same to me. But now, I can't wait to get a job, and study a career I actually want, and in a safer and healthier  environment 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

I took a gap lifetime (Never went) and never regretted it!