Are you thinking of applying to graduate school? Pursuing an advanced degree can be helpful toward expanding your knowledge, opening professional doors and diving deeper into research interests, but it is also a commitment that demands apt physical and emotional readiness. 

According to the National Institutes of Health, graduate students have described the stress of higher education to be unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloading — while commonly experiencing burnout, stress and poor sleep as a result. 

It can be helpful to take a break from school to save money, develop healthy habits and relax before entering a program. As a current graduate student who took two gap years, I’m here to share with my fellow undergraduate Trojans why taking a break before graduate school may be a good decision for you.

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Focusing on employment during your gap years can be beneficial for both financial and personal growth. For myself, working after my undergraduate degree allowed me to save enough money to pay the interest on my graduate student loans every month.

Nayomi Ekanayake, a fourth-year dentistry student, says she took four gap years after her undergraduate program to focus on work. 

“I recommend anyone to have at least one gap year. The reason is that the job I had really shaped me,” Ekanayake said. “I had really good dental insurance. That’s when I went through a lot of dental treatment, and that’s when I decided I want to go to dental school.”

Ekanayake also emphasized the importance of building workplace communication skills after college. 

“You can have disagreements with your bosses and management,” Ekanayake said. “I think it’s important to experience that early on.”

Taking a break from school is also a great opportunity to immerse yourself in different cultures and environments. Working outside of my home state and traveling to five other states during my gap years allowed me to hone my social skills and practice cultural humility. 

You can seek immersive experiences through work-related trips, taking a temporary job in a new city or even participating in a farm stay.

“There’s a real drive among gappers to end up with experiences that will bolster their CV while building themselves as culturally aware, well-rounded individuals,”  Sam Willan of The Leap, a travel company specializing in gap years, told National Geographic.

Sungmin Kang, a first-year master’s student studying electrical and computer engineering, said serving in the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army was a pivotal life experience. 

“This is my first time in [the] United States,” Kang said. “The experience in my military service really helped a lot.”

Kang’s two-year service in KATUSA was an opportunity to practice English, ultimately opening a path for him to pursue his interest in artificial intelligence through the electrical and computer engineering program at USC.

“I’m working on federated learning, and it’s not really a big thing in South Korea,” Kang explained. “I think [the] United States leads [in] artificial intelligence technology.” 

Furthermore, after being in school for 16 or more years, giving your body a break is normal and sometimes necessary. Academic life is difficult — many students juggle a full-time course load with extracurricular responsibilities such as work, clubs and relationships. 

Sometimes, we are not best equipped to handle the stress of academic life. Like many others, I developed maladaptive coping mechanisms, including an addiction to vaping during my college years. Postgrad is an appropriate time to build resilience by addressing symptoms and habits developed during college. 

Dedicating time to work through substance use without the added stress of school is a wise way to spend a gap year. 

“It’s important to understand that 90% of all addictions begin in the teen and young adult years, a time when most people — especially in the middle class — are in school,” wrote Maia Szalavitz in The Guardian, who has reported on addiction and neuroscience research for nearly 30 years. 

Young adulthood is also a common time for the onset of mental disorders and chronic illnesses. The average age at onset for major depression, bipolar manic and schizophrenic symptoms is saturated in the 20s to 30s. Autoimmune disorders such as lupus and Crohn’s disease are also most commonly diagnosed in young adult patients. 

Public health research conducted at Cambridge University in 2014 found connections between stress and psychosis, while researchers at the University of Iceland in 2018 also found links between stress and autoimmune disease. Preventing the progression of disease and developing treatment plans should be a priority in our early adulthood years. Taking a break from academic life can help you create time to address symptoms and cultivate a lifestyle that supports more sustainable stress management habits.

Gap years can be particularly fruitful when spent saving money, experiencing new environments, solidifying interests, addressing health issues and developing healthier habits. Planning to dedicate a gap year — or years — for personal growth can allow you to enjoy your present undergrad life more, and look forward to an exciting future!