Silver Lining: Roughly 25% Students To Take College Gap Year, Devastating Blow For Universities

8

Using the Coronavirus, left-wing authoritarians have been bulldozing our freedoms, imposing totalitarian restrictions and destroying our very way of life. Fear pornographers and panic promoters have seized our freedoms with no due process, through no process at all. Anyone who dissents or merely questions the draconian measures is smeared as a “racist” (!), neanderthal, would-be killer, etc.

But the left never considers the law of unintended consequences to their destructive policies.

The left co-opted the education system decades ago. The moronnial generation is sad proof of the intellectual bankruptcy produced by leftist inculcation and re-education.

Story continues below advertisement

Until now. We may be seeing a real break on the hold the left has on our young.

A recent national survey by Art & Science Group shows that the coronavirus pandemic is derailing the plans of many prospective college students. According to the data, 1 in 6 high school seniors are reconsidering attending college full-time in the fall. Of these, a third are considering a gap year, and another third might attend college part-time.

More students may take gap year in light of uncertainty caused by coronavirus pandemic

By Rick Ruggles World-Herald, May 3, 2020

Nora Stamp knew when she graduated from high school that she wanted to travel a bit, work a lot and move out of her parents’ house.

Stamp didn’t know where she wanted to go to college or what she might study.

She took time off — now popularly called a gap year — from school to grow up and become more focused.

That was four years ago. Now she is studying liberal arts at Metropolitan Community College and plans to go to the University of Nebraska at Omaha next year to study communications and property management.

“I enjoy school a lot more now that I want to do it,” she said. “I liked school, but not a lot” by the end of high school.

“I enjoy learning a lot more now,” said Stamp, 22, of Omaha.
Nora

Nora Stamp said she liked school, “but not a lot” by the end of high school. After taking a gap year, “I enjoy learning a lot more now,” said Stamp, who is a student at Metro Community College.

As the coronavirus has compelled schools to close classrooms and deliver programs online, some wonder how many high school graduates or college students might take a gap year, or a break from school. But the virus will most likely affect what can be done with a gap year, too.

Some schools, including those in the University of Nebraska system and the Nebraska State College System, have announced intentions to hold classes on campus in the fall. But many uncertainties involving the virus, schooling and large gatherings remain.

“The gap year world is humming,” said Holly Bull, head of a consulting firm in New Jersey that provides year-off advice. “Gap time is all about rolling with change anyway. How do I deal with the change that’s happening either inside me or outside me?”

Lina Stover, undergraduate admissions director at UNO, said some students might delay college to provide financial support to parents who have lost jobs during the pandemic.

Stover said the NU system and UNO are unveiling new scholarship programs this year, such as Nebraska Promise, to make the university more affordable. Nebraska Promise offers free tuition to in-state undergraduate students whose families earn less than $60,000 a year.

Stover said it’s a gamble to take time off between high school and college.

“We know that if a student takes a break, it is much harder to come back,” she said. “You lose momentum in terms of studying.”

Further, when people start earning nice paychecks, Stover said, they depend on them and make purchases, such as cars, that require them to keep working.

“I would argue that students would mature while in college,” she said. They can do internships and study-abroad programs through their university, Stover said.

There are many ways to take a gap year. They include working, volunteering, traveling abroad or domestically, joining AmeriCorps for public service opportunities, taking a class in art, discovering how to play the piano or learning a language.

Ethan Knight, executive director of the Oregon-based Gap Year Association, said 12 years of grade, middle and high school can leave a student’s mind in park. He took a gap year between his freshman and sophomore years in college, traveling to India and Nepal. He also sold Nike products for a while.

He called his gap year a way of “getting out and seeing new ways to do this thing called life.” His year off stimulated his curiosity, he said, and he returned to college with a stronger commitment to school.

Knight estimated that 40,000 American students annually take a gap year and that 90% return to college within a year of finishing their gap experiences.

The Baltimore-based Art & Science Group surveyed 487 high school seniors in March and found that 35% were considering taking a gap year. But in April, a survey of 1,171 showed a decline in that category to 16%, perhaps a result of colleges starting to announce their intentions to offer on-campus classes in the fall.

The Art & Science Group wrote of this period: “The only certainty is uncertainty.”

