30 Gap Year Ideas After High School (and How to Plan the Year)

The best gap year ideas give you something you can point to at the end of the year: money saved, a skill, a language, a finished project or a clear answer to "what do I want to study?" Below are 30 ideas grouped by goal, from paid work and service to research, travel and options you can do from home with little money. After the list, you will find a sample month-by-month plan, because a gap year that combines two or three ideas almost always beats one that relies on a single activity.

Want one of your gap year ideas to be a research paper with a PhD mentor, done online? See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

Start with your goal, not the activity

Most lists of gap year ideas start with travel. Start instead with the question an admissions officer, an employer or your parents will ask in a year: "What did you do, and what came of it?" Pick one or two goals first:

• Earn and save for college.
• Find your direction before choosing a major.
• Build an academic or professional skill.
• Serve a community.
• Live somewhere new and become independent.
• Rest and recover after a hard senior year, with a plan for the rest of the year.

Then choose ideas from the matching groups below. If you have not decided whether to take a gap year at all, read our honest guide to gap year pros and cons first.

Ideas to earn money

1. Work full time and save. The simplest gap year idea and one of the most respected. Steady work shows reliability, and savings reduce college debt.
2. Join AmeriCorps NCCC. A 10-month, team-based national service program for ages 18 to 24, with housing, travel and a modest living allowance. Members who complete their term can earn a Segal Education Award equal to the maximum Pell Grant.
3. Serve with City Year. Members aged 17 to 25 tutor and mentor students full time for 11 months in public schools across 29 U.S. cities, with a living stipend and an education award.
4. Work a seasonal job. Ski resorts, national parks, summer camps and farms hire for a season and often include housing.
5. Become an au pair in another country to combine income, a language and living abroad.
6. Start a small business or freelance. Tutoring, web design, video editing or reselling. Keep simple records of what you earned and learned.

A research project is one of the few gap year ideas that ends with a paper and a mentor who can describe your work. Learn how the program works →

Ideas to build skills and knowledge

1. Complete a research project with a mentor. Pick a question in a field you might study, such as biology, computer science, economics or psychology, and work through it to a finished paper. A gap year gives you the hours most high school students do not have. Our list of research topics for high school students has hundreds of starting points.
2. Learn to code and build something real. Finish a free course, then ship one app, website or data project that other people use.
3. Take open online courses. Free courses from universities let you test a subject before you commit to a major. Check your deferral rules before you take any course for credit (see the warning below).
4. Study for a professional certificate. CPR and EMT training, IT certificates or a lifeguard qualification lead straight to jobs.
5. Learn a language seriously. Combine an app with a tutor, then use the language while working or traveling.
6. Read a field. Pick 20 core books in a subject you might study and write a short response to each. It sounds small and is very effective.
7. Write, record or make something long. A novel draft, a podcast season, a portfolio or a documentary.

Ideas to find your direction

1. Do an internship. Ask local companies, labs, hospitals, nonprofits and government offices. A recent graduate who can work full time is attractive to small organizations. For competitive internships at well-known companies, start applying in junior or senior year. Several members of learnSTEM's leadership and founding team did internships at well-known technology companies during their own gap years, and they set them up during high school.
2. Shadow three different jobs. Spend a week each with people in three careers you are considering.
3. Join a structured internship program. Dynamy Internship Year in Worcester, Massachusetts, is a gap year program for ages 17 to 22 that combines internships, apartment life and one-on-one mentoring.
4. Interview 20 people in a field. Short calls with people a few years ahead of you teach you a lot about a career.
5. Volunteer in a hospital, clinic or lab if you are considering medicine or science. Our guide to medical research internships lists programs, and many hospitals accept adult volunteers.

Ideas to serve

1. Volunteer locally, full time. Food banks, tutoring centers, refugee services and environmental groups often need committed adults.
2. Serve on a conservation crew. Trail and park crews give you outdoor work and a team.
3. Coach or teach. Youth sports teams, after-school programs and community classes need volunteers.

