Tufts’ new strategy for encouraging students to take a gap year
Approximately 55,000 students took a gap year before their freshman college year to volunteer, intern, travel and work. For those who would like to supplement their collegiate academic experience with a cross-cultural experience, this is a welcome statistic. And gap years seem to pay off in the long run, as gap years seem to correlate with increased employability, higher GPA, higher wages, higher motivation and much more (see the American Gap Association's list here). For some families, though, the reaction to a gap year is likely to be: that sounds great, but who has the extra money for that? And that’s what makes what Tufts has recently announced so appealing.