I took a gap year after my 12th or undergrad, is it good or bad?
It is neither good nor bad. The university admissions team will not penalize a student for having a gap year in education if you justify the reasons honestly. A simple tip – never hide or lie about it. The admissions team reviews thousands of applications each year and they can identify a lie in a blip.
The present generation of students is actively exploring the career choices available to them. For this, they often take a hiatus from academic life and venture into pursuing other interests such as traveling, exploring different professions or seeking new adventures, before resuming their academic pursuits. This gap may last for a year or longer.
Students may also experience a gap in their education because of personal or medical reasons. Usually, students take a gap to assess, evaluate and restructure their professional or even personal goals. However, when resuming studies, students often fail to justify their gap years as productive, which reflects badly on the admissions committee. But don’t worry, the college application process gives you an opportunity to justify the gap in your education. In this blog, we will help you with how you can justify gap years in education while writing an SOP.
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How to justify gap years in education
Perceiving gap years
Gap years are not considered as drawbacks by universities as long as they are presented in the right light. There is a way to justify the gap year/s that puts you in a competitive position with respect to other applicants. This is where your statement of purpose acts as the real MVP! It is the official document that introduces the applicant beyond test scores and GPAs. It helps the admissions committee analyze the student’s strengths, passions, growth areas, interests and skills.
A gap in your education while writing an SOP can mean several things–you did not mention your education history on purpose, you unexpectedly lost your job, or rather you did not take up one or you were in prison! Omitting your education history raises an alarm with the admissions committee and can straightaway send your application to the rejection pile. Therefore, you would want to explain in a line or two the reason/s for the gap in your academic record.
Inside an SOP to justify gap years
It is vital and prudent that your gap years reflect productive as well as fun learning experiences that are full of intellectual and meaningful growth. While writing an SOP, make up for your gaps with extracurricular activities, hobby pursuits and other meaningful achievements and exposure. You may want to mention any online or offline short courses you took, self-study areas, preparation for competitive exams, a business venture you started or any other pursuits which are reflective of your intellectual and personal development. Additionally, if you have gathered reasonable work experience during your gap years, make sure it forms part of your SOP. Work experience adds brownie points to your application and increases your chances of acceptance.
What exactly are the colleges looking for in your SOP?
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Do not cook up experiences and achievements. Be genuine and transparent about your gap years. Write about only those things which you can account for and justify. You do not really have to highlight your gap year much. This can take away the attention from other important details in your statement of purpose.
Most common reasons for gap year in education and how to address them in your application
- Preparing for competitive exams – Share about which exams you were working on other activities you focused on. You might be playing sports or traveling which you can share about and how they built your character. You may also share about the results of those competitive exams if it is related to the subjects you intend to study at university.
- Exploring alternative careers/ hobbies – Maybe you wanted to explore painting, dance or sports or any other art. You can always share such anecdotes in your SoP as you had an exhibition for your painting or played competitive sports at a regional or national level. Universities appreciate a well rounded candidate more than only academics.
- Personal, health or financial reasons – Life happens and universities understand that. The best idea is to honestly mention it, share what change it brought in your thought process or what you learned from it and move on. Do not dramatize or dwell too much on this. Share other achievements and stories in SoP as the word count for these documents is limited.
- Internship/ part-time work – if you took to working at your uncle’s workshop or family business or some internship, then do mention these because most other student applications would not have any work experience or exposure to an office life. This surely sets you apart from other applicants and you can highlight the challenges, achievements and learnings from this internship.
Presenting an SOP with gap years
Your SOP should offer an insight into your strengths, career aspirations and how the things you did in your gap years align with your professional goals. The statement of purpose should be personal, humbly highlighting the obstacles and challenges you had to overcome and your success story. It should demonstrate the value you will be adding to the institution and therefore, presenting your gap years in the right light is very important. You have to bring to the foreground the positive exposure and skills you have gathered during your gap years to convince the admissions committee why you are a worthy candidate.
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FAQs
Yes, you can justify your education gap because of your health issues by briefly mentioning about them and how you recovered.
If you are comfortable sharing then, it is absolutely fine to mention your personal reasons if at all your gap years in education was due to that.
No, universities don't consider gap years in education as drawbacks as long as they are presented right.
No, avoid doing this mistake and don't omit your education history as the admission committee may get suspicious and can simply dump your application into the rejection list.