Tufts to Pay for Year Off

What will they think of next? Tufts University will introduce a new “gap year” program this fall that will pay students to take a year off to travel, work, or volunteer. The program, in which Tufts would pay for things like housing and plane tickets, is to remove financial obstacles for less-wealthy students to see more of the world. The amount of money could add up to $30,000 or more. Other universities have aid programs for gap years, including Princeton and the University of North Carolina. Around 40,000 U.S. students were in a gap-year program in 2013, up 20 percent since 2006.