The "gap year," a time spent traveling or volunteering to exhaust those feelings of wanderlust after high school, has become widely accepted by a growing number of colleges. Hoping to accommodate students' desire for time abroad, Princeton University is working to formalize the gap year with the creation of a bridge program that will send at least a tenth of recently admitted freshman overseas for public service.
But officials at Tufts say that, despite the university's emphasis on global leadership, they have no plans to follow suit anytime soon.
The Princeton program will not require foreign language proficiency, and will most likely provide heavy financial aid packages to its participating students, regardless of need.
When asked whether a similar program may be implemented at Tufts, Associate Dean of Programs Abroad Sheila Bayne said it would be some time before such a program would receive consideration.
"This is a very new program and one unlikely to be implemented [at Tufts] very soon," she said.
Bayne defended the traditional abroad experience, and said that the rewards of an abroad experience come after some years of college.
"To have a successful foreign experience, you must be in a stage of your life to be influenced by your surroundings and really go with it," she said. "It helps to have book knowledge of the place you're going and have mastered the language. That's why 19 to 20 [years of age] is the sweet spot for going abroad."
But as economies and cultures across the world become increasingly entwined, many schools feel that a globally focused education and extensive international experience may prove important credentials for students - even before they enter the university setting. Acknowledging both the benefits of a worldly education and the rising popularity of the gap year among students, some schools are expanding their study-abroad options for freshmen and sophomores.
Advocates of Princeton's new sanctioned year abroad before matriculation say it allows students to independently discover themselves and the world before entering college. Princeton's President, Shirley Tilghman, said in an interview with the New York Times that the program would be used to afford incoming students an international experience and a chance to mature while free from academic pressures.
Gaby Wilkerson, a prospective Princeton student who hopes to gain enrollment into the program, said she's excited about the potential opportunity.
"Going and doing social work or getting real-life experience before entering college not only would benefit me but would add to the intellectual diversity of a campus," Wilkerson said.
But while proponents of the bridge program agree that students should be allowed a break from academic pressures while abroad, some Princeton students claim that a year without academia is potentially counterproductive.
"The program, which sounds like it involves community service as opposed to taking classes in foreign countries, will interrupt students' natural progression of schooling," Princeton freshman Suzie Raga said.
"If a student needs an entire year break from the stresses of high school, perhaps he isn't intellectually able to handle Princeton," she added.
In addition, permitting freshman students - who in most cases have never lived independently - to study abroad comes with risks, college officials say. According to Institute of Global Leadership (IGL) Director Sherman Teichman, the maturity levels of many pre-collegiate students may not be as conducive to a rewarding experience abroad.
But Teichman said these risks can be present no matter what the age of the student.
"There are some students in high school that could do this well and some seniors here at Tufts that could never do this. It all depends on the idiosyncrasies of the students," Teichman said.
In light of such issues, Teichman, through the IGL, is looking to provide a viable alternative to Princeton's program that has been in the making for some years at Tufts.
The program, Passport to Leadership, would send 20 percent of a given rising sophomore class abroad, where the students would study with students from other countries on a specific aspect of the land.
Once they returned to Tufts, the students would participate in a collaborative symposium based on their newly gained international perspective.
Teichman said the program may be implemented as early as 2009.
"We would have the students on the campus for a year [first]. We would be able to evaluate them and think about maturation issues while they'd be able to prepare for such a summer. We would also give preference to students who have never been abroad," Teichman said.
