The gap year – the time in which a student spends traveling or performing service before… The gap year – the time in which a student spends traveling or performing service before entering college – while a popular practice in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, is so rarely practiced in the United States that many Americans don’t even know the meaning of the term.

The practice of taking a gap year originated after World War II and was intended to help students develop a better idea of global understanding to prevent future world wars. While it quickly became popular across Europe, American students never really seemed to take to the idea.

Part of the reason is college expense. Tuition at U.S. universities is higher than in most parts of the world, causing millions of students to find themselves in financial debt after graduation. So, the idea of adding on an additional year of expenses – with no type of aid, in most cases – just isn’t feasible for a lot of students. Additionally, the U.S. culture of individualism and economic independence has caused enrollment rates at U.S. colleges to skyrocket, with many high school grads set on graduating from college as soon as possible and settling into a lucrative profession.

It’s this culture of “work, work, work” that makes the idea of taking a gap year so unsettling for most Americans. In the United States, telling people you’re not sure where you’re going to college or that you might just take a year off is code for slacker, an unfortunate stigma for a decision that could actually teach students more than an entire year of college.

As many students who’ve studied abroad can attest, living in another part of the world can be life changing. Spending time abroad gives students an international perspective, allowing them to see how people of different cultures live, learn and work. Many gap-year programs also include volunteer work, a valuable experience that can instill a lifelong value of service.

It’s these values that inspired administrators at Princeton University to create an early year-abroad program, which is set to begin in 2009. While it differs slightly from the traditional gap year – technically, the experience is through the university, not from an outside program – Princeton’s objective is still the same: Give students a year to mature and learn from an international experience before diving into another four years (at least) of academia.

Princeton’s program will also tackle the financial difficulties that often come along with taking a year off to travel. While students won’t be paying tuition to Princeton, they will be able to apply for financial assistance from the university to cover travel expenses.

Going abroad is an important experience for college students, one that we think not enough students are able to take advantage of.

Many students become too involved in their major(s) and extracurricular commitments to spare a semester abroad, so instituting a pre-freshman-year program would allow students who wouldn’t be able to study abroad in their junior or senior years the ability to do so early on.

In a time where cultural misunderstandings have shaped the global political climate, it’s more important than ever to develop a greater understanding of other cultures, and nothing is better for that than spending time abroad.