WHAT THE ‘GAP YEAR’ PHENOMENON TELLS US ABOUT AMERICAN COLLEGES: “What they don’t seem to appreciate is that the gap-year trend represents a subtle indictment of their institutions. After all, if people believe that a gap year will accelerate students’ maturation, help them cultivate practical and/or vocational skills, make them more sophisticated, or give them (in the words of journalist Susan Greenberg) ‘a newfound sense of purpose and perspective,’ the implication is that colleges will fall short in each of these areas. For that matter, the gap year raises important questions about why so many people are attending college in the first place.”