Admissions Dean Jim Bock '90 Says Gap Year Is "New Summer"
Admissions Dean Jim Bock '90
Says Gap Year Is "New Summer"
by Alisa Giardinelli
07/21/2008
![]() Jim Bock '90 |
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NPR's All Things Considered recently reported on the growing number of students choosing to delay their college enrollment. At Swarthmore, the number of gap years doubled this coming academic year. (Students who want to defer to take a gap year have to write a short essay on why they want the time and what they will do with it.) Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jim Bock '90 says overscheduled and overachieving kids are trying to reclaim the downtime that is otherwise built in to students' schedules.
"Summers have disappeared completely, sadly, because so many [students] are doing what they think will look good on college application," Bock says. "So I actually think the gap year may be the new summer." more