I know many kids who left school and worked at restaurants for awhile, then returned. My kid also worked at a dry cleaner’s. No these are not typical College Confidential gap year activities. They are real life. My kid eventually got a low level job with autistic kids and returned to school, and so did many of the others I know.
Getting a job isn’t that hard right now. There are tons of signs up. It doesn’ take a whole lot of planning and getting up to go to work provides more structure than school. It also pays.
I took a class in my 50’s and there was a woman in the class who had 6 kids. She cried at the beginning of class and said she had been doing school for 17 years and this was her last class.
The majority of college students in the US are “non-traditional,” doing school part or full time while working and/or raising a family, often in degree completion, continuing ed, adult learner type programs.