When she was a high school sophomore, Tessa Permar’s mother promised her that if she kept her grades up for the next two years, she would help to fund and support a gap year for her daughter, between high school graduation and Tessa’s first year of college. Now a senior at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, 17-year-old Tessa has kept her end of the bargain, and is currently applying for programs for that gap year. “I’m looking into internships in performing arts companies,” she said in an interview with two of her classmates at the high school Monday. “And I would love to go to Portugal and do a language program there.”
Tessa’s plan to take a year between high school and college has become a lot more common here. Many students are beginning to supplement their education with travel or volunteer experiences. And against a backdrop of rising unemployment rates, many high school students are planning for postgraduate studies, to give them an edge in a competitive job market.
“A lot of kids . . . when they’re doing post-secondary planning, they are looking long-range,” said Michael McCarthy, director of guidance at the high school.
The regional high school is heavily college-tracked. In last year’s graduating class of 201 students, 65 per cent went on to four-year colleges, and another 12 per cent had plans to attend a two-year college or technical school. Six students took a gap year after graduation, a slightly higher number than in previous years, according to Mr. McCarthy. This year’s senior class appears to be following a similar path. Students who are applying for regular admission are completing their applications, while some who applied early have already been notified. Mr. McCarthy said Dartmouth, Tufts, Northeastern, and Bard are among the colleges that have offered admission to this year’s seniors. Only one student is currently planning to take a gap year, but the guidance counselor said he expects more students to make that choice as the admissions process advances.
“It’s more acceptable for kids to take what we call a gap year,” Mr. McCarthy said. “And in the gap year they’re doing all sorts of things. They’re doing volunteer work, and it can be in the United States or in a foreign country. Or they could be taking some type of enrichment that they find they have an interest in before they head off to college. Some kids are traveling, and then other kids are just going into the workforce trying to explore different types of careers.”
He said this kind of experience can have lasting effects on the students. “We find that they get a little higher level of maturity, so when they return they have a better sense of what they’re looking for, and they seem to perform better,” he said.
Graduate school adds another layer to post-graduation plans for Vineyard high school students. Graduate degrees have become more and more valuable, and many career fields now require them. “If you just look at education itself, it’s an easy one,” said Mr. McCarthy. “Now to get to be a teacher, you have to have a bachelor’s degree. If you continue teaching, after five years you have to start on your master’s program. So if you’re going to be a teacher, you have to get your master’s . . . A lot of kids are looking at [graduate school] as part of the whole package.”
But adding graduate level work also adds significantly to the financial burden of paying for college.
And Mr. McCarthy said more and more students are choosing accordingly. “One of the things that we’re finding in admissions is that kids now are . . . making sure they have a financial safe school on the list,” he said. “The kids are still applying to the more expensive schools and the more competitive schools that are more expensive . . . but if a financial aid package doesn’t come in and it puts stress on the family, they’re making sure they have a financial safe school, one of the state schools, as a backup. We’re seeing more of that than we have in the past.”
Eighteen-year-old Taylor Chisholm has her heart set on Babson College, a private school just outside of Boston. “It’s not one of the cheaper schools out there right now,” she said. The roughly $50,000 per-year-price tag for tuition, room and board puts the school among the pricier private educations in the country, and Taylor admitted that it might not be possible for her family to afford it. Just in case, she has her own list of safe schools, including state universities.
But her preference for Babson is evident. “It’s all business, which is what I’ve kind of oriented all my electives in high school to. I’m very driven toward the business field,” she said. When will she hear if she’s accepted? “Dec. 31 at two o’clock I can look online and find out if I got in,” she responded immediately. She continued:
“I know it will be difficult if I do get in and don’t get much money to go, so I might have to do the whole go-to-state-school-for-undergrad and then see if I can get into their graduate program. But I can’t see myself going anywhere else but Babson and my parents have kind of come to realize that. If I get in, I’m going . . . Hopefully I’ll get some sort of financial aid.”
Her classmate, 18-year-old high school senior Andora Aquino has dreamed since childhood of going to law school. And while an undergraduate education from a private college might sound nice, she knows that realistically she can’t have both. And like many Vineyard families, the fact that her family owns property has made it difficult for her to qualify for financial aid. “That’s why state school looks so good right now. Hopefully they’ll look at my academics and they’ll give me merit-based scholarships,” she said.
“If you’re looking at state schools . . . they give you an exemption for your house,” Mr. McCarthy explained. But private colleges factor houses in as assets. “If you have a low mortgage and a high value of the home, you have a nice big gap there, and that’s going to enter into how much they are going to give you or not give you,” he said. Some parents are able to appeal to private colleges to make an exception, but for the most part, no exceptions are made. “It falls on deaf ears most of the time,” Mr. McCarthy said.
Andora said a year or two at a state university might ease the financial pressure on her family enough to make it possible for her to transfer to a private college and still attend law school. “Hopefully when the economy is better and we’re making more money, we can invest more [in education],” she said.
Though Tessa’s internship and travel plans for next year will not be free, Mr. McCarthy said that a gap year generally costs far less than a year in college. Some programs even offer stipends to help students pay for college once they go back. One of his children participated in the government-funded AmeriCorps, which offered her a $100 per week stipend throughout and a $3,500 stipend for college once she completed the program.
Using his own experience as a parent of four children, Mr. McCarthy helps Vineyard students navigate their constantly expanding options for college and beyond. One of his children received a doctoral degree and is now a lawyer; another is a teacher getting ready to go back to school for his master’s degree. His third child graduated from college this year. All three took gap years at some point during college. And there is still one child left to chart a new course; Mr. McCarthy’s youngest child is a college freshman this year.
And the Vineyard kids appear to be up to the challenge of planning for the future, with parents and teachers behind them. “They want me to be involved too, so that I can see just how much it’s going to take,” said Andora.
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