Gap year, or no gap year?

If you are the only person going to uni at 16 and everyone else is like 18 I'd imagine it would be **** for you.
I would take a gap year. How come you are going to uni at 16?

Hi! this is my first thread on TSR, so please bare with me if it doesnt make sense, or the font suddenly changes half way through. (if it does, i'll let you practise your detective skills in deciphering what im trying to say)...

So ANYWAY! - i have a slight dilemma... I have applied to do renewable energy Meng at Exeter (Cornwall Campus), and received an offer from them. so all is well and good -- except that i am only 16... this means i would be spending the first 3-4 months of my uni life as a 'minor'/child/infidel.
Now i understand that a large part of uni life is about socialising, but im worried that my inability to LEGALLY go to pubs etc would limit this :/

So that brings me to my two choices
- 1; accept anyway, pass exams (fingers crossed!) and just get on with uni life - besides, its only a small portion of the 4 year course anyway.
- Or 2; decide to put it on hold for one year, go travelling with friends, earn a bit of money and basically have a rest from education for a while. This should also let my build up confidence, so i wont feel like the odd-one-out in terms of age (tho am about the size of two 15 year-olds glued together on top of each other..)

I keep changing my mind, pretty much every week, so instead of waiting to see what week the deadline falls in, i have decided to consult the 'cyber-students'..
So yeah, if anyone has any advice, maybe if you/someone you know has been through the same thing, or even if u go to Exeter C-C. are there any other people a year younger, what sort of things would i expect to put up with?
And i have asked the careers adviser at school - only, as he happens to also be my dad, im accustomed to disagreeing with him :/.

Any help would be great, thanks a lot in advance!

Hi! this is my first thread on TSR, so please bare with me if it doesnt make sense, or the font suddenly changes half way through. (if it does, i'll let you practise your detective skills in deciphering what im trying to say)...

So ANYWAY! - i have a slight dilemma... I have applied to do renewable energy Meng at Exeter (Cornwall Campus), and received an offer from them. so all is well and good -- except that i am only 16... this means i would be spending the first 3-4 months of my uni life as a 'minor'/child/infidel.
Now i understand that a large part of uni life is about socialising, but im worried that my inability to LEGALLY go to pubs etc would limit this :/

So that brings me to my two choices
- 1; accept anyway, pass exams (fingers crossed!) and just get on with uni life - besides, its only a small portion of the 4 year course anyway.
- Or 2; decide to put it on hold for one year, go travelling with friends, earn a bit of money and basically have a rest from education for a while. This should also let my build up confidence, so i wont feel like the odd-one-out in terms of age (tho am about the size of two 15 year-olds glued together on top of each other..)

I keep changing my mind, pretty much every week, so instead of waiting to see what week the deadline falls in, i have decided to consult the 'cyber-students'..
So yeah, if anyone has any advice, maybe if you/someone you know has been through the same thing, or even if u go to Exeter C-C. are there any other people a year younger, what sort of things would i expect to put up with?
And i have asked the careers adviser at school - only, as he happens to also be my dad, im accustomed to disagreeing with him :/.

Any help would be great, thanks a lot in advance!

Not going because you can't "legally" go to pubs is really stupid in my opinion. I think you might regret it if you didn't go. If you look like an 18 year-old then I really don't think things are going to be much different anyway, and I don't think maturity will be a problem either since the majority of students are hardly mature themselves

I was really glad I didn't take a gap year, its a waste of time in my opinion. It all sounds good in theory; you can go travelling with your friends for a few months and enjoy yourself, but what do you do after that? Get a job at McDonalds for 9 months and bum around at home watching TV? Besides, you could find it hard to get back into education after taking such a long break.

Edit: Forgot to mention - the sheer amount of free time you get at university will give you plenty of time to enjoy yourself anyway!

Most university cities are know are pretty hot on IDing so he probably WOULD have a problem getting into pubs and no chance getting into clubs without ID. I agree that maturity won't be a problem - there are some students who are so immature you are amazed they can even dress themselves in the morning.

You have the idea of a gap year completely wrong, its about gaining independance and growing up outside of the bubble of your parents. I worked full time for 7 months then spent 5 months travelling. Though I had plenty of jobs before, working 9-5 in the real world definitely matured me and gave me good work experience and then planning a 5 month round the world trip and living and surviving in foreign countries does absolute wonders for your independance and maturity.
People I lived with in the first year had taken 2 years out but had no problem settling back in and the fact the OP has been accepted onto MEng a year early shows he obviously has a great work ethic.

Also, doing MechEng he is not going to have as huge amounts of free time as other people.

I think its pretty clear what I think you should do OP

im in the same situation, but i made my mind up pretty early that i was going to do deferred entry.
though people say that it wont make a difference being 17, it would because you'd just be rejected straight away.

someone said all the "fun stuff" was limited, but if you look hard enough you can find stuff to do. i've found a company who will let me work at their ski resort, some language courses and a travel company that will let you go at 17 - just shop around a bit .

plus, i reckon a gap year is a cool idea anyway - earn some money, get some experience, have some fun! i can't wait for mine
PM if you wanna know about my plans
xxx

Which unis do you want to go to? have you already applied then through UCAS?

I think the prospect of a gap year depends greatly for each person - some people would use the time to just doss around, travel, enjoy the 'experience', maybe do some work. Others would prefer to have it all arranged and planned, working for a period of time then travelling around or getting work experience.
To answer that last question, the course includes a 4-5month work placement after the 3rd year, so you gain the necessary work experience from that (most people are offered jobs after apparently)...

I guess i just have to decide what i will actually do during a gap year, is it really worth having 15 long months off, if i havnt properly planned it...

I think the summer holidays will be long enough for me to travel/do some work, so i'll just bite the bullet and go for the offer i already have!! - I will survive!

Thanks for all the posts though people!! Its greatly appreciated!