Posted on 03/17/2014 7:33:28 AM PDT by reaganaut1
MEDFORD, Mass. — Colleges are paying students to take a year off after high school to travel, volunteer or do internships so that students of all income brackets can benefit from “gap years.”
A new program at Tufts University and existing ones at a handful of other schools aim to remove the financial barriers that can keep cash-strapped students from exploring different communities and challenge their comfort zones before jumping right into college.
The gap year program starting this fall at Tufts will pay for housing, airfare and even visa fees, which can often add up to $30,000 or more.
Although gap years are more popular in Europe, they have started to gain traction in the United States. About 40,000 Americans participated in gap year programs in 2013, an increase of nearly 20 percent since 2006, according to data gathered by a nonprofit called the American Gap Year Association.
In 2009, Princeton University began offering applicants gap-year aid based on need. Nearly 100 students have participated, volunteering in Brazil, China, India, Peru and Senegal.
The University of North Carolina offers $7,500 to gap year applicants, while students at Wisconsin’s St. Norbert College can receive financial aid based on need, although airfare isn’t covered.
Lydia Collins, a 19-year-old Tufts freshman from Evanston, Ill., said she took a gap year because she wanted to see what was outside of the classroom before committing to four more years of school.
(Excerpt) Read more at journalnow.com ...
‘Gap’ years can lead to “Aero-postal’ years......................
“If you want to take a year off before college, fine. Get a job!”
I absolutely agree. Or, spend a year doing public service of some sort.
This little bit of idiocy comes from the same people who, back in the 60’s, took time off to ‘find themselves’......................
-suspect I learned a lot more about the real world than any of these Tufts travelers will---
I used to do that in the summers, to earn money for room and board and misc expenses.
Four summers of factory/construction work is a motivator to stay the course.
Who wants to be “locked” into college?
Actually I think you are going to start seeing foreign universities trying to attract American students, who are tired of all the PC crap that’s infesting our Universities today.
“I think every kid should work at a dead end job for a year between high school and college.”
It was great for me to do this (construction, factory work, working for furniture and commercial movers, etc.). Saw lots of different perspectives and learned a lot. I would not, however, call any job that is honest, pays you, and that you can leave to move on to something else a ‘dead end job’. I know you didn’t mean it that way. Just saying...
Working in another country and paying one’s local living expenses would be a great educational experience. The experience would be diminished by having it subsidized.
Each gap year should begin with applying for work visas in other countries and learning where your labor is and is not wanted.
As a Tufts alumna, I am ashamed of Tufts not only subsidizing this, but what is to prevent a pre-student from taking up to $30,000, enrolling and then dropping out after the first semester? Things sure have changed since I went to Tufts. In the late fifties, tuition was raised by $200, and one of my “cash-strapped” classmates had to drop out. NO financial aid was offered to him.
As a Tufts alumna, I am ashamed of Tufts not only subsidizing this, but what is to prevent a pre-student from taking up to $30,000, enrolling and then dropping out after the first semester? Things sure have changed since I went to Tufts. In the late fifties, tuition was raised by $200, and one of my “cash-strapped” classmates had to drop out. NO financial aid was offered to him.
If you can’t afford to play in the Riveira, you could always get a job. My nephew just got back from Afghanistan (Reserves), 2/3 of his bonus earned and with loan repayment and GI Bill - he should graduate w/o loans.
Sounds like glorified internships for liberal interest groups to me, and not hands on charity work or volunteering. Did that student who worked in microfinance get out and help people living in the slums and eating out of the city dump? Did the student who went to Senegal work in the hospital for the elites, or some hut in the jungle? They are doing it for themselves anyway, so what they do is pretty much wasted effort.
gap year = go to Europe and experience how marvelous their welfare state is, then come back and incorporate that into your politics here.
I went to an engineering school with a coop program. Before and during my freshman year I worked at McDonald's and then a paper mill. Those jobs taught me much, especially that I needed to get a degree that would lead somewhere.
In my following years I worked in jobs that were related to my major. Most were fields I determined that I had no desire to continue in. One field stuck and that was where I made my career from the week after I graduated until when I retired. And I still consult in that area.
I "found myself" by working.
“They used to have gap years, it was called ‘joining the military.’”
Yep, pre college or post college, a tour of active duty in the military for most of us was a good thing and a real eye opener.
“I think every kid should work at a dead end job for a year between high school and college. If more kids did, a lot of the leftist nonsense colleges peddle wouldn’t stick.”
We have a younger female friend, who tried to con her parents into financing her to see America and the backward countries of the world.
Her Dad was transferred overseas, and he gave her enough money to live in a basic life style for 2 months, and when that money was gone, that was it. When she realized that she wasn’t getting any more money, she worked at minimum wages in fast food and retail stores. She got married to a loser and got a divorce in about a year.
Her parents moved back the states, and they paid for one semester at a community college, and two months rent in a small apartment and some groceries. She got more quote loser jobs and put herself through community college. Then, her parents helped her to relocate to a college town and followed the same pathway re money. They did pay for books and tuition. It took her several years to get a degree. She now has her own business and is very conservative versus the flaming liberal she was decades ago.
“Soon the Dems will be telling us that this “gap year” thing is an undeniable right, and asking us to pay for this, along with forgiving the student loans. “
Before that they will want us to pay for 5-6 years of pre school including breakfast, lunch and dinner and baby sitting costs.
Actually not really. Scholarships and academic aid is heavily leaned towards the well off who don’t really need it. Meanwhile poorer students subsidies said generous benefits with confiscatory interest rates on their loans.
As for the gap year, I think it’s a great idea for those who earn their way into that school. In fact all students should get such a great benefit for what universities charge these days.
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