semester off??? part time??

[bball101]

I am contemplating taking a semester off from school. I don't have a good reason. I am just pretty burnt out, and my motivation to do well in my classes has just run out. It wouldnt be smart to put myself through another semester and assume anything will be different, if it might potentially lead to some less than ideal grades. So I need to just get through this semester unscathed, and do something else in the fall, then come back and finish school.

I am wondering, how is a random semester off from undergrad viewed when applying to law school. Would I need to have a good reason to have done this? will they look at the transcript and ask "what was this time off about"? I'm not sure how it would look.

As an alternative to that, I'm considering maybe taking just one class so I can, maybe, at least accomplish something during this break. Would there potential disincentives to this course of action? It seems that potentially the one class could even be worse than no class. If I was not enrolled at all, then it, potentially, could be assumed that there was any number of good reasons for it. But if I was actually at school and had opted out of a full course load maybe there'd be more reason to think I was just being lazy or something.

anyone know anything about how this works.
bball101 is invisible      

[bl825]

I don't see any problem with taking some time off during school.  I know people who did it and came out okay.  What exactly do you plan to do with your time off, though?

[bball101]

I suppose I would do an internship during this time.

Am I wrong to have some hesitation to do this though? It just seems like it could potentially be a negative on an application. I mean if you got two kid who are very similar and one stuck it out in school without a break, then surely wouldn't he look better?

and what if I did not do an internship and did not have a good excuse for the time away?

[bball101]

anyone else?

[bball101]

My instinct is it seems like when you compare two similar applications, it would look like the kid who took a semester off (even if it was for some kind of legitimate mediocre internship or something)was lazy in comparison to the kid who did not.

If this is, in fact, not advised, how could it compare to the part time option? in a way, taking a class or two might even seem more like a cop-out. At least if you were completely away from school it could be assumed that that the student was doing something as an alternative.

[m1ss_uNdeRst00d]

I don't think my school took this into consideration. I never even thought about it. I got pregnant at 19 and had son when I was 20. I started at a community college when he was 7 months old. I didn't go regularly - I got married, had my daughter, got divorced. It took me six years to get a 2 year associate's degree. Then I went to a state school and got my bachelor's in 2 years (I'm graduating next week).

Anyway, that's probably too much information, but I never even thought that they would question how long it took me to graduate. I only applied to one school and was accepted, so I don't think it mattered.

IMHO, messing up your UGPA would be worse than taking one semester off.

[bl825]

My instinct is it seems like when you compare two similar applications, it would look like the kid who took a semester off (even if it was for some kind of legitimate mediocre internship or something)was lazy in comparison to the kid who did not.

If this is, in fact, not advised, how could it compare to the part time option? in a way, taking a class or two might even seem more like a cop-out. At least if you were completely away from school it could be assumed that that the student was doing something as an alternative.

I know people who took time off during school and didn't do anything really amazing or anything.  It didn't impact them negatively, as far as I can tell.

[The Harvard Guy]

It's fine if you take a semester off.  Law schools don't look at that in an unfavorable way.  All they mostly care about is your GPA and your LSAT score.  Perhaps taking a semester off will help you out.  Maybe if you did something interested, you can write about it in your personal statement and, thus, give purpose to your time off.  But, in the end, it won't matter.  It's actually better that you take it so that you return to school the following semester re-focused and re-energized so that you keep your GPA up.