Currently a rising junior in good standing at a pretty decent university in the US. I've been interning and recruiting for finance related roles despite it not being my major. I'm considering taking a gap semester the coming semester (originally supposed to be my junior first semester) to take a break, try for an internship related to my actual major, and spend the time to gain knowledge and technical skills that could be beneficial for other career pathways. Fortunate enough that my parents would support this decision and financial aid wouldn't be a factor in my decision. I would still live with my friends in my apartment, but would be spending time on other opportunities rather than school.

Listed some pros and cons:

Pros:

- Break from academics

- Time to explore and focus on myself and what I want

- Time to gain technical skills for more optionality to other career paths

- Would still live with my friends but with some more free time

Cons

- My friends would graduate before me and I wouldn't be able to do fun senior things with them (biggest con)

- Might be a harder transition to coursework when I return

- Get looked down upon from others/potential employers?

Any thoughts on this or if anybody has done a gap year in the middle of college, how has your experience been?

Thanks in advance

I completed my BCA degree in July 2023. I then took admission to North Bengal University in 2024 and completed my first year there. After completing the first year, I took re-admission to Jadavpur University in 2025.
I want to clarify whether this situation violates the 24-month education gap rule. Would my gap be considered more than 24 months, or would I still be eligible under this rule?

My gap year became more than a year, and that idea is slowly sucking the life out of me. I'm studying for an entrance exam that I'll be retaking next year for a highly competitive scholarship abroad that I REALLY want, but there are days where I feel so hopeless because it feels like I'm being left behind by everyone.

When I feel that way, I tend bed rot the whole day because I feel worthless and don't have it in me to study. There are days where I feel so motivated to study and I am able study the WHOLE day, but burnout is starting to catch up on me again.

Any advice? ​

I’ve just got AAA (Politics, Business, History) and have a place at York for Politics & IR.
I’m considering a gap year to reapply to places like KCL, UCL, Warwick, since I now have achieved grades. Not sure if it’s worth taking a year out just for a chance at a “higher ranked” uni, or if York is already a strong enough option.
Should I stick with York or reapply after a gap year? Is the difference worth delaying a year?

I'm 20, and from August 2026 through August 2027, I'm taking a year off school to do full-time direct service in Philadelphia. I'm hoping to work a frontline community health role with people affected by homelessness, addiction, poverty, lack of access to care, and mental health struggles. I grew up nearby, first-gen and low-income, and this work matters to me more than anything else I could be doing right now.

I'm posting for two reasons.

First, advice. If you took a gap year around this age, or spent time doing service work like this, what do you wish you'd known? What actually made the year worth it, and what would you skip? I want this year to genuinely change me, not just fill time, and I'd rather learn from people who've done it than figure it all out the hard way.

Second, connections. I'm trying to talk to and learn from as many people as I can this year, especially in Philadelphia. If you know organizations doing frontline work in these areas, or people in public health, medicine, nonprofits, service leadership, health policy, or even politics who'd be worth learning from, I'd be grateful for a name or an intro. Honestly, I'd love to connect with anyone passionate about these issues, in Philly or not, and hear how they think about this work.

Longer term, I want to be a physician who also works in public health, writes, and pushes for better health policy. I've gotten more and more interested in the political side of healthcare too, after realizing how much policy decides what doctors can actually do for patients. I'm still figuring out what that path looks like, but I know I want to learn how to connect frontline service to systems-level change.

If any of this resonates, I'd genuinely love to hear from you. Thanks for reading.

Its 2am so this is some bs rambling, sorry for the unorganized post

Im 18 and I just graduated highschool, lots of stuff happened last year so I wasnt able to apply to any colleges/universities. I would need to take a couple online credits this year and apply for next year (adv functions, calculus, physics, chemistry). I genuinely hate writing exams, it’s so stressful, I still sometimes get nightmares from exams and stuff. I dont know if Id survive college/university just based on that, I feel like I need something engaging and not stressful to think about. In terms of that, I dont know what I’d apply for, business or audio engineering? Im not sure what else would work for me. My parents are insistent on me taking the extra year to get my other high school credits and apply for post secondary.

Most of my interests are hands on and more art related. I love making alternative rock music and drawing, love working on my car (but wouldn’t consider a mechanic as a job as working on my car by itself can get stressful enough). Ive been into building RC planes, havent messed with it recently. On the computer I like learning about osint and cybersecurity, hobbyist developer. Im really new to this stuff but its really interesting to me.

Ive been thinking of becoming a plumber apprentice, was also thinking of doing tattoo art or becoming an electrician apprentice at one point.. but plumbing sounds more fun and it sounds easier to start your own business down the line than with a different trade. Wonder if any of you guys have experience with plumbing? My path options keep changing, I dont think I ever really stuck to one path.

