Originally Posted by mnmom23
Just out of curiousity since I really have been thinking about this: does allowing your child to travel during a gap year or allowing your child to study overseas allow your child a safer place to learn when deemed not mature enough to go to college? I could see that attending a local college or university could make sense given that your child would still be living at home with you or would, at least, be very close to you, but I've always wondered about the traveling approach while waiting to be mature enough to attend college. It seems like being on your own in a foreign country might be a bit more risky than going a state or two away to attend college. Just wondering if anyone has experience witht this? It's always good to know all about the options.

I might consider the option for my chidren but what I had in mind was not "backpacking around Europe" (like the frightening movie "Taken"). I might consider something like a foreign exchange student situation. My grandparents hosted foreign exchange students while my dad was in highschool. They would be in the care of a host family. It's an entirely different situation i would imagine.

Youth lives by personality, age lives by calculation. -- Aristotle on a calendar