McKenzie Andrews didn't plan on taking a year off between high school and college, but the recent University School of Nashville graduate changed her mind once she found out she was chosen to study abroad.

Andrews, who deferred her admission to Stanford University, will leave home in about two weeks to spend a year in Taiwan studying Chinese at a college there. After an application process that took months, she learned in the spring that she was one of 650 students selected from a pool of more than 2,000 to receive a full scholarship for the program through the National Security Language Initiative.

"I thought it would be an opportunity that I'd never have again," said Andrews, who took four years of Chinese in high school. "I thought if it happens, it would be a really cool experience, and I'm not sacrificing anything. It's almost selfish because it's all about learning."

In the United States, the practice of taking a gap year is on the rise, but today's high school graduates commonly go into it with a detailed plan--learning a language, volunteering or exploring a career--and with the goal of deciding on a major.

Gap years were popular in the 1960s and '70s, when students would drop out of school and travel the world as a way to escape from family and the educational system, said Robin Pendoley, CEO of Thinking Beyond Borders, a Connecticut-based educational nonprofit.

"Today, students and parents are looking for something more substantive," Pendoley said. "They want to learn. They want to experience the world, but most of all, they want to go back to school. It's not simply about roaming the world anymore."

Pendoley's 4-year-old organization, which offers travel-based gap-year experiences starting at $16,000--considered among the most expensive in the country--is seeing an increase in student participants. Enrollment doubled this year, and it is expected to double again in the coming year, he said.

There are about 40 gap-year organizations in the United States.

There are even more organizations overseas, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, countries where gap years are more common.

"About 300,000 students a year take a gap year in the U.K," said Pendoley, who has a master's degree in education from Harvard University. "That's roughly half of the country's graduates."

Other benefits
Travel is just one of the reasons a student might take a gap year.

Some may use a gap year to volunteer with a specific project or do an internship to learn about a specific job field before deciding on a major, said Lisa Sohmer, a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

"I don't like students to take a year off without having a plan," she said. "It can sometimes derail you if you do it without focus. Gap years are the time to explore your passions. People should have a reason for wanting to gap."

Other students take the time off to get a job and work as a way to save for college.

That's what Steve Simms did. He took a gap year at the University of Tennessee at Martin before graduating in 1974. Back then, the university was on a quarter system, with three quarters to a year.

Simms worked as a door-to-door book salesman during one quarter and sold stationery to college fraternity and sorority houses across the western United States during another.

"I did things that added so much to my life," said Simms, who works for the Salvation Army in Nashville. "It is good to get experiences in the real world or workplace. College is pretty much surrealistic, it's not the way life is."

Still Hope
In Tennessee, students can take up to 16 months off between high school graduation and college and still receive a Hope Scholarship, no questions asked, said Tim Felts, associate executive director for grants and scholarships with the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation.

If a student takes longer than 16 months, he or she can appeal to the college of choice for an extension, providing a reason to officials for why the extra time was needed.

Last year, about 750 students with Hope Scholarships started college after taking a year off, Tennessee Higher Education Commission records show. More than 100,000 students, the highest number ever seen, received awards last year.

Today, most colleges and universities allow deferred admission, said Sohmer. But, it's important for students to go through the college admission process with their class even if they're sure they're taking a year off, she added.

"It's the only chance they have to have this much support through the application process," she said. "If they decide a year later, their high school counselor may be able to help, but it's not the same as going through the process step-by-step."