<p>Anyone have experience with this? I have already completed my first semester, and would be taking a break after the upcoming semester.</p>
<p>I would recommend not doing that, if you want to finish college you must soldier threw! one semester, becomes 2 then 3 and on and on. you lose your momentum . (IMO)</p>
<p>I do not necessarily agree with zobroward’s advice. I knew a lot of people who took a leave of absence during college and then returned to complete their degrees. I graduated with one fellow who had entered college 16 years before he graduated, and taken several leaves of absence. (He joked that he had attended Harvard on the “four-term plan”: Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. This is a plan I actually cannot endorse!)</p>
<p>In my mind, it all comes down to having a purpose for the time away from college. It’s OK to feel burned out. It’s OK to feel as if you need some time to do something else. But it’s dangerous to quit doing what you’re doing without a *specific *plan for what you’ll do instead. That could be work (but if the plan is specific, you need to figure out what work you’ll be doing) or travel (but if the plan is specific…) or volunteering for a political cause or spending a year in an ashram or learning to fly helicopters or serving in the Navy, but you should be going to something, and not just away from college. If all you’re doing is going away from college, you’re less likely to accomplish anything, less likely to be any different after a year away from how you are right now, and less likely to be ready to go back at the end of a year (or a semester, or however long you plan to stay away).</p>
<p>JMO.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with zobroward’s advice, either; in fact, “soldiering through” can often become counterproductive if you don’t have a direction, are very stressed out, have other pressing matters to take care of, have financial concerns, and other things.</p>
<p>Like Sikorsky says…it’s totally okay to take time off if you have a purpose. But you have to not only a plan for what you want to do but also a re-entrace plan. At what point will you know that you are ready to come back? What reachable goal do you want to achieve? It can be time-bounded (like you’re going to take off two semesters and a summer, and return in August/September 2014) or it can be goal-oriented for <em>short-term goals</em>.</p>
<p>My husband took 4 years off college to join the military and learn some discipline. Now he’s back, at a completely different college, and is doing better than he did before.</p>
<p>I want to work and stop living off my parents money. I am one of the laziest people ever. Everyone I know is in college so I do not think I would have a problem coming back. I want some direction though.</p>