Year off between high school and uni?

[suicidalmonkey]

Hey guys, I finished high school last year (sorry, not sure what its called in other countries) and have been accepted for a university course.

Now I have the option to take a 12 month break and start uni next year (instead of this year, obviously).

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this progresion (high school --> uni) with or without a break and how thay felt staring uni afterwards.

Thanks in advance

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hey guys, I finished high school last year (sorry, not sure what its called in other countries) and have been accepted for a university course.

Now I have the option to take a 12 month break and start uni next year (instead of this year, obviously).

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this progresion (high school --> uni) with or without a break and how thay felt staring uni afterwards.

In the UK it's called a 'gap year', generally it doesn't seem to really affect anything - some people go travelling, others might work for the year. I suspect the main problem is that during the year you might decide not to bother going at all!.

 

[pike]

just out of curiousity, what did you score for your HSC?? (higher school certificate for those outside of australia)

In my personal opinion, start the course now before you get used to the year long holiday.

 

[akg]

some people loose the 'momentum' for further study , during a long break.

 

[JimB]

Consider the pros and cons.

Cons
Possible loss of learning "momentum"
It will cost (someone) some money, who would pay your way.

Pros
You will learn something about life, how the real world works.
You could do something interesting*
You could travel.
When you get to Uni, you will have a more "maturity" than your classmates who have just come straight from school.

* What is interesting?
You could get a job, either something related to what you will do at Uni, or something totally different.
eg, if you are studying computing, try to get a job at the local computer supermarket ("PC World" in the UK).
The daughter of a work colleague who was going to study languages at Uni, went backpacking to Australia and back, on the way she had a three month job at an elephant sanctuary in Sri Lanka. All in all had a great time and learned a lot about life.

What would I do myself? If I could wind back 40 years I would have the gap year, not sure what I would do in that year but hay - ho its all in the past now and the sands of time dont go back up!.

JimB

 

[suicidalmonkey]

Thanks for your input guys.

Thanks also to JimB, in all the time i've spent thinking about taking a gap year, I never thought of making a simple pros/cons list.

Pike, my UAI was 67.85

And just in case you are wondering, I think I will take a year off.

 

[akg]

And just in case you are wondering, I think I will take a year off.

best of luck.. and what's ur plan for the year.?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

and what's ur plan for the year.?

By the look of his avatar, we can perhaps guess! :roll:

 

[akg]

By the look of his avatar, we can perhaps guess! :roll:

:lol: :lol:

 

[Optikon]

Thanks for your input guys.

Thanks also to JimB, in all the time i've spent thinking about taking a gap year, I never thought of making a simple pros/cons list.

Pike, my UAI was 67.85

And just in case you are wondering, I think I will take a year off.

I also agree with JimB's list. But I personally would have recommended to you to go right into school. In my opinion, the one year you spend travelling or otherwise learning the real world is not worth getting into UNI one year later => finishing one year later => starting career one year later. Don't delay! The rest of your life is waiting! There will be time later on to do the other things. But I'm biased cuz thats what I did and if I went back in time, I would have done it exactly the same.

 

[suicidalmonkey]

best of luck.. and what's ur plan for the year.?

Saw an ad for ski resort jobs in the paper today, I'll apply for that and see how it goes (seems like a good idea cause I always look forward to goin to the snow).

By the look of his avatar, we can perhaps guess! :roll:

I wish Nigel, it never happened with her (some "I just want to be friends" s***), haven’t even seen her in 3 months. Forgot about my avatar and never noticed it (but it's gone now).

 

[dknguyen]

I recommend taking a year off if you know exactly what you want to do with it. I wish I knew now what I knew then (that is, what I would do if I took a year off).

 

[Hank Fletcher]

If I could do it all again, knowing what I know now, I never would have gone to uni at all. But then you have to ask yourself, would I know what I know now if I hadn't gone to uni? My inclination is to say yes I would, with the exception that there might be some uncertainty there, i.e. by way of me wondering what I'd missed out on by not getting a university education.

I made great friends, and I learned things I might otherwise not have, but I think I'll always wonder what would have happened if I hadn't gone, too. For me, there was a financial and temperal cost to going to uni - I sincerely wonder whether the trade was worth the bother sometimes. It seems to me that my personal uni costs have been in the greater interests of other people more than they were for me. What I'm saying is, I got less out of it than I put in (which was a lot).

A lot of people go to uni for the wrong reason, that is, because it's a socially acceptable way to waste years of your life:
"What did you do during your twenties?"
"I went to uni, read some books, listened to some old farts, lived in worse housing than welfare recipients, got a student loan that took me until my forties to pay off. Why, what did you do during your twenties?"
"Got a job, bought a car, met a few girls, married one of them, bought a house, had a couple kids, got a promotion, bought a bigger house, bought a motorcycle, read some books, punched out old farts when they got too big for the bin they were baked in."

 

[dknguyen]

A lot of people go to uni for the wrong reason, that is, because it's a socially acceptable way to waste years of your life:
"What did you do during your twenties?"
"I went to uni, read some books, listened to some old farts, lived in worse housing than welfare recipients, got a student loan that took me until my forties to pay off. Why, what did you do during your twenties?"
"Got a job, bought a car, met a few girls, married one of them, bought a house, had a couple kids, got a promotion, bought a bigger house, bought a motorcycle, read some books, punched out old farts when they got too big for the bin they were baked in."

He speaks the truth! I could certainly live with postponing university for a year (but if I had done it with my way of thinking 5 years ago, it would have been a waste).

 

[3v0]

A degree is only worth what you do with it. You need to define your goals.

If your intended profession does not require one then the value of attending a U is less.

A BS or MS degree is often the difference between an engineer and a tech. Both can be good or horrid jobs. But if you want to be an engineer you need the degree.

Tech's are often paid by the hour.
Engineers are salaried, often better benefits. The hours can be long.

Tech or engineer depends on your nature. In general terms an engineer's work is more creative. Engineers design what techs manufacture and repair. There are many exceptions.

Either can be a rewarding, or rotten, career.

 

[kchriste]

I recommend that you take a year off, travel to Alberta, Canada and meet dknguyen. Man is she hot!

 

[dknguyen]

THat's funny because since that's not me, my plan after graduation is similar to that also.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

THat's funny because since that's not me, my plan after graduation is similar to that also.

Is that another picture of the same gorgeous girl?, or do you have a big stack of such pictures?.

 

[dknguyen]

SHe's part of this J-pop umbrella group and they also release photobooks. So yeah a stack. SHe's the fakest of them though. She's also kind of stupid (even by Jpop standards).

 

[jpanhalt]

I recommend taking a year off if you know exactly what you want to do with it. I wish I knew now what I knew then (that is, what I would do if I took a year off).

My generation of males in the USA had the choice of university or military (i.e., the draft), and military included a good chance of going to Vietnam. I have had close associates who took both routes, and either route can lead to professional success.

The key element is not the loss of the year, but what was done during the year. If, as dknguyen suggests, that year is planned, it can be helpful. If it is just a way of avoiding what sounds like work, in other words "to find yourself," I would have real second thoughts about the idea. You have a better chance of finding yourself in a university than at home doing nothing in particular. John