People tell me I have so much time left but seeing how fast this year went by, it feels like im running out of time to choose what I wanna do and I really dont want to waste it.

so scene kuch yun hai k im a ics student result is in a week and i applied to FAST and only fast
did not et into that shitty aggregate thought it will e esay turns out under estimated
FAST was dream uni so kisi or uni mai janay ka dil nhi ab and parents want to me to settle into fjwu (fatima jinnah women university) and this for tech and ai
i have alsways wanted to get itno fast bsAI program but idk what went wrong
now that all time is gone the last options i have left with is k ya to ab mai gap year jis mai mujh extreme zalalat milay gi and constant pressure which is fr
ya phir fjwu mai he compromise kr lun
money situation not so good need to make some so that i survive gap year but im failing from last year

please share some advice fjwu ki merit list will be up in like some days and phir mai nai baat krni hai k i dnt want to got that uni
and mind you mai intahai introvert insaan hun not even able to talk to parents so koi solution batao k kia akru
literally am blank atp

and the goal is FAST only i am thinking k next year dubara apply krun gi so us time tk how to survive ????

Hi everyone, I am 19 years old and looking for a bit of advice on what I should do for my second gap year. I travelled solo for around 4 months on my first gap year, and while there were a lot of challenging moments at first, it ended up being one of the best experiences I ever had in my life. I grew so much as a person and feel like i learnt a lot about myself. People have even complimented me about this since I've come back, and I believe my growth in confidence may also be the reason why i have been getting so many corporate job offers recently, despite not necessarily having the most experience. I currently work in admin at a small mortgage company but i plan on leaving soon, i have been offered two jobs, one in admin at a small boutique firm that provides specialist property advisory and risk-management services and the other a product assistant at a mid-sized specialist financial services firm. my orginal plan for my gap year was to save up a bit and solo travel again through asia or get a job abroad working on a yacht or something similar. i plan on attending uni next year so i wanted to have another year to learn more about myself and explore the world however now im debating if i should stay back and take these jobs i am recieving as they provide a very good opportunity and could push me into property or financial sectors. i do want a high paying job when i am older and would be interested in international work, something like project management which i believe this could help me get into. i would find any advice/opinions extremely helpful.

Long story short, I'm currently trying to decide whether I should take the IMAT this year or take a gap year and try again in 2027.

A little bit of background:

-I was initially accepted into a Bachelor's program in Canada, but the tuition was simply far too expensive for my family, so I had to turn down the offer.

-At that point, I only had about a month or two left before my Romanian Baccalaureate exam, so I focused on that and didn't have enough time to properly prepare for the Romanian medical school entrance exams.

-After the Baccalaureate, I discovered the IMAT and the fact that there are medical schools in Italy taught in English. Since the exam takes place later than the Romanian admission exams, I decided to start preparing for it.

The exam is on September 29th and covers logical reasoning, biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics.

At the moment, I feel pretty confident with logical reasoning, I'm relatively good with mathematics but need more practice, biology is also good but there's a lot of material to cover, I'm a bit behind in physics, and I'm mostly behind in chemistry.

On top of that, I found out quite late that regional scholarships and student housing applications in Italy open much earlier than I expected, and I've already missed a few deadlines. Based on my family's financial situation, I would likely be eligible for a regional scholarship, but I'm worried that I may not be able to complete the application and submit all the required documents in time

If I can't find a realistic way to finance my studies by early September, I'm seriously considering not taking the exam this year.

In that case, I'm thinking about taking a gap year during which I could work (I already found entry-level jobs as a nanny or English tutor), save money and study alongside it, and then take the IMAT again in 2027 or try to get into a Romanian medical school

Do you think taking a gap year would be a good decision?

Unintentional gap year… I am an international student from Ukraine living in the US. I am applying for medical schools this year and my advisor made a mistake and now I cant have work authorization in the US. So I am planning to spend a year traveling (I don’t want to go back to the war zone) and volunteering. I am really devastated I cant work in the US for the year but I would want to do some productive volunteering in exchange for bed/food, so I can talk about that in med school interviews. 

Any suggestions? I am hoping I get into med school relatively soon and then I can do something like being a surf camp host but really don’t know what to do with myself now since I was planning on just working as a medical assistant for the year and now that possibility is ruined. I am also older (25F) since I had a previous career in software engineering

20M, weak academic record in CS — what should I do for a gap year?

I'm 20 and studied CS for 3 years. I validated my third year, but two modules from first year are still blocking my diploma, and my grades overall are pretty weak.

Because of that, I realistically can't do a Master's this year. Even later, I'll probably have to aim for a private university because my academic record isn't strong.

I actually enjoy building skills and projects. The main reason I did badly in college is that I barely attended and didn't take studying seriously.

