Students matriculating at Princeton will soon have the opportunity to take a formal university-sponsored gap year pursuing service work abroad, according to a Feb. 18 press release.
The university has established a working group to design the tuition-free program, which is slated to begin in 2009.
An increasing number of students are taking time off between high school and college, according to a Feb. 19 article in the New York Times. Still, though many schools allow a one-year deferral, personal cost and a lack of institutional guidance often deter students from taking a gap year, according to the article.
Princeton's new program will allow about 100 students - or 10 percent of each incoming class - to participate in a bridge year of service, which should not be confused with studying abroad, said Sandra Bermann, chair of the Department of Comparative Literature and leader of the working group.
The experience will be "a break from the pressure to excel, from the pressures of high school life," Bermann said. Students will "gain a new perspective on education and how they live their lives," she added.
Princeton proposed the idea of a gap year as a part of its "Princeton in the World" initiative, which aims to establish Princeton as "a center for a multitude of scholarly networks humming with activity and effectively responding to changes in scholarship and the vagaries of world affairs, while creatively defining the cutting edges of global research," according to the university's Web site.
Princeton decided to launch the bridge year program for a few reasons, notably because the university would like students to "form an international perspective," Bermann said.
"We want our students to become involved in public service to fulfill Princeton's motto: 'Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations,'" Bermann said.
The bridge year will also "prepare students for a more meaningful Princeton experience," according to Princeton's Web site.
The logistics of the program are still in the works, but a report with more details will be issued in the early summer, Bermann said.
Bermann and the rest of the working group are currently discussing the kinds of service that participants will perform and how they will be selected. The working group is also handling legal and cost issues and will set an enrollment cap for the program.
Current Princeton students said the program will be beneficial in bringing structure to gap years.
"Even though many universities encourage newly admitted students to take a hiatus year, I think that barriers - from the immense logistical planning required to the hefty financial burden of a year abroad - prevent students from participating," said Michael Chou, a sophomore at Princeton. "I would definitely have taken advantage of the program if it had been available to my class," he said.
Brown students have also expressed interest in such a plan.
Simon Salgado '07, who took a year off during his time at Brown, said taking time off would benefit students and "bring a new perspective to their first year."
