So I’m currently a Grade 11 student in Canada, I’ll be graduating next year, unfortunately Ihave no clue what career I want to pursue (well right now I’m deciding between something in law, or architecture). I’ve heard a lot of people here (or maybe just one person who gets around) recommending taking a few years off between high school and university/college and just work. This sounds like a good idea to me, but here are the problems I have with this.
Isn’t it hard to be accepted into uni/college when you haven’t been in school for a few years, is this even a problem?
How hard is it to get back into the swing of things after a few years of no education. I mean I forget half of my subject matter during 2 months of summer vacation, wouldn’t you find it incredibly to pick up where you left off a whole year ago when you do get into university?
I took what amounted to three years off, graduated high school in '97, worked two years, decided to go back to school and applied, started school in fall 2000.
It didn’t seem hard to get in (though I went to a big in-state school, so maybe that made it easier, I don’t know). I didn’t have too much trouble re-adjusting to school life. In fact, I think it was easier for me because I had learned how to be self-motivating while I was out of school. I don’t think I really had this skill in High School.
One thing though, I think I got a mind that is well-suited to academic pursuits, at least certain parts of it. I like to learn things and I test well. So I had pretty good SAT scores when applying and I could get excited about stuff that I thikn bores a lot of people.
I’m very glad I took time off. In some ways it might have been better to go back to school slightly sooner, but on the other hand, I don’t know whether I would have been ready.
So to answer your question, it’s not necessarily so hard to get into college if you take time off, nor is it necessarily hard to get back into the academic life. I might reccommend planning ahead and knowing when you are going back to school, if that suits you.
I’m not sure my views are particularily useful as I go to uni on the other side of the pond, but here goes… After HS, I took a ‘year off’. I did national service for Sweden (kind of compulsory).
I can’t imagine that having taken a year off would be a disadvantage when applying, especially if you do something ‘worthwhile’ with your time (travel, work experience). If all you do is drink and play videogames for a year, well, you might as well just go to college then.
It’s really not that hard. You get into the swing of things pretty quickly. I guess that my memory of things wasn’t quite as good as it was when I graduated HS, but it all comes back to you.
I would say that taking a year off is a good idea in general. I see a lot of 17-18 year olds at uni here who just graduated from HS and really could do with some more ‘real-life’ experience before going to college. I don’t understand why people want to rush through their educations in order to get into the job-market. Take your time. There will be enough working years left after you graduate even if you take some time off. People need to learn to slow down and have some fun along the way, I think. But, hey, that’s just my 1p.
I didn’t take a year off between high school and uni, but I really wish I did. There’s no need to rush through higher education, and that period could really have allowed me to see the world, get some shit together, earn some money, work out what I wanted to do, all that sort of thing.
Also, I can’t speak for Canada, but in Australia you can get accepted by a uni and then defer your degree - you’re admitted, but you don’t do any classes for the period of your deferral. That way, you can get a place straight after high school, but wait for a year before you take it up. Perhaps you can do this in Canada?
Also, again, I don’t know whether the same applies in Canada, but in my experience, the hardest way to get into Uni is applying straight after high school. Mature age students have much easier routes to entry.
Graduated high school in '88, and didn’t get in to the colleges I’d applied to because of a bad case of senior slide. After a couple years of living in different places (Alaska and Iowa) and working wherever I could, I applied to Georgetown in 1993 and got in. Admittedly this is a rather extreme case, and I think it was more luck than anything - I didn’t have much in the way of life experience other than a string of minimum-wage jobs - but I think it does illustrate the point that taking time off after high school certainly doesn’t kill your chances for college.
One thing you should definitely do, though, is make some plans now for what you want to do during your time off. Perhaps volunteer in a field that interests you while holding down a part-time job just to have some cash in hand.
Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck!
I did the exact opposite - I dropped out of high school a year early to go to community college. I probably should have taken a year off to do something productive, though - I still had all my bad high-school slacking habits and didn’t do so well for my first two semesters. I turned it around after that, though, and started actually applying myself and getting good grades, but I think there might be something to this whole “taking a year off, doing something cool and learning self-motivation in the process” thing.
I would highly recommend it! Travel, get out and see the world, expand your horizons. Use the time to see what this big, blue marble has to offer and you may find just what you have never known you wanted.
I was a fair-to-poor HS student. Didn’t study at all and wasn’t interested. Took a year off and went to South America and traveled around, stayed with familys as an “exchange student”. Got to see and do alot and it helped me mature (somewhat, hell, I’m still a punk-ass!) and focus. I came back how with some “life experiance” under my belt and was ready to get a bit more serious about study. I went to a state university (all I could get into with my grades) and promptly made the Dean’s list. I transferred to a “big name” school and the rest is history.
I really wish I could do something like that again. You are only young once and should make the most of it. You will have plenty of time later* to “buckle down” and get serious.
*And if it turns out you don’t, wouldn’t you have rather spent the short time you had having fun?
“But I’ll always regret that Rwandan thing.” --Bill Clinton
I took a long time to get from from HS to graduating from university, but have done very well in life. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. Enjoy life.
I was planning to do something similar, but my plans never came together and I wound up in college 3 months after graduation.
Take your year off.
I eventually dropped out and worked for a couple years before heading back in. Those were the best way in the world to refocus on school. The downside is, it’s kinda hard to care about all the school crap once you realize that very little of it matters once you graduate.