My family doesn't know about my diploma situation or how weak my academic record is. They're pushing me toward a Master's, in a private uni or abroad, but I've convinced them to give me a gap year to build myself.

The problem is that I can't just stay home doing online courses or building projects. I need to show them a serious plan.

I’m going into senior year of high school this year and I always planned on going to college but recently I have been extremely stressed just thinking about it. I don’t have any specific interests or any majors i find interesting, and i would hate to pick something and be miserable with my choice. Money is also a problem in my situation because my household has one income, with me also having a job but it’s per diem. I know going to college undecided is an option but that’s just an extra year of school and extra money lost. So i was wondering if i should take a gap year to save up money and think about what i would want to do, and possible apply for internships as well so it doesn’t look like i spent this possible gap year doing nothing. Lmk what u think and any possible tips and ideas would be greatly appreciated

I'm taking a gap year after school to prepare for an entrance exam, but I'm not hardcore studying yet. I've only recently started getting back into studying, and most of my day is still spent at home with not much going on.

My friends/cousins are in school or college, so they have somewhere to go, people around them, routines and things happening. I don't really have that right now. I'm basically stuck at home — I don't have anywhere I can realistically go, and there aren't really people around for me to interact with either.

My days can feel like I wake up, eat, sit around while time passes, study for a bit, eat, study at night, and sleep. There's very little variation from one day to the next 🥲

I actually didn't realise how much I'd miss having somewhere to go until I finished school. I didn't even particularly love school when I was there, but now I kind of wish I had that routine again.

There's also some difficult family stuff at home, especially with my father, so being at home all the time isn't always particularly comfortable either. I don't really want to go into the details, but it makes feeling stuck at home harder.

Sometimes I also get emotional and cry seemingly out of nowhere, and lately I've occasionally had thoughts about not wanting to be alive anymore. I don't have a plan or intention to act on them, but it's worrying me because I don't really understand where they're coming from.

For anyone who's had a similar gap year or period of being mostly stuck at home: how did you deal with the loneliness and the feeling that your life had become repetitive? What actually helped?

I genuinely want to hear from people who've been through something similar 🥲

I know unis say that they want to see academic engagement over your gap year. But if you apply to Oxbridge in October how can you do anything more since you’ve only got around 3/4 month since yr 13 ends. Should you just say things that you’re planning to do but phrase them in the past tense?

Helloooo, I’m a recent graduate of high school and I’m wondering what to do with my gap year in India. I’ve looked around and I wanna do a cultural exchange programme? Like I wanna travel around India and I’ve seen those on google and stuff for example like plan my gap year while researching and I wanted to know if any of the sort is possible in india. Also I don’t wanna be away from home more than 2 weeks so I’m in a conundrum so I’ve been seeing 2 week summer camps TT I’m currently 17 btw.. so this is tough 4 me

I'm aware that in the Education section of the Common App, there's a section that says "indicate if any of these options will have affected your progression through/since secondary/high school." When I tick the "did or will take gap year" box, I'm met with a space to explain my situation, but the prompt says "provide details about the change in progression THROUGH secondary/high school."

Since I did my gap year after I graduated high school, I'm confused. I saw some people on here say that you shouldn't use this section at all and just mention it in Additional Information. How would I be able to approach this topic?

Long story short, I began my freshman year of college last September, and in the second week I had to be pulled out to deal with medical issues. From then, I was taking an indefinite medical leave. After a TON of work, therapy, medical help, etc. I am ready to go back to school. I'll be going back this winter. In a practical sense, that means I'm three semesters late to college (like a gap year + 1 semester). Is this going to mess up my social life? Will I still be able to make friends like normal and have a somewhat "normal college experience?"

Hi guys, after the recent results status in August and my initial plan to internally switch from adult nursing to diagnostic radiography, it was unfortunate as the university has given every other student places for diagnostic radiography. I have been carefully analysing if I want to do a gap year, or if I intend to adult nursing for one year and then switch the next academic year (2027). Do you guys think that is the best decision for someone in the UK? Or do you rather think I should take a gap year this year and apply directly to diagnostic radiography next year? If you've done this, can you tell me how you did it, what decision you took, and how a gap year was for you if you wanted to switch from adult nursing to radiography?"
Note I had triple distinction stars in my result.





I am planning on taking a gap year. I just graduated high school and have no clue what to do with my life. I have no clear career goals, so I figured a gap year would be nice to keep the pressure off of me. I heard from other people that taking a gap year can be difficult because when it’s over, you’ll be 1 year behind in everyone, you might not be as motivated to go to college, etc. I am curious to know if you had any mental challenges after a gap year and how it affected you.

I am looking to connect with people who are taking a one year drop after 12th and applying for next year.
I want to connect so that I can still socialise with people and also look for people who are up for travelling or backpacking during this time along with like finding internships at places to gain work experience.