When is the right time to start college? The answer to this question may seem obvious. Many think that the time to start college is inevitably in the fall after graduating high school, with only a summer in between. But that’s not the only choice available; many students choose not to start college right away, and instead pursue alternative timelines. We at St. John’s want to make sure that all our prospective students are aware of their options, including deferring to take a gap year or even starting in January by taking a gap semester (without losing time towards graduation!). 

For most students, right after high school is the best time to start college. We hear from students who are excited for the challenge of college. (Reading 200+ great books is exciting already from our perspective.) We hear from students who are excited to get away from home! (St. John’s is a great community in which to find friends and live with others who share your interests.)  

And we hear from students who are excited for a different kind of school than they experienced in high school. At St. John’s, we don’t have tests, and we don’t issue grades throughout the semester, both of which are huge stressors to a lot of high schoolers. We don’t study from textbooks and prove rote memorization ability on tests. We study directly from primary sources and try to reconstruct the processes behind the discovery of modern mathematical and scientific theory – often relying on our own hands-on experimentation. It’s exciting to be a student at St. John’s and follow 3000 years of human thought from Homer and Plato and Euclid to Nietzsche and Einstein and Morrison. 

But there are plenty of other reasons why someone might want to delay starting college by a year or so. Some students just don’t feel ready right out of high school and would like to take some time before moving away from home and starting on something new. Some students want to work to earn some money for college or would like to travel and see the world. Some students have exciting but time-limited opportunities or commitments. Some students have family or other obligations, or health concerns that put college out of reach in the immediate future. And all these reasons are perfectly good ones! 

If you think the above describes you – if you are interested in our program but not ready to start right away – a gap year or gap semester may be the answer for you. Check out our website for details. At St. John’s, we pride ourselves on proving a future-proof education for life. Because of this, we’ve focused on offering students as many options to experience our program in the time that works for them as we can. 

With a gap year, we allow students accepted to our fall semester to defer for up to a year. With a gap semester, you can do something at St. John’s that few other colleges offer.   

Enrolling in our spring semester and joining us as a January Freshman is another opportunity for students who want some time before starting college, but don’t think they need a full year of deferment, or don’t want to fall too far behind their age cohort. Our January freshman program allows students to start their freshman year in January, instead of August, getting a full seven months off between high school and college. Then these students continue classes through the summer and start their sophomore year in the fall with the rest of their cohort. You graduate college on time and get a gap semester! 

This is an excellent choice for students who find the idea of starting college so shortly after graduating high school intimidating, but don’t want to take a full year off for one of many reasons. This could be because, as I mentioned above, they don’t want to fall behind their age cohort. Some people thrive as slightly older students entering college, but some don’t, or don’t want to. As a January freshman, a student will be with others their own age, and will move into sophomore year just the same as a student who started college in the potentially expected time. This can assuage fears of being socially isolated or “left behind,” a common worry about gap years.  

Our January freshmen program, which is only available on our Santa Fe campus, also offers other opportunities and advantages to those students who take advantage of this program. The January Freshman program is an accelerated program of study, offering a chance for intense focus on academics, but that’s not all. Many students love their small JF cohort (the January freshman class is usually between 20 and 40 students) and the closeness with their classmates and the faculty teaching them. Because the program is on our Santa Fe campus, JFs are invited to a pre-orientation ski trip in the Rocky Mountains at the beginning of the new year.  

Starting your first year of college in January without losing time towards graduation is a rare opportunity. St. John’s is one of few colleges that offer this chance. With seven months between May graduation and a January start, this is a fantastic way to balance wanting time off after high school with not wanting to push back your college completion date. Our January freshman program is like the best of both worlds! 

 St. John’s offers lots of solutions to the question of when it is right for an individual student to start college. Whatever your personal life circumstances, you can work with us to find the right way to allow you to experience everything we have to offer at the right time for you.