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To Gap Year or not to Gap Year? We hear both sides
With results in, the all important decision on many school leavers minds is, ‘should I take a gap year or not?’. Whilst there is obviously no right or wrong answer, we find out the pros from both sides of the fence
Archie Cleverly alumni of Harrow School on the pros of having a gap year
There are so many great reasons to take a gap year after leaving school, but for me, the most convincing reason was how much fun it was. I was lucky enough to do 6 months away, travelling to both South America and South East-Asia and despite it being a cliché, I genuinely had the best 6 months of my life.
It’s such a good opportunity to go travelling around the world with your best mates, with amazingly few things to worry about, whilst seeing and experiencing some epic places and cultures.
Despite some people being hesitant due to worries of ‘falling behind’ your friends who may start working before you, I most certainly do not regret it. In fact it’s quite the opposite, with inevitably many years of work ahead, delaying that by one year seems a no brainer for me!
On top of having huge amounts of fun, you also gain really useful skills, including some much welcomed independence, organisation and budgeting skills! Further, the work done beforehand provides a really good opportunity to bolster ones CV.
All in all, I think not taking a gap year is a huge opportunity missed and I couldn’t recommend taking one more. I could not have had a better time and it is an experience that will stay with me for life!
Sam Dawson alumni of Eton College on the pros of not having a Gap Year
Weirdly, the reasons I chose not to take a gap year before heading to university haven’t actually turned out to have been the main advantages of the decision for me!
My original choice, as a language student, was based on the idea that I would have the opportunity to travel abroad in my 3rd year and whilst I did manage to get away to Europe, my plans to work in South America didn’t materialise.
Looking back, this is a very small advantage of not taking a gap year. For me, the chance to throw yourself into a different friendship group (as a result of most of my friends taking a gap year) and have a different university friendship group to my friends from home is by far the best part. At popular universities, such as Edinburgh, this has allowed me to remain friends with my mates from school who took gap years as well as making new friends, and this opportunity to have two different friendship groups that often end up merging is incredibly fun and refreshing!
If I were to go back, I 100% would not change my decision, I’m so happy that I didn’t take a gap year and genuinely think it has made my university experience a better one.