Ideas to travel and live somewhere new

1. Study a language abroad. CIEE's Gap Year Abroad programs combine 15 to 20 hours a week of language classes with a homestay over three months, in cities such as Paris, Florence, Kyoto and Shanghai.
2. Do a year-long exchange. Rotary Youth Exchange is for students aged 15 to 19. Long-term exchanges last a full academic year, with students attending local schools and living with several host families.
3. Work abroad on a working holiday visa if you are eligible.
4. Travel on a budget with a plan. A few months of travel works best with a goal: a language, a long trail or a project to document.
5. Take an outdoor leadership semester. NOLS and Outward Bound run semester-length wilderness expeditions, and many offer transferable college credit.

Staying home for your gap year? Do research one-on-one with a PhD mentor, online, around a local job. See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

Ideas you can do from home with little money

1. Combine a local job with an online project. This is the most common pattern for gap year students who stay home: work during the day, then spend a few focused hours a week on research, coding or writing.
2. Teach yourself a subject you will study in college, and test it with practice exams.
3. Help your family or community with a defined project, such as caring for a relative, running a small family business or organizing a local event.
4. Build a fitness or health goal and train for a race, a certification or a long hike.

A sample gap year plan

Here is one plan that combines work, a skill and something new. Adjust the months to your situation.

• June to August: rest for a few weeks, then start a full-time job. Defer your college admission and confirm your deadlines.
• September to November: keep working part time. Complete a 12-week research project with a mentor, online, a few hours a week plus a weekly meeting. File the FAFSA for the year you start college.
• December: finish the paper and ask your mentor for a written evaluation.
• January to April: a service program, a language course abroad or an internship.
• May to August: work full time again, save for college and prepare to move.

At the end, you can say: "I saved for college, wrote a research paper with a PhD mentor and spent four months working in another country." That sentence answers every question a college or employer will ask.

A warning about college courses during a gap year

Taking a course seems like an obvious gap year idea, but check your deferral first. Many colleges forbid enrolling as a degree student elsewhere during a deferral. MIT, for example, grants a deferral for almost any reason "but generally not for continued schooling at a high school or university other than MIT." A Harvard student guide notes that incoming Harvard students cannot fully enroll in another college during the year, and that the courses do not transfer. Non-credit online courses, independent study and research projects usually do not cause this problem, but ask your college if you are not sure.

The standard program runs 12 weeks. Extended versions run six or nine months for a longer gap year project. See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

What colleges want to see from your gap year

Colleges support gap years. Harvard encourages admitted students to defer "to travel, pursue a special project or activity, work, or spend time in another meaningful way." What they want to see is simple:

• A plan you followed, even if it changed.
• Something you produced: savings, a paper, a portfolio, a certificate, a team you led.
• Someone who can describe your work: a supervisor, a program leader or a mentor.
• What you learned about yourself and why it makes you ready for college.

If you plan to study science or engineering, a research project is a strong way to show the second and third points at once. See does research help college admissions for how admissions readers look at student research.

Frequently asked questions

What are some good ideas for a gap year? Full-time work, AmeriCorps or City Year, a research project with a mentor, an internship, a language program abroad, an outdoor leadership semester or a structured internship program. The best plans combine two or three.

What can I do in a gap year with no money? Work and save, join a paid service program such as AmeriCorps NCCC or City Year, volunteer locally, learn with free online courses or build a project from home.

What are gap year ideas for 18 year olds? Most programs are designed for 18-year-olds. AmeriCorps NCCC takes ages 18 to 24, City Year 17 to 25 and Dynamy 17 to 22. Paid work, internships and online research projects have no special age rules for graduates.

Can you give me an example of a gap year? A student works full time in the summer, completes a 12-week online research project in the fall while working part time, spends the spring in a language program abroad and works again before college. See the sample plan above.

Should I do a gap year program or plan my own? A program gives you structure, safety and a cohort, but usually costs money. Planning your own costs less but needs discipline. Many students combine both. Our guide to the best gap year programs compares the main types.

About the STEM Research Program

Many of our students have done the program during a gap year, alongside a job, service or travel. We look for students who are curious, self-motivated and ready for independent work. Prior research experience is not required. Each admitted student works one-on-one with a PhD mentor from a top-20 university, online. The standard program runs 12 weeks, with extended versions of six or nine months. Students set their research question with their mentor by week four and finish with a completed research paper, a written evaluation from their mentor and a one-on-one college counseling session.

Start your application to the STEM Research Program → · Questions about a gap year schedule? Contact us →