Not at all part of our culture, not even slightly.
My generation was mostly drafted or enlisted, that’s definitely been a generational change. In the USA.
I took a gap year but because I didn’t get into the school I wanted and I didn’t want to take loans for school. So I just worked and messed around, partied, traveled a bit, but it wasn’t a gap year, per se.
I got it out of my system and went back to CC, got straight As and then transferred to a 4 year university with scholarships and financial aid and got my education for free.
The only people I knew who took gap years, either between HS and university or undergrad and grad school were already decently well off and mostly supported by their parents.
I’m sorry – I love the miscommunication in this thread. I live in the US and it is nothing exciting. you would see so much more culture and nature in the other areas you mentioned.
Almost non-existent. I planned on it because my parents didn’t pressure me to get out of the house by 18, I got bored 6 months in and was taking classes the next semester. Most people get through school as quick as possible so you can find a job and start carving out from the mountainous student loans.
Nobody I know wants to go to the US right now. So I would say as common as it has been, far less so now.
By a gap year do you mean like studying abroad or traveling you need to be more specific.