Taking a Year off College

If you really can't afford it, you can try to find a good community college and take some credits there for a bit. If you have foreign language or English requirements (I forget the word for classes you don't really need but have to take) you could take these there.

If you're studying Math/Engineering, you should be capable of estimating how long it'll take to pay off your debts and the cost/benefit of your decisions (although it's probably hard if you have no idea what you want to do with your degree). If you just want to take time off and pay off your debts and maybe go exploring for a year or two, then think about whether it would make you happy and better in the long run.

Gen Eds are what can easily come from other schools but make sure they transfer in. Do you need to stay in school for 5 years? I know your major is hard, but if you took a summer course or two every year that could help to save a year or at least a semester. working for 7k per year is not worth it (though you can still work), some of it goes to taxes and a lot of it goes to miscellaneous things, it will seem to disappear, you could easily be left with just 3k per year, with your grades suffering. Have you applied for fin aid, most people can get something, and I've heard that many scholarships got unawarded every year, so you could apply for scholarships and pick up a few hundered bucks here and there. Don't take a year off. You will make a lot more in the year after you graduate.

I don't understand the relationship of the subject (Taking a Year off College) to your question? If it's asking whether you should take a year off in the middle of college to pay down your debt, it's a terrible idea, unless you can make more than $50K during that year.

If you're asking about taking 5 years to graduate instead of 4, I suggest you reconsider. Typical Engineer starting salaries are in the $50-60K range today. That extra year would have a high opportunity cost, in addition to the extra tuition expense.

Don't take a year off from college. It's all about keeping your momentum..once you lose it, it's tough to regain.

I think that most colleges call the unnecessary requirements "liberal arts" courses. The fact that I never took Spanish in high school and have a hard time learning it is causing me to have to look hard for colleges that don't require it. Fortunately, there are some good colleges that don't.

sc runner wrote:

I think that most colleges call the unnecessary requirements "liberal arts" courses.

I hope this is a joke.

sc runner wrote:

I think that most colleges call the unnecessary requirements "liberal arts" courses.

hahaha, oh come on, I thought that was really funny of him