Before College, A Taste of the Real World

As the final matriculation decisions trickle into admissions office this week and high school seniors gear up for summertime, a select set of Harvard admits will continue to be on break even when the College opens in the fall.

Some spend their months off visiting developing nations. Others use the time to get a head start in the job market.

Each year, about 50 to 70 of these students—known collectively as the “Z-List” by admissions officers—opt to take a year off before matriculation or are accepted on the condition that they take a year off.

Students say the time off allows them to rest from the pressures of high school and ultimately proves enriching to their college academic experiences.

The “Z-List” is so named because students who are offered admission, given that they take a gap year before matriculating, receive their notices at the end of the admissions process—as late as June for some—according to Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67.

Though the option of deferring has been publicized by the admissions office for over 30 years, taking a year off before attending college to recover from high school “burn-out” has recently become a commonly debated topic. With falling acceptance rates at Harvard and other Ivy League institutions, students applying to such selective schools often feel increased pressure during their high school years that leaves some craving time off.

This year, the College accepted slightly below 9 percent of all applicants for the Class of 2011.

Michael L. Zuckerman ’10, who took a year off before arriving this past fall, says that he was exhausted by the final years of high school due to the persistent pressure to perform and prepare for college.

“I was constantly tired,” he recalls. “Everything that originally sounded fun became only a responsibility to fulfill before I went to sleep.”

Many students who take a year off, including Zuckerman, report that they are able to enter college a year later with a refreshed interest in learning and a desire to engage in campus life.

According to the admissions office, the school’s willingness to allow students to take a gap year could be correlated with Harvard’s 98 percent graduation rate—one of the highest in the country.

Harvard only requires that students who take a year off before matriculating do not enroll full-time at another institution during the interim period. Students who elect to take the gap year can still apply to other schools, take courses part-time, work, travel, or participate in required military service without losing their place at the College, Fitzsimmons says.

SHIFTING GEARS

Zuckerman says his decision to take a year off solidified after he gained early acceptance to Harvard. He had heard about the possibility early in his high school career, and the option had made an impression on him.

While fellow students understood his decision, Zuckerman says, his parents and some teachers had to be actively convinced that the year off would be advantageous to his academic career.

“Teachers expressed concern that I would lose my focus, that this would be a small step that would lead to slippery slope whereby I would abandon all hopes of continuing my education,” he says.

But Zuckerman stands behind his decision, claiming that it has led him to develop a greater appreciation for his education.

“I view [my education] much more as a privilege, and less as a responsibility,” Zuckerman says.

After using much of his gap year to work as a paralegal and an aide to his congressman in Washington D.C.—paying his own rent and cooking his own meals along the way—he says his experience allowed him to experience some of the “larger responsibilities of life.”

“I saw parts of the human experience that had been foreign to me,” Zuckerman says of his gap year. “I would recommend [a gap year] to anyone who is considering it.”

Los Angeles native Charles R. Melvoin ’10 spent his gap year visiting 22 developing nations in Africa, Asia, South America, and the South Pacific. He kept records of his travels on his Web site, www.whereischarlie.com.

Melvoin says he felt burnt out by high school, and once he came up with the idea of spending a year abroad, he worked with Rustic Pathways—a company that sponsored an earlier trip he took—to plan his nine-month expedition.

The company helped him determine opportune times of the year to visit certain locales and provided a representative to accompany him to each of his destinations.

“There is a great Mark Twain quote—‘I never let schooling get in the way of my education.’ There’s more you can learn besides what is in the classroom,” Melvoin says. “Even from traveling in the summer—I liked the person I was when I came back, it gave me perspective that complemented what I was learning in the classroom.”

Melvoin embarked on his trip—equipped with a bulging backpack, visas, and tickets for only the first month of the trip—during the summer before most of his other classmates went off to college.

Melvoin, who is also a Crimson magazine writer, said there was no downside to taking a year off, given that both his parents and the Harvard admissions office supported his decision.

“I sent a letter to Dean Fitzsimmons telling him what I was doing, to say ‘thank you for being so flexible,’” he says. “He actually wrote back saying ‘I wish I could go with you.’”

Now, Melvoin says that his experience has both affected his ability to deal with college life and reshaped his perspective about the college experience in general.

“In college, you are surrounded by friends and people, but it can be lonely, and it requires a certain independency, a self-sufficiency, that being in other parts of the world with poor conditions has helped me deal with,” he says.

A DREAM DEFERRED?

Diane R. Guite ’08 says she only found out about her acceptance to Harvard the June following her senior year—having already accepted a spot at Brown University for the upcoming school year.

Guite decided to take Harvard’s offer of admission, which—for her—was contingent on taking a gap year.

While Guite says she didn’t necessarily feel drained by her high school experience, taking the time off did help her set her focus before beginning her college career.

“I’m not sure if it was because I was burnt out or not, but when I got to school, I was rejuvenated,” Guite says.

Like Melvoin, Guite spent much of her gap year traveling with a semester abroad program and working with an NGO in Guatemala.

She says that the experience changed the way she approaches her academic career and her larger view of her position in the global context.

“A lot of the really interesting kids on campus are the ones who have traveled and have a bigger sense of things,” she says. “I definitely feel like I would have missed out on that if I hadn’t traveled.”

Daniel B. Adler ’10 also took a gap year so that he could be admitted to the College.

Adler was initially waitlisted by Harvard, but was granted admission on the condition that he defer a year.

He says his high school experience at Phillips Academy was intense, burning him out to some degree.

During his gap year, Adler worked for the New England Patriots and a Cleveland-based nonprofit that works to bring athletic events to the city and traveled to Spain to take classes while living with a Spanish family.

Though the reasons behind taking a gap year differ for each student, most agree that the experience is not only rewarding but beneficial to their college careers.

“I definitely would [recommend taking a year off]—my brother is a junior, but I’m already pushing for him to take a gap year—it has allowed me to take a step back, assess where I was, and come back more prepared,” Adler says.

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.