Covid gap year and grad school admissions I'm a sophomore at a public university in the U.S. I'm thinking of taking a year off before my junior year, but I'm worried I'll have to explain the gap in my transcript when I apply to math grad school down the road. How concerned do I need to be about this?

The real reason I don't want to "go back" to school in the fall is that an online experience doesn't appeal to me at all. My home environment is a bit difficult and I think I'll have a miserable year overall. I expect I can still get decent grades, but I'd much rather have had four good years on campus, even if that means I have to graduate a year late.

Essentially, I'd like an answer to tell me how admission committees usually view gaps in transcripts and try to give me an idea of how this might play out for someone who voluntarily leaves college for a year because of classes being online. Some more specific questions that have crossed my mind are the following:


Do application forms explicitly ask you to address gaps in your transcript? If not, is there an expectation that applicants will explain these anyway?
Will an explanation like "I didn't want to take classes online for a year" fly? While my home environment is also a factor here, I would be really embarrassed to bring that up in an application. 
How important is it that I have something to put on my resumé for the coming year? What I'd really like to do is a lot of reading on my own in math. But if it's something that would make a significant difference to my application, I could try to find work instead. (I don't really expect I'll get anything beyond a typical low-wage unskilled position, assuming it's even possible to find jobs. Failing that, would volunteering be taken seriously?)
Would expectations of progress in math be higher for someone who has a year-long gap in his transcript and has therefore had five years to graduate?


If it makes a difference, right now my impression is that I could probably be competitive for a spot at a top-ten school.

If it's felt that my question doesn't fit with the site rules, I'd appreciate advice on how to improve it.
With the COVID pandemic affecting a lot of ways of life, graduate department adcoms are more likely to be understanding of certain abnormalities in transcripts and such when they review them, at least in the immediate upcoming cycles.  These can include having to take classes P/F, as some schools have switched to that grading model as a result of having to go entirely online.  In general also, I don't believe that taking over four years to finish undergrad will be a liability either; even in normal circumstances, things can happen that graduate department adcoms will also understand, such as major changes, having to retake classes after a dismal year, etc.

That said, you will have a gap in your CV come application time, hence the term "gap year."  While you could take a break and "do nothing," a better use of the gap year/semester would be, as you said, to find work or attempt to do a (preferably research) internship.  Most are in the summer, but there are a few, especially in industry, that will take on students for the regular semester.  You mentioned your home environment is difficult, so especially if the pandemic situation improves enough, why not take the time to try and gain experience that could be relevant come time to apply to graduate programs?  If anything, do something that you could brag about to adcoms or your friends rather than spend the semester doing nothing.

Overall though, I do feel that taking a gap semester/year could be beneficial in this case.  Especially if you have just gone through a relatively stressful semester, you could use a longer break before going back into school.