BootsnAll Travel Community

has anyone here ever taken an entire term off of school to travel? if so do you regret it and was it hard to go back to school?

Next year is my final year at uni and I was considering taking it off just cos I'm unbelievably restless. However, I know myself and realise that once I'm out there, I wouldn't be able to come back. I just hate the rigidity of university. I know it's not that bad but.... I HATE rigidity I just want to know I'm free, and be able to stay that way. Once I have this damn degree, I can go anywhere and do anything without having to worry about returning to study.

That's not to say that you wouldn't be able to do it... but I think it'd be hard to come back. Like, imagine if you met someone amazing, or found an awesome job or somewhere else you wanted to explore.

It depends on your personality - a break from study may make you more focused when you return. Although, I haven't acutally done it, so I'm not much of an authority on the subject

Hiya!

I actually took a year off from my degree, to go and work in a biotechnology company in Berlin and i can safely say it was the best thing i ever did!!!

At the end of the year before i went away, i was so restless, and just wanted to get uni out of the way. So i figured why not get a job in a company that would enhance my degree, in a different country, and get away from all the study for a while!! I've come back this year and started uni again in september, and i have found that i am more focused, more capable and have been getting better marks than ever!

All in all, something i would recommend to anyone who is feeling a bit restless with the whole uni situation!

If you just study abroad you can get the best of both worlds. However, to do this very effectively it is something that would need to be planned from freshman year.

I am just finishing up studying in Australia and its been fantastic. Its been far more of a vacation than hard studying.

What I mean by needing to be a freshman to do it effectively is that if you plan, you can save easy electives and have a cakewalk semester overseas. In that fashoin, you have plenty of time to travel but dont lose a year [semester] of school.

In addition, if you are really lucky like me and have a full tuition scholarship, it will ofter transfer. This made my Australian studies (vacation) cheaper than studying at Pitt for the semester!

Studying abroad is a great suggestion for a way to still accrue credits while getting to travel. One word of warning: just be careful what country you pick to do this, or even what school within the country. I've had friends who said they never worked so little and got such high grades (Spain, Mexico), and known people who were blown away by how hard they had to work to get the same grades they got at home, such as at Uppsala in Sweden.

Just something to research, and I'd never let the supposed difficulty of a school determine what country I was going to spend months in. Oh, and if you're going to a public school in Oregon, odds are that cheecho is right, any financial aid, etc. will transfer, and most of the schools you'll just pay the OR tuition. It's a pretty sweet deal, makes it cheaper to study abroad than pay out of state tuition in OR.

thanks for allt he replies so far guys... this gives me something to contemplate...

I took a year off.

It was after my sophmore year.

This year will be my third.

Was it worth it?

Yes!

I took lots of electives that counted as general education credits and I've 7 years to go back while those credits are good.

A degree doesn't dictate your future, it's really all up to you. But if school is your thing than go for. Hey, I'm going to go back but only cause I want to study something, not just to get a degree.

i think it's easier to go when you're in school because when you know you have to finish a degree, the motivation is there to return to school.

I'm in the same boat. I've taken a years leave of absence from school, started this spring semester, and I'm only a freshman! I don't know what year you are, but I'm looking at it this way: I'm catching up on my Gap year because I worked all throughout summer '04 and didn't really enjoy this past fall of school. I'm currently taking courses at a community college saving money for a half a year trip which will land me back home in time for spring '06, but if I had done my planning earlier I would have left for an entire year. I say go for it, many colleges will allow you to take a leave of absence for a year without paying for tuition. On the other hand, studying abroad for a year would make things a bit easier, because you'd be getting school done while your in school. But either way, more power to you!

I took 2 1/2 years off. I got burned out, irritated with the system. But I loved school, and after the time off, I was itching to go back. (But I wasn't traveling at the time. Perhaps if I were, I'd never have returned--Muahahahah!) But if school is important enough, you'll make it back.

A year and a half after that, I took more time off in the form of studying abroad. I lived in Germany, and while I still had to study, the program was incredibly flexible. Plus, everything was a night train away, so every weekend I could go somewhere new, even if it was just to, say, Luxembourg for dinner.

Definitely consider studying abroad. You might even be able to take time off of regular school and attend a community college. The one in my town has various programs that will let you study in another country for 4 weeks or a semester.