Tufts Launches Service Year For Incoming Freshman

Increasingly, students are deciding to defer the start of college and take a "gap year." Instead of hitting the books, students might travel around Europe or work on a farm or volunteer.

Wednesday, Tufts University is launching a new kind of gap year. Starting in the fall of 2015, rather than starting with microeconomics or writing, 50 incoming freshman will spend nine months doing volunteer work with support from professors.

Alan Solomont, dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts and former U.S. ambassador to Spain and Andorra.