Students attending Tufts University will no longer have to worry about the potential financial setback of a "gap year" because the school will cover the bill.

According to the Associated Press, Tufts will pay for a package roughly $30,000 that includes a student's housing, airfare and visa fees. Dubbed "4+1," the plan allows for students to take a year to travel before starting school.

Gap years are more popular in Europe than they are in the U.S. The rising cost of tuition at American colleges also makes gap years much more common among wealthier families than they are among middle class families.

There are still programs for families who may not be able to afford sending their high school graduate abroad for a year. According to data from the American Gap Year Association, 40,000 Americans signed up for such programs in 2013, up from about 32,000 in 2006.

Tufts is one of the most highly regarded private research institutes in the country. With an acceptance rate of 21 percent, it lies in Medford, Mass. not even 10 minutes from Harvard, in a town just outside Boston.

"A lot of kids are very burnt out after high school," 19-year-old Tufts freshman Lydia Collins told the AP. "Taking this time to be with yourself and see yourself in a new community and light will only help you to succeed in college."

Collins said she found her desired career path when she worked in microfinance in Ecuador through Global Citizen. She now wants to study global relations.

A gap year counselor and director of the Center of Interim Programs, Holly Bull said studying abroad also eliminates any anxiety an incoming freshman would have about living with strangers in a dorm.

Patrick Callan, founding president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, cautioned that taking a year off with no goal in sight could be more detrimental than helpful. If a student has a plan, that plan can change, but without one, the students risks losing motivation to go back to school.

"Sometimes, for less motivated students, taking a year off could lead to them never coming back," he told the AP. "You need to come in having a plan."