WPE Sample Topic 1
The sample reading passage below is followed by a writing prompt.
Reading Passage
From "Year Off Beckons More of the College Bound"
By Jodi Wilgoren, NY Times
So, Cornelius Bull asked the high school senior sunk into his sofa, “you want to go build a boat in Russia? You want to work in a family circus in California and be a juggler?” Mr. Bull continued, flashing a dot of red light on the map of the world behind his desk. “Alaska? Want to go work with some sled dogs? Would you like to be fluent in Spanish? You want to build a guitar? In England? For three months?”
Tim Curren, 19, widened his eyes, shrugged, bobbed his head. Ireland, Hawaii, Australia, film, farming, teaching—he was not sure which, where, what. But he wanted to do something, anything, lots of things, between graduating from high school and starting college. “Just experience is what I’m looking for,” Mr. Curren said, leaning in to look at a globe on the coffee table. “I’ve really always wanted to go somewhere other than here.”
As fat and thin envelopes from the nation’s selective colleges land in mailboxes around the country this spring, Mr. Curren and a small but apparently growing number of other high-achieving, well-off students are stepping off the fast educational track, at least for a short stroll. With competition for admission to top colleges fiercer than ever, and the fine arts of resume-padding and SAT preparation now beginning in elementary school, many students finish 12th grade burned out on books and begging for alternatives. Others, frustrated by rejections from elite colleges, take a year off in search of adventures that just might help improve their applications.
The high price of higher education has also made some think twice about why they are going, while the increasing emphasis on globalization and experiential learning—as well as technology that makes finding opportunities and keeping in touch from far-flung places both easier—is also helping spur the trend.
A “gap” year has long been common in Britain. (Prince William has been exploring in Africa, after volunteering in Chile.) And the military needs of countries like Israel that require service in the armed forces before university also provide seasoning for the young. Now a number of American guidance counselors and college admissions officers—along with a flourishing mini-industry of guidebooks and consultants like Mr. Bull—are promoting the notion that higher education works best for those who wait.
While low-income students have long delayed higher education to earn money for tuition, the concept of an interim year gallivanting in Indonesia is largely the province of the privileged. However, students can often get room and board in exchange for labor, and many work for a few months to finance adventures abroad. Those taking time off remain a tiny minority: a UCLA survey of freshmen at four-year colleges last year found that 98 percent had come straight from high school. Yet, Americorps, the government’s service program for people 18 to 24, has grown to 40, 000 volunteers this year from 7,000 in 1994. William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions and an evangelist for the interim year said, “The testimony from people who have done this is extraordinary. It permeates the entire way they think about using the university.”
Parents often worry that their children could end up in prison in a third-world country, maimed after falling off a mountain or, perhaps worse, so enchanted by their independence that they never get back on the college track. Experts say that high-school graduates who delay college without a concrete plan do sometimes meander for years but that those with a structured interim year usually return invigorated.
There have been no studies on the topic, but Ron Lieber, co-author of the 1996 book ‘Taking Time Off,” says an interim year improved performance in college and helped with job hunting later.
“You’ve got 50 resumes on your desk, 49 of them are from people who are 22 years old and have maybe had a couple of interesting summer jobs,” posited Mr. Lieber. “The other one is from someone who is 24 years old and spent six months working construction and then went and became fluent in Swahili and spent six months traveling through Africa. I mean, who would you hire?”
Writing Prompt
For your essay, briefly summarize the article, “Year Off Beckons More of the College-Bound.” What is your position on the “gap year”? Do you agree or disagree with the notion that taking time off before beginning college benefits students?