Is this a good idea?

College Life
1

<p>I’m 19 and a transfer student, my original plan was to attend western washington university starting this year, and to earn a BA in psychology. I have a transfer degree so I’d be a junior. However, I’m going through some personal struggles (gender transition from Female to Male) and think I need a year off to work on my transition and keep attending counseling. I’m starting hormones within the next 2 months too.</p>

<p>I don’t know if taking a year off is bad because I’ll get my degree later, but I am also considering going to University of Washington instead and earning a degree in Social Welfare, which is part of their social work school (my mom thinks it would be easier for me to get a job after graduation if I do UW too), since I want to work in social work. Even though I sort of want to get away from home to get the college experience going to UW would save my family some money. If I went to Western I’d live on campus, UW i’d live at home. </p>

<p>Do you think its a bad idea to take a year off of school? If I did and went the UW route I would have to take 3-4 classes at community college to have the pre reqs for UW’s program. Or I could just do the western psychology route next year.
Thanks for any advice, I just don’t know what to do.
-Cameron</p>

2

<p>I think given the situation taking a year off would probably be best. There’s a huge risk if you went to school while undergoing such a massive change. It’s a lot to go through and if it becomes too much then you may end up having to repeat a year (and pay for an extra year of school!). </p>

<p>If UW is cheaper because you don’t have to pay for housing, and offers the programs you’re interested in, it seems like UW would be a better choice. Most people consider UW more reputable than Western.</p>

3

<p>There are side effects to hormone treatment that will likely make it difficult to focus on work. </p>

<p>It’s better to take a year off while you go through this transition than risk performing poorly in class, get bad grades on your transcript, and end up needing another year anyway.</p>