Embarking on Your Journey

You did it. School is over and now the next stage of your life begins. So, what do you do now that you’ve graduated and are ready to truly explore the options of the wide world? The usual answer is applying to colleges, doing your best to secure a scholarship, taking out some loans and so on.

Not you, or at least not just that. You’ve decided to embark on the very valid, very much desirable option that can increase your chances. Let’s take a look at all the ways you’re actually giving yourself a leg up on others and how to maximize that advantage.

The Road with the Best Outcome

Let’s try and set some ground rules, first. That way you have both a goal and a clear set of things to keep in mind, in order to achieve the goal.

• Increase your academic success
• Do not overspend during the year
• Angle yourself towards your optimal career

With that sorted, let’s dive right into how to do all of these:

Finding the College for you

Believe it or not, the stigma associated with taking a gap year is mostly something people are mistaken on, pure and simple. The only real issue is when people begin to extend the downtime indefinitely, but that’s not what you’re after nor what the article is about. Colleges all across the country tend to look favorably upon people who have taken the time to find themselves. There’s even extensive research on the many benefits.

If you use your time wisely, traveling somewhere that you can gain important life skills and insight into yourself, your chances of receiving a grant improve, as well as being accepted overall. Admission committees appreciate someone who has taken the time, after high school, to find what’s best for them. A clear career path or at least an idea of what to aim for is a huge step up from an overwhelming majority of confused and tentative freshmen. They also appreciate how gap year students tend to be more mature and involved with the college itself.

Being Frugal

There is no shame in trying to get the most bang for your buck. Ask yourself, who would you rather admit into your college? Who would you rather employ? Someone who spends money like it falls from the sky or someone you know has demonstrated a responsible and respectful attitude towards it?

You need:

• A good prospect for where to stay, wherever you go.
• Enough money to survive on, until you settle in and find work if you plan to work.
• Reliability

That’s why when you travel the choice of how you travel will be just as vital as where you do so. Traveling to Hawaii won’t do you much good usually. That’s why it’s generally better to look for the accommodations. You can use this website that offers cheap services to offer you a chance to travel, immerse yourself and spend your gap year somewhere that will help you grow.

The Best Candidate for the Job

Think about the world we live in. The internet, global culture, and rise of trends and movements have made our world more unified than ever, culturally speaking. There’s no escaping it, and companies don’t even try. Most of them embrace multinationalism and they embrace being worldwide presences. Think of any huge, successful companies, synonyms of success, and you’ll find yourself thinking of international ones, I guarantee it. What they value is:

• Speaking a second language
• Having real experience with other cultures
• Being able to grasp more than one culture’s business sensibilities

All of this and more is easily achieved with traveling abroad during a gap year. And, shockingly, it will give you a leg up on 75% of your competitors for any job. Think about how much of a benefit that is, from the onset. You get to rise above 3 out of 4 people also competing for almost any job you’d want to apply for.

Be warned that this only applies if you structure your travel well and make the effort to truly do your best to live and spend time properly in the countries you visit and explore.

The Future

Hopefully, this has provided you with insight into how best to take advantage of traveling during your gap year. Always seek out new, useful experiences and may you have luck with your chosen studies and career.

Kate Khom is a passionate writer who likes sharing her thoughts and experience with the readers. Currently, she works as a real estate agent at https://hu.flatfy.com. She likes everything related to traveling and new countries. Feel free to add her on Twitter!