Jane Sarouhan, co-founder of Massachusetts gap-year counseling firm J2Guides, said students want to know what’s possible if they start a gap year in 2020.

“There will probably also be limitations on what they can do if they take a gap year,” she said. Gap years are linked by many to big trips, Sarouhan said, but the real aim is to pause to examine one’s interests.

She said that for some, a gap year in 2020 might involve doing research remotely, helping grassroots groups with fundraising and social media, learning a language from a teacher on the other side of the world, or assisting with COVID-19 analysis.
Nebraska universities expect drop in enrollment of international students this fall
Education
Nebraska universities expect drop in enrollment of international students this fall

By Rick Ruggles World-Herald staff writer

Families are assessing options and making contingency plans, Sarouhan said. Many families don’t want to pay full tuition, she said, if a semester of classes will be provided online, as most were this spring.

“Everyone’s trying to wait and see,” she said. “There’s so much uncertainty, and it’s quite overwhelming. … Nothing may look ideal this fall.”

Bull, whose late father started her consulting firm, the Center for Interim Programs, 40 years ago, said a year at college can be “an expensive party” if a student doesn’t know what he’s looking for.

She said she thought she was interested in marine biology until she took a gap year to do research in Hawaii. She discovered that she didn’t have the patience for it.
Elise

Elise Stouffer

In the Chicago suburb of Libertyville, high school junior Elise Stouffer intends to graduate early, in December, and take an 18-month break from school.

Stouffer said she has felt pressure to do well academically in Advanced Placement and honors courses. She said there is “no time to rest” while she and classmates compete to get into top colleges.

She is enthusiastic about college, she said, “but I don’t know if I could be successful going right back in” to school. She doesn’t know what she wants to study.

Working with Sarouhan, she has dabbled with the concept of “work exchanges,” in which she would work on an organic farm, or help a dog breeder or an art school, and be paid room and board in return.

Going abroad would be nice, she said, but working and gaining rich experiences are the key.

Omaha’s Nora Stamp has work experience as a barista, nanny, bartender, movie theater attendant and an apartment leasing specialist.

During her time off from school, she traveled to Florida and New York City. She took some online courses through Arizona State University. She said she was ready to experience life as an adult.

Stamp said she has learned a great deal through her experiences. Her parents tell her that she has grown up.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding. Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.

Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.

Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.

Follow Pamela Geller on
Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.

Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.

If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago

I’d like to know, how do they afford a gap year? It never entered my mind, back in the day to do that. I read somewhere that if they enroll at a college or a university, it often takes them six years to get a four year degree!
comment image

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
3 years ago

LOL, the atheist and communist indoctrination camps have to suspend their “educational” work, what a tragedy…NOT.

WolfNippleChips
WolfNippleChips
3 years ago

I hope we don’t run out of latte foam art history majors.

felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago

Let’s not forget those GENDER STUDY and QUEER STUDY students!
Just imagine the STRESS they have to endurse to get a degree in that useless garbage.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fr3WcCMGlJc/VJQh3j6dtdI/AAAAAAAABa8/WEkVyne6ApE/s1600/GWCripQueerStudies_LetterSize%2B(1).jpg

from parts unknown
from parts unknown
3 years ago

maybe those kids to use that gap year to realize just how much child abuse they’ve suffered at the hands of PS unionized teachers, pushing common core, soon to be pushing the completely bogus 1619 project, etc.

Worsethanitlooks
Worsethanitlooks
3 years ago

A few months of having your daily routine upset will not undo years of cultural indoctrination and high expectations. The tech industry has promised millions of kids the good life. Wait till they find out how many Asian kids are just as smart if not smarter and will work longer for less. Maybe then, they’ll come to appreciate why its called The Rust Belt.

Public_Citizen
Public_Citizen
3 years ago

The silver lining is a lot of non STEM University professors are going to have to figure out how to actually make a living if this comes about.
The administrators aren’t going to sacrifice their own jobs so that a bunch of otherwise useless drones can be kept on the payroll for doing nothing.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
3 years ago

Good for them. In my college experience I learned more chemistry on a bar stool and more pleasurable biology in a cat house.

I was tempted to author a book, “How I Stretched Four Hard Years of college Into Eight Easy Ones”.

Sponsored
Geller Report
Thanks for sharing!