Taking a different path to college

He said his research showed students who took gap years, on average, had higher grade point averages during college than students who went the more traditional route from high school to higher education. These students also overperformed beyond their college admissions academic rating—used to predict an applicant's college success, he said.

"Families think if [their children] stop going to school for a year, they will have a hard time gaining momentum," Clagett said. "The opposite is true. They end up more enthusiastic about learning. There's a purpose behind [going to college] now."

Gap-year programs vary greatly in length, cost and experience, he said.

"There are plenty of programs with fancy tours, and that's not to say they can't be enriching," Clagett said. "It depends on the student."

A seven-month program designed by Thinking Beyond Borders—at a per-participant cost of $29,500—allows one to explore Ecuador, Thailand, India and South Africa. The participant lives with a host family and studies global issues facing residents including education, resources and development. Outward Bound offers local and international wilderness adventures to its gap year clients for $8,500 to $12,000 per semester. Americorps pays participants a stipend to work for 11 months in an inner-city school.

Clagett said gap-year students also have the option to design their own programs. He said one student spent four months in a North Dakota monastery, four months assisting a judge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and ended his year volunteering in a Dominican Republic orphanage for four months.

Seventeen-year-old Kayla Sameski graduated in the top 10 percent of her class at Vandegrift High School in June. Graduating a year early, she said she chose to take advantage of her youth and focus on a professional dance career before heading to college.

"Even though I'm taking a gap year, I'm not putting off college because I will still be going with my age group," Sameski said.

She began the Broadway Dance Center's professional semester in New York City on Aug. 18.

"This year will allow me to step into the professional world of dance and see if I want to stay there," Sameski said.

Clagett said an admissions process is inevitable, even for some of the gap-year programs, but none are as rigorous as the college admissions process.

"Students can lead unbelievably active lives trying to get into college," Clagett said. "I've seen that dazed look in their eyes. They haven't discovered their passions and may be burned out at the end of high school."