<p>I was supposed to attend college (as a freshman) in the fall, but I had to defer my enrollment for the spring due to the fact that my father had some financial issues and could not afford my tuition. Now that these issues are resolved, he can thankfully pay the tuition without any issue. The thing is, a part of me is contemplating deferring another semester again and go in the fall 2013. I don't know if this is a good idea or not. I guess I'm worried that if I go now in the spring I won't have a traditional college experience, and I will not graduate in time because I'll always have an extra semester to complete (compared to other people). Yet, I almost feel ungrateful if I defer again. In your opinion, what is the best thing to do? </p>
<p>By the way...I plan to attend law school after college, and that's why the whole not graduating in time thing is worrying me...I'm concerned that it will affect my college applications for law school.</p>
<p>First off I would contact the school to make sure you can defer your enrollment another semester since you did not originally plan to defer for a year. I can definitely understand where you are coming from and why you would rather start during the fall than what seems midway through the academic year.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that although you are only deferring an extra semester the tuition is increasing for both your undergraduate institution and for law schools which are extremely expensive. If you have money than this might not be a problem.</p>
<p>What do you plan on doing during the extra semester off? Traveling the World? Volunteering? Getting a Job? As long as you are being productive in some way there is no reason not to rush into school this Spring.</p>
<p>As far as graduating “on time” is concerned I do not believe this will hurt you in anyway in law school admissions. If you did something interesting during your gap year that may even help. Also law schools prefer older applicants with work experience.</p>
<p>Well, this depends on you.</p>
<p>There’s no academic or career-related reason for you to make the decision either way. Being a spring start won’t affect your graduate or law school admissions. You can still graduate in 8 semesters, but you will probably graduate in the Fall of 2016 instead of the spring of 2016 with the others who started in the fall, unless you overload on classes or take summer classes or have a lot of AP credit.</p>
<p>Really, the question is social and personal. Do you feel ready to start? Do you want to participate in all that first-semester bonding and getting to know each other stuff? There’s a lot more to a traditional college experience besides just the very first semester, and starting in the spring won’t mean you won’t have that. But if you want to experience things like homecoming as a freshman, or Greek life recruitment, or just the first rush of meeting people when no one knows each other - go ahead and defer another semester.</p>
<p>^^ I agree with the advice before me and want to add additional support. I know a few people who started their freshman year in the spring. To be honest, most of them probably would have had a better transition into college if they started in the fall. One of the valuable things about starting at the “traditional” time is that most other people start then too and you have “the masses” to fall back on - it’s easier to make mistakes because a lot of other people are making them right along with you.</p>
<p>The people I know who started spring semester typically didn’t have an easy time making friends. One started commuting from home within two weeks because she said she felt too out of place at school. Another kind of bounces around between groups of people because he’s always known as “the new guy” and he hates it. I’m not trying to scare you out of starting in the spring, just know that you will have to work a lot harder to play catch up in every aspect of college life.</p>