Should I take a gap year before college?

Take the job. You will not be that much older as many freshmen are not just out of high school.

Sounds like a good plan. I worked full time for a year to save up enough money. It was absolutely worth it in the long run. I didn't have to take out any loans because of this. But, I'd be careful not to fall behind on your studies. If you intend on taking any algebra classes, be sure to review it or you'll forget!

If you don't have the money for even community college and aren't qualified for the FAFSA financial aid such as the Pell Grant(too late to apply now if you haven't anyway) then yes the responsible thing would be to take a year and save money. You could even test out of a couple basic college classes like history, sociology, humanities etc with a thing called the CLEP if you are really concerned about getting behind. They cost $80. You will not be younger than everyone else when you begin college and freshman do not only take classes with freshman. You'll have sophomores and up taking english 101 classes just because they hadn't gotten around to it their freshman year plus many people don't start college until age 20+ for various reasons.

I wouldn't do it. College prices are soaring, and you'll forget a lot of what you learned in high school. Go ahead and get into college, enjoy your beginnings of freedom, but don't go overboard. Yes, you will have 40+ years of work ahead coming up... there will be time for that. If you want a "year off", take a year after college to do something like teach English abroad. You'll be able to go someplace new and fun.

It is not unusual at all for people to take a year off after high school to work and earn some money before going to college. Also, it helps to begin building your job history as soon as possible. It will give you a leg up when you have more of a job history once you are done with college and want to apply for a job in the field you choose to study in.

Yea. Take the job and a few courses at your local community college, if you can.

If you don't have the money to pay for college, than there really isn't a choice here, is there? If you have to work, you have to work. Take the job. Universities aren't like high school. Being a year or even two older probably isn't going to even be notice unless you go around pointing it out to people.

If you could manage to go to school right now, go for it while working part time. Frankly speaking life is just too cruel to people who does not even have a college diploma these days.