Arjit Agarwal has been obsessed with wildlife since the age of two and even published a book on his favourite animal, the leopard, at the age of 16. Before he signed up to study Ecology in a college in the US, he was clear that he wanted to spend a gap year immersing himself in wildlife parks. He planned 14 safaris for his gap year and managed to gather work experience with conservationists, naturalists, and rangers through this time. Arjit’s favourite trips were to Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh where he had some incredible leopard sightings as well as to Masai Mara in Kenya.
Bandhavgarh National Park | Photo Credit: Sourabh Bharti/ Getty Images
To defer, to take a gap year, a year off, a bridge year — these are ideas that used to be scary for many, but are now being contemplated by many young people at the cusp of adulthood. Taking a gap year between high school and college is not common practice in India but more people are open to the idea now than ever before.
“From our experience, there is a slight increase in students taking gap years as opposed to earlier,” says Nitin Jain, co-founder of On Course, an Indian educational consulting firm. “There are lots of reasons for this. A gap year used to be considered taboo but now that feeling has diminished. There was this idea that college admissions would be harder after taking a gap year but that myth has been busted. Lots of students get into college after taking a break,” he adds.
In fact, Harvard University’s admissions committee encourages admitted students to defer enrollment for one year to travel, pursue a special project or activity, work, or spend time in other meaningful ways. It is believed that students who do this tend to have better grades, better mental health, and end up in leadership roles. Indian students seem to be catching on to this idea because they are voluntarily deferring college applications or even admissions to discover new things before they pick a path, decide their life’s calling, and enter the rat race.
Some programmes give students exposure through experiences like learning about tiger conservation in India or going on a culinary tour of Italy | Photo Credit: Oleh Slobodeniuk/ Getty Images
Aarush Khanna from New Delhi’s Shiv Nadar School had excelled in economics throughout his school years but in 2022, he won the Colloquium competition for programming an app that translates sign language to speech. He was in the middle of college applications when he heard of Baret Scholars, a global gap year programme that takes students across seven regions of the world from North America to East Asia. “Which 18-year-old doesn’t want to travel the world? When my college counsellor sent the programme website to us, I thought it was super exciting and knew immediately that I would apply. I haven’t decided between Finance and Computer Science so I am most excited about going to Silicon Valley and meeting tech entrepreneurs and also exploring Sao Paulo in Brazil, the financial capital of Latin America,” he says. The programme gives students exposure through experiences like learning about tiger conservation in India or going on a culinary tour of Italy.
Aarush Khanna at the Idea Square at CERN | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“A student that we worked with took a gap year and used it quite well,” says Nitin. “First, he worked with a professor on a research paper which they completed writing. Then he moved to South Africa for four months where he worked as a radio jockey with a local channel. He met lots of interesting folks and travelled to other parts of the country. It was an exploratory programme with some funding support and it worked out quite well because he eventually got into Stanford after the gap year.”
Aarush also got to see the Large Hadron collider, the largest particle accelerator at CERN | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Often students are not sure about what they want to do with their lives. Instead of picking a degree amid their confusion, it can be a good idea to take a gap year to immerse themselves in various fields and think about what really excites them.
Keya Mody, a student in Mumbai’s Jamnabai Narsee School was good at most things from academics and extracurriculars to sports. Many people suggested she do STEM since she was good at maths but she was not sure of her calling. Her mother Swagata, a mental health therapist, suggested she take a gap year to figure it out.
Keya took her mother’s suggestion and dabbled in the arts from graphic design and painting to clay modelling in her free time. Somewhere along the way, she got exposed to UX/UI design and found it interesting. She built a portfolio to learn more about it and eventually signed up for a degree in UX design at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. “Both my parents switched their degrees midway through college so they’ve encouraged both my brother and me to take gap years,” she says. “I’m very grateful I took a gap year because I would have been miserable otherwise and dropped out of college.”
Tisha Jain from Salem, Tamil Nadu, played squash at the National level and spent most of her youth training and travelling. So, she chose to take two gap years in between high school and college. She had always been passionate about preserving the planet and even modified her lifestyle to be more eco-friendly. During her gap years from 2021 to 2023, she got the opportunity to work in the renewable energy space with two scientists, (who were family friends) and jumped at the chance. She and her brother collaborated with the scientists for a year and eventually created a design for an automated cleaning mechanism for solar panels which was then patented in 2021. Tisha used her time off to help the world’s environmental crisis by advancing solar technology and is now enrolled at Krea University, Andhra Pradesh, to further explore.
Diah Khaitan was not sure what she wanted to study after her IB (International Baccalaureate) from Nahar International School in Mumbai but had been curious about filmmaking since the age of 12. At her sister’s wedding, she met Vishal Punjabi — founder of The Wedding Filmer and he offered her an internship. Nine months later, the internship turned into a job; Diah first worked in production and then got promoted to editor/DOP. Eventually, she would like to get a diploma or university degree in Filmmaking but wants to study for the right reasons ie genuine learning versus getting a degree for societal approval. Her mother has encouraged her to continue with work experience instead of going into the classroom.
High school combined with college applications leaves so many students burnt out that taking a gap can be a transformative way for 18-year-olds to begin the next chapter of their lives. Keya’s mother Swagata agrees.“You get so caught up with life and you start worrying about your finances once you’re older. If not now, then when?” she asks.
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