Quote:
Originally Posted by ThetaDancer
For me, taking a year off to travel and work made sense because I was feeling really burnt out after college. I struggled with this a lot because I had always been a bit of a perfectionist and I felt like I was "wasting time" or something by not going to grad school immediately after college. But it definitely turned out to be the right choice for me. By the time I started graduate school, my head was clearer and I was more focused than I had been a year earlier, so I ended up enjoying it and getting a lot out of it.
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This is my story too, and I feel that I definitely was able to better appreciate the whole experience because of my time off.
Of course, when I took my time off, I knew that I would be going back the following year. Part of the trick for me was to not create a lifestyle that would be difficult to maintain once I was in graduate school full time. I had heard from a few friends that doing so can create a trap, i. e. you can't go back to school because you now have a lifestyle that you have to maintain. I didn't go out a rent a really fancy apartment; I didn't buy a big expensive car; I didn't run up credit card debt (marriage and children can factor into this too). So when I transitioned back to a full-time graduate student, with a graduate student's stipend, I was still able to live rather comfortably.
For me, I figured it was best to go ahead and get my degree while I was young and unfettered, and so I knew that I was not taking more than a year off. However, as others have said, you have to weigh it out, consider yourself and your personality, and decide whether the time off will be a deterrent or the boost that you need to be successful in a graduate program.
Hybrid Mode
