More students take year off between high school and college

Around the time her former high school classmates are cracking college textbooks, Perrin Ireland will head to Honolulu to assist in a research project with dolphins.

While they're brushing up for fall semester finals, Ireland plans to be in South America, taking Spanish lessons. The end of their freshmen year will find Ireland in Greece, studying Aegean art and creative writing.

It's what the English call the "gap year," a traditional break between high school graduation and starting college. Prince William took his three years ago; royal Prince Harry began his gap year earlier this month.

And in America, it's becoming more commonplace among students well-off enough to take a year to indulge their interests.

"I guess I'm really in no rush to be done with college," said Ireland, who has put off the start of her education at Brown University. "So I figured there was no harm to give myself an extra year to digest and explore."

Not only are many colleges amenable to deferring admission for students like Ireland, some actually recommend a year off before starting classes as a means to mature emotionally and intellectually.

"It's not that people find themselves in a year and then walk off happily into the sunset," said Gail Reardon, the owner of "Taking Off," a private Boston-area counseling service that helps students, such as Ireland, plan sabbaticals.

"But it does start a process of learning skills and looking at yourself. It gives you the maturity, self-esteem and independence to think outside the box. It's an evolution."

Reardon, the co-author of "Taking Time Off," said a gap year offers young people the first flush of freedom from parents, minus the academic obligations of higher education.

"For me, college wasn't my first time without a curfew," said Colin Hall, who backpacked through Africa before attending school in the late 1990s.

Not all students use the year off to visit exotic places.

John Bloch of Cincinnati, an aspiring culinary arts major, is postponing his freshman year to spend 10 months as an AmeriCorps volunteer teaching underprivileged children, building homes for Habitat for Humanity and cutting trails for the National Park Service.

"It's just a personal choice of mine to help and support the country and learn more about myself, the community I live in and the United States as a whole," he said.

For students unable to raise the money, of course, skipping a year before starting college isn't an option. Reardon acknowledged that the gap years she helps to arrange attract "middle and upper class kids by virtue that it does cost something."

Drew Harry said the benefit of deferring his start at the Olin College of Engineering could never be measured in monetary terms.

After a year in Europe, Harry arrived at Olin's Needham, Mass., campus last fall more mature and eager to learn at an engineering school that opened its doors just two years ago. Olin also encourages incoming students to take a year off.

"It made the college transition a lot easier," said the Providence, R.I.-native. "I could focus more on academics because I was more self-reliant. I could handle myself. I could get my laundry done and get groceries and stupid things like that."

To guarantee they'll still be able to attend the school of their choice, Reardon and other counselors advise students taking a year off to go through the admissions process prior to asking for a deferral.

Once that deferral is granted, they suggest spending the year pursuing areas of interest related to their college studies.

"I always recommend, don't take a year off, take a year on," said John Boshoven, a counselor in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Don't count it as a year that is separate from your life, but connect to what you want to do the rest of your life."