Taking a year out of college, what are the chances of actually going back?

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I've been working all summer, pretty hard I guess, and though I was looking forward to going back to college for the freetime, in some senses I feel a bit of time out of Dublin might do me good. I could spend alot of money on a holiday or whatever but I feel I might need more than that and was half thinking of taking a year out of college and going to London or something.

I'm not really into seeing the world or a drastic life change, I just feel alot of my friends are beginning to work, or in serious long term relationships, and the club scene here has nothing more to offer me, that might sound like a minor reason but it's the major thing in my life really. (perhaps thats another reason to change things in itself)

My main fears are (a)that I'll hate working in a crappy job for the year (possible though I haven't minded this job too much. (b)that I'll not be able for the responsibility of sorting job/accomodation etc out and fuck things up instead (c) that I'll miss Dublin and want to come home again if things get slightly iffy, (d)that I won't have a proper social life for ages and I'll go mad. and (e) that I won't bother going back to college after a year.

It's only really an idea at this stage, I guess in some ways I should just hang on for 2 years until I finish college. I like my life now, but I can't help but feel I'm just doing the same thing over and over, being single, partying, being broke, worrying, getting money, partying, being tired/guilty, fighting with parents, plodding through college fairly easily without ever really interacting with anyone there.

That sounds grimmer than it is; it's a fairly normal life is all I mean.

Did you take a year out of college? Did it do any good? Is there any real point? Would I be better off just sitting tight given I want to be a music writer and it's hardly a straight into Anderson Consulting after college type career?

Appreciate any advice.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

First things first - Anyway you can blag a year studying in London?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Good thinking Matt, perhaps, though usually that'd be done after, like a masters or something. I really should have thought of this earlier in the summer but then I didn't feel as though I wanted a year out then.

I'll have to go and ask my tutor about it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

It depends on your reasons for leaving and motivation for going back, I guess. Lots of people take a year off after undergrad and before graduate, if nothing else.

I dropped out when the shit hit the fan for me, and dropped back in the following summer essentially because I had no idea what else to do and it was the easiest way to move somewhere new. It was good for a number of reasons for me to take that year off, not least of which was that I left Hampshire and went somewhere better.

My ex took a year off from college after undergrad, and went to graduate school when she did for the opposite reason -- she was making so much money in the real world that she knew if she didn't go to graduate school right then, she'd never be able to live with the enormous step down in standard of living.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I was going to suggest studying somewhere else might be what you need, then you get to combine your need to get out of Dublin, with your desire to go to college.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I took three years off and am back now, it can be done. The remark about enormous step down in standard of living is OTM though. I don't think there has been a pay period since I went back where I haven't overdrafted my bank account.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:38 (twenty-two years ago)

A year between undergrad and graduate school has been far too long for me. I cannot wait to go back to school. I hate the real world.

― Mandee, Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

i did it -- though i didn't take the year off voluntarily (i.e., i was kicked out for being a bad boy). it can be done, though it might hurt yer wallet.

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

If you feel that you should take a year off, then you should. Otherwise all these things are going to keep on eating at you. I had a friend that really wanted to take a year off, but his parents kept on pushing him to stay on, not to "dawdle", and he ended up dropping out the next year. I think if he'd just taken off for a year, he'd have fallen back into the rhythm of things after that and graduated. *shrug*

― Girolamo Savonarola, Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Everyone I know who voluntarily took a year off came back and finished.

Of the people I know who were asked to take a year off, only one didn't finish and he'd been trying to graduate from undergrand since 1981 (not continuously).

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I've done it - twice. Eventually did finish.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

move to new york city!!

― geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, I took a year out between my first and second years of university - although mostly this was because I *hated* my old univeristy (Southall-land, heh!) and wanted to transfer, so the idea of moving somewhere new and starting a new leaf did really appeal.

I spent my year at home, meeting new people and working on an IT helpdesk. By September, I couldn't *wait* to get back to studying.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I also had MUCH SQUANDERING MONEY for the first term.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, you come to London and you're hardly not going to have a social life are you?

