But 17-year-old Malia Obama’s decision to take a gap year after she graduates from high school this June and hold off attending Harvard University, where she was admitted, has been turning heads. The White House didn’t say, but it’s also possible that, more than anything else, the decision to delay college has to do with waiting out her father’s presidency to avoid the attention she would attract as a freshman.
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That was apparently the plan for Malia Obama. Both Barack Obama and the first lady are graduates of Harvard Law School.
Many colleges require students to provide documentation or even a separate application pertaining to what they’re going to do during their gap year.
As he prepares to step down from office, President Obama’s legacy will include a number of achievements, most famously the elimination of Osama bin Laden, former Al Qaeda leader who had orchestrated the deadly USA attacks on 9/11. They are, however, prohibited from enrolling for a degree at another college.
It suggests these areas of focus for students in terms of activities and projects they might pursue during their gap time: animals; archeology; business; conservation; education; health care; human rights; journalism; and sports. “If you take a gap year, you actually finish sooner than the students that just go straight into school” because they usually have a clearer idea of their goals and plans after spending time overseas.
“Regardless of why they took the year off or what they did, students are effusive in their praise”, Harvard says on its admissions site.
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American universities including Princeton, Tufts and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have formal gap-year programmes, which give students the option of participating in a structured year of service overseas or in the United States, depending on the institution. But many students also reported doing volunteer or political campaign work, taking classes, travelling or doing outdoor adventures in different regions of the US. Harvard and other select schools can cost more than $60,000 a year for tuition, room, board and other fees. Unfortunately, a gap year seems like an unfathomable vacation for many students who can’t take the time off to gain the experiences that might make their resume standout on future job, school and fellowship applications. Apparently it’s not unusual for Europeans to travel for a year or two before they start college. Now a senior at the elite Sidwell Friends School in northwest Washington, she has come of age with the world watching. It’s going to be hard for me not to have her around all the time, but she’s ready to go.
