Gap Year or Goal Year?

As colleges and universities across the nation announce suspension of in-person classes for fall 2020, 40 percent of incoming freshmen at four-year institutions say it is likely or very likely they will not attend college this fall.

This decision amounts to a “gap year” without any of the perks. A practice that has long been popular in Europe, a gap year is a time for students to take a break between high school and college for the purpose of travel, work experience or volunteerism. The practice has grown in awareness and popularity in the U.S. in the past decade. For many students, a gap year has become a valuable time for personal growth and an opportunity to deepen professional awareness and explore career interests.

Covid-19 has changed all that. The pandemic has rendered travel nearly impossible, and job and volunteer opportunities are few and far between. At the same time, the increased danger of attending classes on a college campus has prompted many of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, such as Notre Dame, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michigan State, to switch to primarily online instruction for incoming freshmen.

This has left many students and their parents questioning exorbitant tuition rates, when the same high quality of instruction, with fully transferable courses, is available online from a community college at a fraction of the cost.

Recently, students at Rutgers launched a petition calling for a tuition cut, and it has received more than 30,000 signatures. Princeton has offered its students a 10 percent discount on remote education. The majority of California’s four-year colleges and universities are also limiting instruction to primarily online offerings, but at a cost much higher than the same courses at a California community college.

Rather than deferring the start of a college education that could change the course of your future and help you achieve your dreams, why not give your goals a shot? Enroll at a local community college—and do it now—and make your gap year a goal year instead.

About the Author:

Dr. Edward C. Ortell is the senior governing board member at Citrus College and a Professor Emeritus at Pasadena City College. He has served on the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) state board of directors and 11 terms as president of the Citrus College Board of Trustees.