JudyAron (In case you missed the interview, here is an interview with Judy) is working on e-publishing a book later this year. The following is a selection, posted with permission, from the book.
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Delayed Entry - by Judy Aron
copyright 2006 by Judy Aron
Sometimes starting college means deferring entry for a year. Yes, you heard me correctly. There are colleges that ask you to go off and do something interesting with your life before settling down to college coursework. They are even offering many benefits to those students who defer for a year. For example, I know of one young man who worked and traveled through 5 continents last year before he started his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania.
Why would colleges ask you to do such a thing?
Well for one thing they try to offset some of their large freshman classes and it relieves the problem of crowded freshman dormitories. One such college that is doing this is Dartmouth in New Hampshire, and they will even give students free room and board if they choose to go off and relax and travel the world.
Many students already have a fully loaded senior year of high school (homeschoolers included!!) and admissions officers are seeing a larger pool of very qualified students. They send out many application acceptances and cannot predict well enough how many of those will turn into actual attendees. They also have seen that too many students show up pretty burned out by their freshman semester. So in response, colleges have seen that it is a good idea to have the option for students to take a year off and relax, travel and work a bit. On Harvard's web site there is a paper entitled "Time Out; Or Burn Out for the Next Generation" which outlines opportunities available to explore during an interim year.
One of the biggest benefits that colleges like Harvard, Dartmouth and UPenn have seen is that these students come back with a clearer picture of what it is they would like to do. Students come to school with fresh new insights and experiences that help them to contribute to their classroom and overall college experience. They return home with solid ideas about where they want their college career to take them. For instance, they may decide after working on some environmental project in the Amazon that they want to pursue studies in science regarding renewable energy, or in International Relations. They may also find out that working with animals is definitely not for them. It also gives them once in a lifetime travel opportunities. Additionally, these kids make global connections and are able to network with people outside of their own backyard. They learn to speak other languages more fluently and they have a better understanding of the world.
Programs such as Americorps, CityYear and others offer great learning experiences in the United States and abroad. The Center for Interim Studies is an agency that offers their services in helping students find internships, jobs and travel and they have seen an enormous rise in interest. More and more kids are trying to figure out what it is they want to do before they plunk down thousands of dollars in college tuitions. It just makes a lot more sense nowadays to start college when you are more prepared to pursue something specific especially since kids are already coming to college with a good amount of college credit through AP exams and CLEP's and college courses under their belts.
If you are interested in deferring for a year, contact the college that you are looking to attend and see if they have such a program. If they do not, then you may want to reconsider your college choice.
Check out places like The Center for Interim Studies, Willing Workers on Organic Farms,
City Year and Americorps.
There are also homeschooling parents with children who have benefited from these programs, so ask around in your homeschool group.
There is a world of opportunity out there for you! So check it out.
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