<p>There is literally a week before I'm slated to return to my second year of college. and its not out of laziness that I dont wanna go but there are a multitude of things that have me comtemplating a semester off. Please give me your thoughts, this is really troubling me and is a big dilemma because I am the first person from a pretty poor family to even make it past one year of college and my brother who took a year off from college never went back and manages a fast food joint (not good) and my other brother took off, never returned, went to some phony technical school that landed him a 13.00/hr salary at some electronics warehouse which he seems very munch content with (not good).</p>
<p>Back to me, the financials arent looking too hot. I started off on full scholarship my first year. This year i'm about half way there and I dont have the single parent unit who is willing to go out of her way to take out a loan and invest in me. First semester I did ok with a 3.3 Anyways besides that I lost some of my scholarships bc of a partying and drinking habit that I picked up second semester which left me with just over a 2.0 (so not good). All of the work in the world didnt save me and while i was turning in the work, it didnt matter because i was downgraded because of lateness and absence that i incurred earlier and no one gave a hoot. So its not that I was a bad student, I actually sobered up and did the work but they didnt care bc of absence. I must also note I have enough free grants and scholarships to cover a full ride for a semester so financially it seems like a good idea. I can spend that single spring semester that I return raising my gpa so I can reapply and regain scholarships and a new fafsa in which im elgible for a $9,000 grant- all this a year from now.</p>
<p>On top of that, my housing confirmation for the fall semester mysteriously got lost and there is no guarantee I will have housing bc this is the same MD school that just recently said flat out no juniors or seniors can live on campus and even went so far to put seniors in a lottery for beds, puts 3 freshmans in rooms made for two and in the next 4 years plan on increasing their enrollment in the thousands to compete with College Park . So it seems that housing is out.</p>
<p>On top of that even with all this stuff, its the summer time and Ive had a really lax summer and if i go back i will get caught back up in the whole party scene as everyone is begging me to do now. Things have just been too relaxed even at my cushy law firm job that ive been working at for three years they just let me get away with stuff. Im looking for a real world experience and something to actually motivate me to do better and stuggle so that when i do return to school I will be about business, not partying oversleeping etc and slacking off. its only a semester, literally 3 months September to December to get myself together some money together, get some focus and drive and get on the right track and then return a changed student. Im also a polysci major very active in local politics and politics is my life and im thinking of using that time to work on a campaign and i can use that experience also when i get back to school. Work really hard that semester. </p>
<p>Or should I get loans and commute, just go part time, or at least take one easy A class to bring the gpa up a little bit but. </p>
<p>I know this is a bit much but I only ask this question because i dont have a family who know the first thing about college and/or could speak from experience. Or just not return to college because Im a slacker.</p>