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)

If you're anything like me your chances are pretty nil. Luckily I joined the USAF and found other routes to completing my degree, because as I've stated elsewhere many times classroom instruction and lectures give me blood poisoning.

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I took two years off mid-way thru and went back and finished. When I did go back, it was with a lot more determination and focus than the first time around. So, yeah, it's possible.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

you do not yet know the horrors that await you at law school, aaron. it is not too late to turn back!

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I wanna go too! Except for the "attending classes" part!

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

well, you certainly like to argue all the time and always have an answer for everything ... just like a lawyer!

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Hrmph. What crawled up yr ass lately!

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

WTF is up with having to go to ABA law schools anyway? I just want to take the bar exam, dammit!!

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not even going to go to law school now. I'm going back to stripper-as-career-goal. FUCK you Tad.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Come to Glasgow! Optimo!

― David. (Cozen), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

there still are non-ABA accredited law schools. problem is, almost no-one hires people from such places and chances of sitting for bar exams are limited.

there used to be a time when you didn't have to go to law school. you clerked in a lawyer's office for several years, "read the law" (that is, took a bar exam), and that was it. law school is a relatively recent thing (harvard law didn't come into being until the 1880s or so).

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

tom, believe me you do NOT want to take the bar exam! (unless yer just joking, in which case ignore this)

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

You Americans with yer kerrazy post-grad only Law School! Embrace the Undergraduates! (Actually, do they do undergrad Law in America now?)

― David, nearly a lawyer himself. Nearly. (Cozen), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah I'm not really interested in taking the bar exam seeing as how I CAN'T unless I go to an ABA or CBA accredited school and put myself in massive debt. I guess I could move to Louisiana but YEAH RIGHT. I guess I'd better get used to government contracting!

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude I told you that sounded crazy, I mean why would anyone go to law school otherwise? Oh well, it was a pretty awesome dream though.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

if anyone is SERIOUS about going to law school, then i would be more than happy to tell them what to expect. good and bad ... i'm not gonna be a promo for the place.

tom -- U Maryland has a very good l-school, and i think that they have a part-time program. if you really want to go, you might be able to save $$ doing that.

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I took most of a year off (also in the got booted temporarily club), came back and did much better (ie showed up to class). I suspect that taking some time off helps most people. You're less likely to spend all your time goofing off or partying if you spent time in the real world working an entry-level job or something.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I took about 17 years out, I think it was.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

haha i was thinking pretty much the exact same thing as ronan

i'm taking a year out anyway,and was considering trying to get a job in london for a few months...i'd sooner go to new york but i think getting a work permit or whatever is meant to be tricky,plus i don't really know london at all so it'd be a good chance to see it..

― robin (robin), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 02:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Since when do Ally and Tom want to become lawyers?

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 03:00 (twenty-two years ago)

if either tom or ally do want to go to law school, my offer to them re advice still stands. and i will keep that promise (since, unlike FAPs, it doesn't mean that i have to get up off my ass and show up somewhere!)

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 03:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I don't actually want to become a lawyer at all. I want to become a Spice Girl.

― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh hey. Yeah, I'll take up your offer, Tad. I expect it'll be a ton of work and make me miserable on a few levels, but I'm one of those masochistic "enjoying being really busy" people so hopefully I'll be happy.

A friend of mine just quit NYU Law School after one year because she realized it wasn't what she wanted to do. My other friend is about to finish at U of Michigan in December and realized that she prolly should've chosen a different field. Luckily, I've waited until I'm gonna be 27 (my friends went to law school straight out of undergrad) and have already gone thru the whole soul searching/"what do I want to do with my life" thing.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 12:48 (twenty-two years ago)

becoming a spice girl, what are the chances of actually going back

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 12:56 (twenty-two years ago)

aaron -- my offer extends to you, too :-) lemme know whenever you have a question.

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I graduated college, took a few years off, and now I am thinking about going back to get another BA!? I am crazy, but also, I don't like my job so much and something must be done about it.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

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