TOPIC 1: In some countries young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university studies. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to do this.

In the contemporary society, taking a gap year before going to university is an increasingly popular trend among young people. While several people claim that this tendency has positive effects on the students, I purely believe that the benefits of this trend are eclipsed by its drawbacks.

On the upside, working or travelling after graduating from high school is beneficial to the majority of students. To begin with, if students work may help them save money to make ends meet their student as well as make their personal plan in the near future. By the same token, if they travel around several countries before starting university studies, they can broad view of life and have interesting experience, because a young adult who just passes directly from high school to university always has a lack of general knowledge and experience of the world. Besides, via working or traveling by themselves for period of time, they also become more independent, which is a very crucial element in academic study and research. Therefore, they can very easily confront these challenges at their university.

However, I would argue that these benefits are outweighed by the drawbacks. Visibly, the rich students who have much money can easily travel anywhere to widen their knowledge while the poorer students have to work increasingly to earn money. Consequently, these low – income students want to give up their university dream due to their financial difficult and the attraction of their current job. In addition, it is very difficult to adapt when they return to the academic study due to the fact that they have to work for a long time in the extremely different environment.

In conclusion, it seems to me that the potential dangers of working or travelling between finishing high school and starting university education are more significant than the possible benefits. Students should get a clear perspective to decide the best way for them.