Consider gap year options, urges careers adviser

Young people should not feel pressured into starting their degree straight after leaving school, one careers adviser has claimed.

James Conroy, chairman of the post-school counselling department at New Trier High in Winnetka, Illinois, commented that university education is "not a race", and it is the quality of experience that counts.

Speaking to Oak Leaves, he suggested that many young people can benefit from taking a gap year before beginning undergraduate study.

Traditionally, few students have taken a year out following their high school graduation in the US, but this is beginning to change as more people opt for a gap year adventure.

Mr Conroy said it is "marvellous" that more US teens have the confidence and ambition to go against convention and head overseas after high school.

"It's not who finishes college first wins a prize. Many kids are not ready for college or don't want to go right after high school."

One US student who did take a gap year in 2011 is Meg Healy from Montgomery High School in California, who spent seven months teaching English and Portuguese to children in Brazil.

Find out about gap year benefits.