<p>Hey all, I am 21 and I am trying to transfer. Since I am not happy with my education at my current school, I will not come back for the fall semester whether I get admitted or not somewhere else.</p>
<p>I made this quick plan and any advice that can help make it better is welcome.</p>
<p>this summer (09): Work and make some money and take a class in my major in a CC or another 4 yr school</p>
<p>Next Fall (09): Do an internship in my field of study and take one or two classes. Learn some programming languages online for free</p>
<p>Next Spring(10): Travel to Quatar or Cuba and spend the entire semester in one of these countries. Two good friends of mine invited me to come and I could use my trip as an opportunity to become fluent in Arabic or Spanish ( I already have some basics). Then I will reapply to transfer for the Fall semester.</p>
<p>Summer (10) Take one more class before I start college again.</p>
<p>I had one bad semester in college, so I hope that my work experience can show something good about me.</p>
<p>My real concern is my age. Will some school still admit me as a Junior? I don’t have any concern about the student body since I look like a 17 yr old so no one will guess my age but I am afraid that I will graduate extremely late.</p>
<p>I haven’t told my guardians about my plan. Their faces will turn red when they find out.</p>
<p>You are never too old to take a year (or more) off from your studies in order to work, travel, and think about your long-term goals in life.</p>
<p>You are never too old to go back to school with a renewed sense of purpose, and a new (or just renewed) sense of direction.</p>
<p>Wherever you do end up studying, your age is not critical. Your attitude is. If you are particularly concerned about being a non-traditional age student at your eventual new school, then you should look for institutions that have good attitudes about non-trads. There are plenty of them out there.</p>
<p>Even though you are not happy at your current school, I suggest taking a leave of absence, if you are eligible for one, rather than withdrawing. It keeps your options open. If you find that you cannot get accepted as a transfer to a school that pleases you, or if you find that transferring would require you to spend additional (expensive) semesters in college, you might decide – unlikely as it seems now – that returning to your former college is the least worst option for finishing your degree.</p>
<p>My other concern about your gap year plans, assuming that you are an American, is health insurance. You need to talk with your guardians about whether or not it is possible for you to get it, through their policies, during that year. It might be more difficult for someone your age than it would have been at 17. Buying health insurance yourself is very expensive; it’s probably not an option you would want to consider. And going without health insurance is even worse. If your gap year plans involved a full-time job for the entire year, health insurance would not be a problem because you would have gotten it through your job. But because you are planning to combine several shorter-term activities, it could be an issue.</p>
<p>Marian’s suggestion for taking a leave of absence is excellent; that keeps an option open for you.</p>
<p>I was older than you are when I transferred as a junior. My path through undergrad was long, involved four colleges, and included me working full-time (or more) some semesters and taking only one class. I took time off for illness (lost a year there), went to summer school (at three different colleges), took classes at night (never met a class I couldn’t doze through), and so on.</p>
<p>Your plan has you learning new things and moves you closer to your goal. Your age doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Modadunn, I known 40 year olds who took a gap year. They did things like take a sailboat around the world for a year. It’s not impossible, though I don’t think I’d do it in this economic climate!</p>
<p>mathmom, this is just the economic climate to take a year off! I can easily imagine someone losing her job, and deciding now is the time to ride her bike around the world.</p>
<p>To the OP: Taking a year off, improving your language skills and coming back stronger and more focussed sounds like a great plan to me. Be sure you can have a coherent story to put on your transfer applications-- you were dissatisfied with your education and you did X, Y and Z to improve the situation. Colleges (and everyone else) like to see someone who sees problems and overcomes obstacles.</p>
<p>The man who is now my husband withdrew from college in 1971 because an illness at the very beginning of the semester put him so far behind academically that he thought he had no chance of catching up. As a result of his withdrawal, he lost his student deferment and was almost drafted (it took a clever attorney to get him out of the situation). And when he wanted to return to the same college later, he had to apply for admission, just as a transfer student would. </p>
<p>Admittedly, today’s students don’t face the prospect of being sent to Vietnam if they withdraw from college. But if a student is eligible for a personal leave of absence – which my now-husband was – it’s the better option. It makes returning to the same college easy, and it doesn’t increase the difficulty of transferring somewhere else.</p>
<p>Well firstly you’re definitely not too old to take a gap year, in fact it’s almost impossible for anyone to be! Employers and academics look on time spent away doing something useful; like travelling or volunteering, as a positive thing. It shows you have life experience and valuable to bring to both education and the work place, plus you’ll be all the more refershed when you get back! </p>
<p>Thanks gap year. I have spent the past 4 summers doing volunteer work and since I will need money to cover my gap year, I won’t spend too much time doing volunteer work. I got an internship offer for this summer in IB, then the bank will transfer me abroad. Depending on how things goes, I will see how I can become active in my community.</p>
<p>21 is <em>not</em> to old for anything! It doesn’t matter a bit how old you are. One of mine took 2 years off midway through and returned a much more focused and better student. </p>
<p>If you need to fund your own health insurance, look online for high deductable plans that will cover a major problem but not the little stuff. At your age you probably don’t have much of the little stuff… </p>
<p>I have some friends in the medical field who have visited Cuba - loved the people, loved the country, worked around the restrictive government. Do you have any personal reasons to prefer Yemen or Cuba?</p>
<p>Hmm… my question is…why keep taking all these classes if you don’t know if they’re going to be transferable? Forget about the classes, save your money for your day-to-day and travel expenses, you’ll need it!</p>
<p>Don’t worry about your age- one year isn’t going to make much of a difference. Also I would be a bit wary about whether you’ll actually be able to get a long-term visa to Cuba and Qatar. Cuba isn’t very easy to get in at all… you may be better served spending your time elsewhere in Latin America.</p>
<p>@dragonmom: I prefer Yemen because a friend of mine lives there and I will have free housing.</p>
<p>Cuba: Because I love it! I have been studying Cuba’s history for a while. My nanny was from there. I love the music : I play guitar. I chose Cuba because I need to take a break from the superficial world around me to live a simple life for a while.</p>
<p>@ticklemepink It won’t be difficult for me to go to Cuba because I am not a U.S citizen.</p>
<p>You made a good point about the classes. I might have to rethink about that but I would like to take them because I want to keep my mind ready for the academic challenge when I come back. I will pay attention to what you said though to save money. </p>
<p>As far as Health Insurance, it won’t matter that much because unfortunately , I am already paying a ridiculous sum of money for it. It will cover me when I travel.</p>
<p>the answers to my question have been helpful and encourage me to consider some details in my plan that were left out.</p>