Saturday, February 11, 2017
Research Blog #1: Initial Topic Idea
For my final research paper I will be researching the gap year. Taking a year off after graduating from high school or receiving an undergraduate degree is becoming more and more popular and I would like to research why, who it is the most beneficial for, and what the time off is used for in various cases (example comparing between students from different social classes or majors).
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This is an interesting topic, and one that received a lot of attention recently when Malia Obama decided to take a gap year -- see here for example:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/us/malia-obamas-gap-year-is-part-of-a-growing-and-expensive-trend.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/05/how-common-is-a-gap-year/480921/
The main theme in most of the commentary I read is that gap years are seen most often as an option for the children of the affluent, who have the family connections or the money to make good use of that year working or interning somewhere interesting or traveling around the world. Some see it as the modern version of "The Grand Tour" experience, which was de rigueur from the 17th into the 19th centuries for aristocratic young British boys -- though often with the goal of becoming more competitive for college at a time when cultural knowledge and languages were more important for admission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv9al35xtsA
Today I think it is still most common among the affluent, but it is usually undertaken by recent high school grads who have already gained admission to an excellent college and simply delay acceptance.
I wonder if the gap year phenomenon is becoming more common among less affluent students, or if there are people who say it should be more common -- especially with such high drop out rates for less affluent students and the importance of money in all of their college decisions. A gap year might help less affluent students get more serious about college, as they recognize that there are really no good employment options without a degree. Meanwhile, they might gain more maturity in general and earn a bit of money by working.
I remembered Jeffrey Selingo's book There Is Life After College, which has a section on gap years:
ReplyDeletehttps://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/gap-year-may-have-benefits-long-after-college/
https://www.amazon.com/There-Life-After-College-Navigating/dp/006238886X