While Hanson Grant’s friends were packing up boxes to furnish their dorm rooms in 2012, he was packing up his Subaru Outback. Rather than heading to college like everyone else, Grant headed west from his home in Saratoga Springs, New York to Yosemite National Park. There, he spent two months as a housekeeper for a park lodge before heading to Lake Tahoe for a two-month stint as a skiing instructor.
“It was an absolutely spectacular experience,” Grant, now 23, says. It gave him insight into his personality, his career goals and the privilege of getting a higher education. When he started classes at Babson University after a semester off, he felt energized and prepared to dive into his studies. Grant graduated in 2016 and is the CEO and founder of Think Board, which developed a film that can turn any surface into a whiteboard. He attributes his success in business and school partly to the lessons he learned during his semester off.
[Read: The Gap Year: Good Idea or Bad for Your Teen?]
Known as a gap year — or in Grant’s case, a gap semester — taking time off between high school and college is on the mind of many young adults. Booking.com polled 250 students ages 16 to 18 in 2016 and found a third were considering taking time off after graduating high school. “A gap year allows a student time to mature, become more confident in their academic and extracurricular pursuits and prepare for the rigors of college education,” says Rebecca Pettitt, a career advisor at the University of Puget Sound. “The common thread of a gap year well spent has to do with exploration.”
Here are five tips to help you have a gap year done right.
Have a plan. Danielle Harris, assistant dean for student success at Texas A&M University, says having a good gap year starts with having a good plan. Students should understand what they hope to accomplish during the year and decide how they will achieve those goals. This prep work should be done in advance of starting the gap year. “If you wait until the last minute, it precludes you from a lot of things,” Harris says. Internships might be filled, travel could become unaffordable or unanticipated obstacles could arise.
[Read: Kids Headed to College? Don’t Let Them Delay Your Retirement Plans.]
Defer admission. One risk associated with a gap year is potentially missing the application deadline for the following year of college. This can be avoided by applying for college now and then deferring admission until after the gap year is complete. Not all schools offer this option, but it can be a useful tool when available.
Start early. Grant spent the summer after his senior year at home, the same as all his friends who were heading off to college. In hindsight, he says that was a mistake. Instead of waiting until his friends left for college, he wishes he had started his gap year activities in May to allow more time to pursue them.
Build your resume. While travel is often a part of gap year experiences, work is just as important. Having a job can provide money for college, fill in a resume and develop a skill set that helps students succeed in the classroom. “Time spent in the workforce helps students understand professional expectations,” Pettitt says. “From McDonald’s to Microsoft, organizations require their employees to arrive on time and prepared.”
Finding a job, particularly one that will help a student discern life goals, isn’t always easy. “The student has to take the initiative to work their network,” Harris says. That means getting in touch with friends, acquaintances and mentors from school, church and organizations such as scouting groups.
Harris also advises trying out jobs even if they don’t seem like a perfect fit. “Work experience is always beneficial, even if it’s to [learn] this is what I don’t want to do,” she says.
[Read: 7 Things to Know Before Co-Signing a Student Loan.]
Do something big. Grant is emphatic: Don’t waste your gap year at home. Instead, think big. “A lot of people are going to want to stay home for the first half [of the year] and then do something cool the second half,” he says. “I would flip that.”
Exploring the world and embracing personal development are core reasons behind many gap years. When people tell Grant they need to work and save money before traveling, he tells them, “Go work at Subway in Australia.” For Grant, working even a menial job — such as his housekeeping employment — takes on a new dimension when done in a different locale. While it doesn’t always feel comfortable, it provides a perspective on life that can open the door to new career possibilities.
A gap year isn’t for everyone, but it can reap dividends for those who are uncertain about their future. Rather than rushing into college and wasting money on the wrong degree, taking a year off can provide insight that saves money and expands horizons.
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How to Make the Most of a Gap Year originally appeared on usnews.com
