Jump to content

Menu

Internship or experience during high school vs gap year?


Recommended Posts

Dd and I are sitting down for a high school "big picture" meeting next week. She's decided she doesn't want to graduate at 16 or do significant college course work that would trigger "transfer" status at one of her target schools. She seems to be learning towards homeschool with a mix of resources through high school rather than an online/ correspondence program, even with mom as primary teacher. Our option for a brick and mortar has passed (a house that we could have used during the week close to a good option has sold.)

 

I'm not a fan of the idea of a gap year for this kid, but am curious about other options we could consider.

 

My dad and uncle are hard-core Rotarians and study abroad could be in the mix, and I've heard of a State Department program for language study. I have mixed feelings about mission work, and I almost think some of the best job/ career related opportunities might actually be available during undergraduate years rather than as a high school student.

 

Anyone want to throw any ideas out there?

 

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dual enrollment can get a ton of college coursework out of the way under the auspices of high school and will not affect her status as a freshman. She can be dual enrolled in your homeschool and the local CC.

 

AP exams and CLEP are another great option for getting college stuff out of the way while being considered a high school student.

 

The combo of DE + AP + CLEP served my dd rather well, FWIW.

 

Re gap year--my daughter had a fabulous gap year. She worked at a camp the first summer, then worked retail and volunteered for a semester. Second semester she volunteered at a school in Africa and got wonderful, fabulous teaching and cross-cultural experience there. Final summer before university she simply worked retail again.

 

If you do a gap year, the key is to be focused, intentional, and planned so that the time is used wisely and the student does not drift. Dd also had an end goal of going to a specific university, which helped put a tidy end to the year of no school.

 

One thing every school we talked to emphasized--absolutely no classes during the gap year. You can take classes as a high school student and remain a high school student who can go to uni as a freshman. You canNOT take ANY classes during a gap year or you become a transfer student. Not even a silly little art class at the CC for fun.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dual enrollment can get a ton of college coursework out of the way under the auspices of high school and will not affect her status as a freshman. She can be dual enrolled in your homeschool and the local CC.

 

AP exams and CLEP are another great option for getting college stuff out of the way while being considered a high school student.

 

The combo of DE + AP + CLEP served my dd rather well, FWIW.

 

Re gap year--my daughter had a fabulous gap year. She worked at a camp the first summer, then worked retail and volunteered for a semester. Second semester she volunteered at a school in Africa and got wonderful, fabulous teaching and cross-cultural experience there. Final summer before university she simply worked retail again.

 

If you do a gap year, the key is to be focused, intentional, and planned so that the time is used wisely and the student does not drift. Dd also had an end goal of going to a specific university, which helped put a tidy end to the year of no school.

 

One thing every school we talked to emphasized--absolutely no classes during the gap year. You can take classes as a high school student and remain a high school student who can go to uni as a freshman. You canNOT take ANY classes during a gap year or you become a transfer student. Not even a silly little art class at the CC for fun.

Good advice about the classes during a gap year. Dd's top two choices don't accept CLEP, and one had/ has language on their website about no full time semesters of college work in high school if enrolling as a Freshman. I want to talk to a human about that, to confirm, though. We'd be blazing a trail with AP classes for homeschoolers in our area- and would have to travel. There are only 2 AP test given in our county, and it's unlikely the schools would work with us for those.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...