Taking a gap year after uni is better than before

Who really wants to be looking at grad schemes when they could be researching Goa?


Now-a-days most Freshers have been on a gap year before they start their uni degree. When the infamous week long hangover is finally over and you start getting to know your fellow flatmates sober, the conversation usually turns to one thing: ‘Who did what in their gap year?’ You may get some disapproving looks from fellow Freshers when you tell them you’ve come to uni straight from school and haven’t “found yourself” yet, but you are the real winner here.

If you’ve been travelling before uni, how are you meant to get back into writing 2000 word essays instead of day-dreaming or wishing you were back riding elephants in Thailand. I don’t understand how anyone can go travelling for a year or two and then return to sit through lectures as if they haven’t seen or done better things. Coming straight from school means the uni experience is the BEST thing that you have ever done (because let’s be honest sixth-form was just pretty shit). You’re still in essay writing mode, your brain is fresh from A-Levels and sitting in a room with people who are, basically a lot like you is pretty normal.

Better times

Who really wants to be looking at grad schemes as uni is coming to an end when they could be researching Goa? We really have the rest of our lives to work. As the retirement age steadily increases, our generation will probably end up working until we’re 80, so there shouldn’t be any real rush into finding a ‘proper job’. A gap year after uni means you can travel the world while you’re still young, free and void of any real responsibility.

There’s also no time limit on your trip if you take a gap year after uni. UCAS is a thing of the past, you have your degree, you’re free from deadlines and you don’t have results to wait on. For the first time in 18 years you have no excuse, you actually have nothing to do.

Takin’ on the world

Going travelling after uni ultimately means you are older and wiser. An 18 year old me, straight out of sixth-form probably wouldn’t have come back from a gap year travelling alive. I’d like to think that after university, when I’ve had to fend for myself for the last three years with whatever England has to throw at me, I could possibly branch out and take on the world.