Taking a 'Gap Year' Before College: Pros and Cons — Transcript

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1. 0:00it's no surprise President Obama's
2. 0:02oldest daughter Malia will attend
3. 0:03Harvard University the school from which
4. 0:05both her parents received law degrees
5. 0:08but what is raising some eyebrows as the
6. 0:11year off Malia will take a gap year as
7. 0:14it's called before she begins Harvard in
8. 0:16the fall of 2017 ken taking a year off
9. 0:19before college be beneficial to a
10. 0:21student Elizabeth Armstrong is professor
11. 0:23of sociology and organizational studies
12. 0:25at the University of Michigan and she
13. 0:27joins us now hi Elizabeth thanks for
14. 0:29being with us hi thanks for having me
15. 0:31so Elizabeth do you see this as being a
16. 0:34positive for almost any student I think
17. 0:37so
18. 0:38I think so I think that the additional
19. 0:40space to have some chance to grow up and
20. 0:44get some autonomy I think it's a good
21. 0:46thing
22. 0:46so clearly Malia Obama is in a unique
23. 0:49position but for other students whose
24. 0:52parents perhaps do not run the country
25. 0:53does taking a year off carry with it a
26. 0:56stigma that could be interpreted as
27. 0:58being lazy I don't think so
28. 1:01I think the main challenge is that
29. 1:04obviously most families don't have the
30. 1:06resources of the Obamas and the issue of
31. 1:11funding the gap year in a way that makes
32. 1:14it kind of developmentally useful in
33. 1:17some sense can be a challenge but
34. 1:19actually because for a lot of young
35. 1:21people simply kind of getting into the
36. 1:23workforce a little bit can be a good
37. 1:27thing so I have a question about that if
38. 1:29you are going into the workforce with
39. 1:32that gap year should you do something
40. 1:34that is career oriented or do you just
41. 1:37want to make some money and save up for
42. 1:39school well I think either because I
43. 1:42think in some ways one of the reasons
44. 1:44why a gap year can be very beneficial is
45. 1:47it's about sort of psychological and
46. 1:49emotional development to have the
47. 1:52maturity to handle the complexity of the
48. 1:54college environment getting some space
49. 1:56from parents getting some space from
50. 1:59everybody's expectations the
51. 2:01expectations of your peers of teachers
52. 2:05of parents and really trying to figure
53. 2:07out who you are as a person and what you
54. 2:10want and even just getting some
55. 2:12expertise with thing
56. 2:14like a laundry right maybe you know
57. 2:17balancing a checkbook things like that I
58. 2:19can see how taking that breather after
59. 2:20the stress of senior year can help sort
60. 2:22of clear your mind and and let you enter
61. 2:24enter college with a renewed sort of
62. 2:27purpose and energy but what are some of
63. 2:29the specific things that you recommend
64. 2:31students do with a gap year community
65. 2:33service internships what are some great
66. 2:36ideas yeah well I was just talking with
67. 2:39my son who's taking a gap year this year
68. 2:42he's taking a gap year after his first
69. 2:44year of college and his advice was
70. 2:45travel but don't do it with any kind of
71. 2:49program or travel agent just go arrange
72. 2:53it yourself buy the tickets yourself
73. 2:56just really go out into the world and
74. 3:00you know and do it on your own and for
75. 3:03that I mean he's funded he is his year
76. 3:06so I think that's part of it too it's
77. 3:08because the necessity is developing more
78. 3:11autonomy I think that if the kids can
79. 3:12kind of have some kind of skin in the
80. 3:14game in the sense of you know working to
81. 3:16make some money for the traveling kind
82. 3:20of having in your son's case did he save
83. 3:22up before sort of senior year he worked
84. 3:24to save up money for the gap year well
85. 3:27no he well actually he he took the first
86. 3:30year and then he spent the first
87. 3:31semester working landscaping just around
88. 3:34town to say about money well of course
89. 3:37that wouldn't have worked if he wasn't
90. 3:38sort of still like living living at home
91. 3:41and kind of being supported in a lot of
92. 3:43ways with me which comes back to the
93. 3:45privileged issue I mean that this is
94. 3:47it's really for this to really be
95. 3:49something that can be beneficial there
96. 3:53no there's a certain amount of financial
97. 3:55aspects to it may not may not it may
98. 3:57exacerbate inequalities in some ways
99. 3:59rather than level them so do we know how
100. 4:02common the gap year is among United
101. 4:04States students I don't know if there's
102. 4:07been any systematic research on that yet
103. 4:10I mean anecdotally I think it's becoming
104. 4:13more common I know at least so you know
105. 4:17one of my son's friends did it as well
106. 4:20when I talk to people when I when I talk
107. 4:24to people kind of my generation a number
108. 4:26of
109. 4:26are like oh yeah I kind of did that but
110. 4:29we didn't really talk about it then we
111. 4:32didn't have a name for it now it's
112. 4:33called the gap here there was just
113. 4:36taking some time off I can totally see
114. 4:38the benefits of it thank you so much
115. 4:40Elizabeth Armstrong for all that great
116. 4:42thanks a lot