What Happens Next?

 What Happens Next?

It’s that time of the year again when people are graduating. Whether they are from elementary school going to junior high school or they are high schoolers seeking higher education, we are all one step closer to reaching our dreams and one step closer to becoming an adult. Some high school students usually ponder on what happens after they graduate. The answer is pretty simple for those who have set their mind on a goal, but for those who still have not realized their goal then it’s a pretty hard question. In this article, there are a couple of suggestions that might help you decide your next move after graduating high school or maybe it could be handy for those who still have not graduated yet and want to make a head start. 

Before this article unravels, the options are divided into two and those options are the familiar way and the other is the unfamiliar way. 

The Familiar Way

The familiar way is a more known method like searching or analyzing universities or colleges beforehand. Usually, this method is done before graduating from school. Students who do this usually already have a plan they want to carry out and achieve. For instance, Maudy Ayunda. She has figured out which university she wants to go to. She was well aware of what programs the schools she picked had. So our advice is to try to learn about what your goal might be, in doing so, you could narrow your choices of which university or college you want to choose. After that, you could study more about that college or university. Other than that, you might also want to hear advice from your counseling teachers or maybe listen to some testimonies of alumni from said college or university.

The Unfamiliar Way

Majority of people do not know this method. The method is called taking a gap year. A gap year is a method where the students take one year off after they finish high school. Once they finish that one year off, they are usually more prepared to enter college or university. During that time, the students can partake in activities such as internship, language immersion, volunteering, travel and others. It's advised that you should not use the excuse of a gap year to just laze around the house, however you should use it wisely to try and explore yourselves so you can know what you want to be. A lot of people would think that taking a gap year might be dangerous or a waste of resources, however, there's evidence that can prove otherwise. According to a former Dean of Admissions at Middlebury College named Robert Clagett, gap-year students tended to outperform in college by 0.1 to 0.4 on a 4.0 scale, with the positive effects lasting over the entire four years. Maybe some people might think that a gap year is uncommon and think that most people don’t do it, but taking a gap year is more common in Europe and Australia even some universities encourage their students to take a gap year before choosing a major in universities or college.

Written by Gracia Agustina