What to Do in a Gap Year

Are you thinking of taking a gap year? There’s a lot of reasons college students may choose to take a gap year. Many students aren’t comfortable heading back to campus quite yet after the COVID-19 pandemic and now may be the perfect time to take a gap year.

Other reasons students may take a gap year are to explore jobs and possible alternative career paths, international travel or take road trips around the United States, or save money to help fund college when they’re ready to head back to school. Putting some hard-earned cash into savings is also another awesome thing to do during your gap year.

Whatever your reason is, we want to give students who decide to take time off this semester our best tips on how to spend the time effectively, saving up and making your gap year not only fun, but lucrative for your bank account as well!

Check out our best tips to have a productive gap year as well as earn money.

Apply for Scholarships

It’s a wise choice to spend some time during your gap year applying for scholarships. You wouldn’t believe how many scholarships are available for students, including those on a gap year. Any scholarship you might win from $500 to $25,000 will help to pay for some portion of your tuition; allowing you to worry less about student loan debt and focus more on earning A’s in your classes. It’s a win-win situation.

As far as scholarships go, there are some easy no-essay scholarships, short essay scholarships, and the bigger prize scholarships that require more time, but if you win it will be time well spent. You won’t regret giving yourself the opportunity to help fund your college education, when you’re ready to head back to class.

You never know, you may get a scholarship that helps pay for all your textbooks and supplies. Every little bit helps when it comes to finding money for college, this especially true for scholarship opportunities.

Get started now: Don’t forget to check out our, no-essay, sweepstakes scholarships offered on ScholarshipPoints.com. We giveaway three $1,000 scholarships and a $2,500 scholarship opportunity each month.  Someone will win these and that someone could be you.

Also, don’t forget to follow us on social for some bonus points - Instagram and Facebook

Find a Job

Gaining work experience during a gap year is a great opportunity to earn some money. You can look for both full- or part-time options.

Better yet, look for jobs with employers that offer tuition assistance or full tuition coverage for school, such as: Starbucks, Walmart, and Target. There are more employers out there than just these three, make sure to ask the question during your interview.

Once you get your job, start setting some savings goals. Challenge yourself to save at least 50% of your paycheck for your future college expenses. If you receive your paychecks through direct deposit, your company may allow you to have your money deposited into more than one account.

A great strategy would be to deposit some of your money directly into a savings account to keep this money out of your spending account. Out of sight, is out of mind and that means more money to help pay for college.

Get started now: Check out Indeed.com for job opportunities near you.

Start a Blog or YouTube 

Have you ever thought about starting a blog or YouTube channel on a subject you have a strong interest and expertise in? Do you love video games, sports, makeup, cars, or cooking? Starting a blog and sharing an interest of yours is an easy, and sometimes money making, side gig that can start as a hobby and eventually turn into something much bigger.

It may take some time before your blog takes off, but it’s a great way to do something you love and potentially earn some extra cash on the side. If you work towards promoting yourself and your blog, you could start to earn endorsement or advertiser commissions on products you talk about.

Get started now: Set up a blog with WordPress or a YouTube Channel today

Share Your Art

Do you create digital or painted art in your free time for fun? Do you play music or dance? Are your friends and family always complimenting your skills? Then it’s time to start sharing your creations all around town.

If your talent is in digital creations, sharing your art on Twitter where there’s a massive art community may be the way to go. You can also share your creations on Instagram where it’s all about the visual experience.

Freelance art is extra fun when you love what you do and Fiverr is a great site to feature your art. Create a personalized signature or sticker to share on your social media profiles on your art, so people can start to recognize your artwork. The possibilities are endless, and who knows, maybe some opportunities can create ways for you to earn money.

Get started now: Set up your Twitter, Instagram or Fiverr account today.

Start Writing a Book

Do you go on crazy adventures no one could possibly believe are real? Start writing about it. Writing a book sounds like a massive project and while writing a book has taken some of the best authors of our time years and years to write, it can be done quite easily when you write about something you love or know very well.

Have you ever considered typing out some short stories in your free time and letting your imagination run wild? Now’s the time. You may be surprised how many people love the stories you create. Amazon is great platform for self-publishers and this is a great way to get started as they will provide you with everything you need to get your book out there.

Get started now: Learn more at Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)