extra year/semester

<p>I had a question concerning how admissions departments view transcripts.
You often hear that taking extra time to complete a degree is not a positive thing.
However, I was wondering, is it the actual time itself that makes it look bad, or rather the fact that you took light course loads or repeated classes.
I am considering scaling back my hours this semester and being a part time student. Rather than going to school, instead I will do 3 credit hour independent study where I will be working for a political party through the month of November.
I will technically be enrolled for the semester.
If, because of this, I take 9 instead of 8 semesters to graduate, would this look negative.
Or say I Was going to need an extra semester as it was, and now I will be in school for a full 5th year, I would imagine that extra year could be misleading.
It depends, I assume, on how the transcript is viewed. Do they break everything down semester per semester?
The thing is, even if they do break it down quite thoughtfully, one could look at my transcript and see a 5th year with a one-class-semester and categorize me as a student who needed a catch up year.</p>

<p>would anyone have any thoughts on whether this might put me at a disadvantage.
It just seems like it would have to. You may be able to get away with an extra semester. But once you take 2 extra semesters, even if it is obvious one was an unconventional semester, it may be easy to no longer grant the benefit of the doubt.</p>

<p>anyone????</p>

<p>I think given how you SPENT your time off would not be looked down on. While in Law school one of my cohorts, took a year OFF to run a political campaign. His candidate won governor of Ga and so it was successful. I think it is more HOW you spend you time, not necessarily that you took time off.</p>