HOW TO DEAL WITH GAP YEARS IN THE ACADEMIC JOURNEY

It is often noticed that a lot of students wish to study abroad, but they are late in deciding to finally take the plunge due to some confusions, apprehensions or circumstances. When they are completely ready and convinced to move ahead with their plans to go to a foreign country to pursue higher education, they realize that there is a roadblock in their resume – gap year.

Nowadays, there is a growing popularity among the student fraternity to voluntarily skip a year or two before taking up a Master’s degree. The commonly used terminology for such a break is – GAP YEAR. Generally, the main intention behind taking gap years, is to take a breather, after pursuing a rigorous academic curriculum; so as to revive and rejuvenate completely, to enable oneself to focus on pursuing a Master’s or Doctoral program.

It is advisable that the decision to take gap years should be backed with a genuine purpose. If a student is serious about building a stable career, he/she needs to take conscious decisions. There needs to be complete clarity about how productively the duration of break would be utilized. Without a proper planning about the utilization of this time period would have consequences in future, that can be really tough to handle.

This necessitates a few points that the students should consider before planning to take gap years. A few reasons that can be considered are enumerated as follows:

1) To gain work experience in the relevant field.

2) To get a job for the purpose of earning money to fund higher education.

3) To explore other passions, desires and interests so as to gain better understanding of oneself.

4) To do some volunteer work or even work in an NGO to discover the humanitarian side in oneself.

5) To enroll in an internship program to acquire knowledge and skills that would be beneficial in the career path.

There may be many other valid reasons behind taking a break in the midst of an active academic journey. It is also quite important to be able to justify that the gap years would have no negative impact on future academic or career pursuits.

On the flip side, gap years come with their own baggage of concerns. When there is a sudden discontinuation of consistent educational engagements, it is natural to experience a certain degree of lacklustre in the overall competence level of an individual. One has also to consider the fact that he would lag behind his friends or peers, in the field of academics as well as career. There are chances of getting demotivated and disillusioned in the midst of the break. It is also highly probable that an individual would find it highly challenging to get back to the hectic schedule of classroom activities, coursework completion and exams.

It is vital to consider the decision of taking a gap year a very crucial one, where one should look into every consequence that can be encountered as well the urgency of the step itself. The reasons are supposed to be genuine and rational enough so that they can be justified well, whenever it is asked for by a university recruiter or employer.

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