Higher education has different meanings for different people.
To some, higher education means freedom or escape from family and tradition. It can also mean learning about and expressing oneself, setting out to understand the world and what it has to offer.
To others, it is constant stress and fatigue, a jumbled ball of red tape, promises unmet and mistakes that may change the course of one’s life. Students often find that they are in control of themselves for the first time ever, and the consequences of the decisions they make have never been clearer than now.
There are many drastic ways people interpret their time in higher education, and no matter what it means to you, this last year has been remarkable in its ability to change everything for everyone.
COVID-19’s ability to spread quickly and silently created a perfect storm for educational systems. With dozens, if not hundreds, of students packed into lecture halls and often less than a foot between them, transmission is inevitable. According to the CDC, the smart thing for the world to do is to shut down for a bit and ensure everyone is able to stay home and remain safe until a vaccine is developed.
According to WorldoMeter, there is no chance of decline in the rates of COVID-19. Businesses, schools and sports are opening as if the pandemic has ended. As a result, students and employees across the country are faced with making decisions that will inevitably aid the spread of the coronavirus.
According to the World Socialist Web Site, students everywhere are being blamed for the spread of COVID-19 after school has started up globally. Some students wonder about the viability of gap years to do their part in defending against the spread of the virus.
A gap year is a period of time students use to take a break from education. They present a solution for students with educational burnout, individuals with disabilities to spread out their time more meaningfully, to pursue work and financial stability, to feel more comfortable within the educational system and many other issues that people find themselves facing in higher education. However, this does not mean the world thinks highly of gap years.
“I think the public consensus is that they are for students who don’t exactly know what they want to do,” said Sam Cahue, ’20. “I think they have a negative perception, like it implies you don’t know what you are doing or that you are lazy.” When asked about how people view gap years, usually, their responses are not positive.
“I feel like people haven’t quite come around to (gap years) as much,” said Robert Baldino, ‘20. “I feel like they’re still a little stereotyped to be like a bit of a cop-out.”
Not only are students afraid of how they might be perceived, but school administrations often don’t make the process of taking a gap year easy. Some people can’t financially support taking a gap year, especially when scholarships and FAFSA can cut your aid if you do decide to take one, according to Edmit. Students who decide to take a gap year during the pandemic may find themselves unable to recover the loss of scholarships and unable to pay or take out necessary loans. Students who take a year off could ultimately risk not being able to return.
Among the excessive stress many students find themselves under, students in some ways are being financially strong-armed into remaining at their institution, adding far more stress and pressure to an already aggressively challenging part of their lives. For incoming first-year students, transfers, students who already battle the academic red tape of disability services and others, their lives became that much more difficult.
A solution many schools are offering is online learning. According to EDWeek, there is heavy debate on the effectiveness of well-done online education. The rushed and shoehorned online education that many universities are deploying is “not a suitable replacement for traditional classroom learning, especially at the college level,” said Cahue.
The unfortunate truth is that gap years are immensely helpful for many students who need them, and this year, students who need these gap years will be the students not able to take them. Students won’t be able to travel or sightsee, and for many, that’s the entire point.
“Gap years are commonly used to gain more experience in your field doing fellowships or research assistantships,” Cahue said. For some, the need for work, further education and personal peace of mind is imperative to creating a better educational experience.
“It’s a rough one out there,” Baldino said. “I mean, not just like financially and with employment, but also just mentally and emotionally for a lot of people … I think it’s important for colleges to support doing college well instead of just doing college.”
