Taking time off can seem like an unfeasible task. While four years of college can be overwhelming, many students attempt to juggle classes, clubs, and work with no breaks, often in fear of falling “behind.” However, this consistent grappling for a work-life balance may lead many students to feel academic or social burnout, or struggle with various aspects of their mental health. When school gets tough or your life changes trajectory, the option for taking time off seemingly becomes a task in-reach.
A guide from Harvard College Student Voices found that 340 students, over 20% of the Harvard Class of 2024, deferred enrollment due to COVID-19. “After taking remote classes for the fall semester, I realized that I did not get nearly as much out of the academic experience as I did with in person classes, and therefore decided to take the spring semester off,” Dhiya Sani ’23.5 explained. “At the time, Harvard sophomores were not invited back to campus, so we figured that during 2021 spring, we could either continue with remote school, or find a remote internship and earn back a ‘real’ semester on campus in the future.” Sani’s entire blocking group joined her in the latter option, unenrolling for the spring semester as well.
To an extent, the stigma surrounding taking time off permeates campus culture. Yet, students who have pursued this somewhat atypical route remain certain that leaving campus did not take away from their experience, and instead added to it. “Please do not be afraid or fall into the stigma that if you’re taking a semester off, you’re being lousy, you can’t handle the academic rigor, [or] that you don’t belong at Harvard,” Soleei Guasp ’26.5 said, who researched and worked during her gap semester. “It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my entire life, and it really transformed my experience and will transform the next four years.”
After struggling with both her mental and physical health, Guasp determined taking a gap semester would be the best fit. “Going from high school to college was a very huge transition for me. I had recently become financially independent completely, so I was living on my own,” she said. “Being a part of a college and being a first-generation low-income student was a very big transition. It took a lot getting used to the academic rigor. I think it was a combination of those two that made me want to decide to take a leave.”
In Sani’s case, the pandemic prompted her and her fellow classmates to take a semester or full year off in order to gain the most from their Harvard educations. Some students, like Guasp, sought time off for a mental, physical, and personal break. Others at Harvard have pursued gap years for a vast array of reasons, like pursuing their career dreams, gaining real-world experience, and taking part in new opportunities.
“I decided to take time off to fulfill one of my dreams,” Caitlin Beirne ’25 said. Beirne took a gap year after her sophomore year to pursue her goal of working as a mainstage performer on the Disney Cruise Line—a dream, she noted, that she wrote about in her Harvard supplemental essay. “I learned people skills, practical skills, [and] customer service skills,” she said.
Beirne averaged 13 shows per week, traveling to Florida, Nassau, and Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. She and her cast worked as character greeters, “helping out characters like Mickey, Minnie, and the princesses and heroes during their meet and greet times.” While Harvard provides a world class education, there are still many lessons that time away from school can teach.
She learned essential leadership skills, too, working as cast vocal captain and a character greeter. “I improved my overall leadership as I became a Disney trainer and I got to graduate from the Disney Emerging Leaders Program, which was such an incredible opportunity. I’m very thankful for that.”
Sani held a remote internship and remained near Harvard’s campus. “I lived in an apartment in Boston with five of my roommates from college, and we all had remote internships. My internship was a research position at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ammon-Pinizzotto Center for Women’s Mental Health. The project I worked on focused on postpartum psychosis and involved evaluating rates of major malformations among infants exposed to atypical antipsychotics in utero. I absolutely loved the work I was doing!”
Guasp spent her time researching computational biology with genomics and ancestry in the Ramachandran Lab at Brown University and participating in the AmeriCorps program, “improving academic excellence for urban students.” Her time off made her realize that her initial educational plans may not actually be suited for her. “I initially came into Harvard wanting to do Computer Science and Biology, but I didn’t find myself as passionate while I was at the lab. Although I really enjoyed my lab, I realized that it wasn’t necessarily what I envisioned myself doing for the rest of my life,” she explained.
“My experience at the AmeriCorps program was the reason I thought about this. I really have always been interested in education, educational policy, and curriculum reform, and it made me realize how passionate I was about it when working with students and how a lot of the issues that students face in schooling today are the ones I want to focus on and work on for my career.” Now, Guasp takes new classes at Harvard, intending to concentrate in Government with a secondary in Educational Studies.
Guasp’s time off allowed her to improve herself academically and emotionally, taking advantage of the community she found at Brown. “Going into a different community at Brown University, I got to meet a lot of new people, experience new things, and take a break from the environment of Harvard and the academic rigor it gave,” she said. “Once I came back, I didn’t find myself as stressed.”
Since returning from her time away, Sani also feels tangible benefits from her gap semester. “I am mostly reaping the benefits of my semester off now as a second semester senior still on campus in the Fall of 2023, when the majority of my social class graduated this past May.” While some of Sani’s friends have left campus, the extra time that she has gotten to spend at Harvard has left her feeling grateful and inspired.
“I feel so lucky to be living in Eliot [House], taking in-person classes, hanging out with friends in an unrestricted way, and experiencing what truly feels like a bonus semester. Before taking time off, I was pretty traditional in my view of education in that I was set on graduating in four years. But, taking time off was one of the best decisions I have made, teaching me that sometimes, taking a risk and stepping out of your comfort zone can be well worth it.”
Beirne was able to enrich her Theater, Dance, and Media concentration by her real-world experience as a performer. “I can also bring new perspectives and experiences back to the Harvard community and hopefully contribute in a positive way,” she said. While Beirne reflected that the transition back to school and adjusting back to homework and classes was a bit difficult, “to make this dream a reality, [she] would do it again in a heartbeat.”
Sani recommends those who are considering taking time off to discuss with a support system what your options entail. “I worked with my advisor to devise a plan for how I would use my semester off to my advantage, while ensuring I would still finish my requirements in time and stay involved with the extracurriculars I wanted to on campus. So, my advice would be to plan ahead–that way, your semester off can be as additive as possible to your college experience.”
Layla Chaaraoui ’26 (laylachaaraoui@college.harvard.edu) and Julia Torrey ’27 (juliatorrey@college.harvard.edu) write News for the Independent.