Taking a year out?

Dave!

hey folks,

have any of ye taken a year out in the middle of college? I'm pretty sure you're able to do this with relatively few problems.

How was it for ye? What did you get upto?

Got any links to information on who to get in contact with, etc.?

I searched the website and the only link that seems like it could help, leads to a dead page.


It's just an idea I'm thinkin about... I'm still fairly young, and I don't plan on doin any postgrads or anythin, and I think it'd do me good to get away from books etc for a year. I mean, 14 years of just learning stuff and being examined on it is a bit much! Perhaps a year of workin and travellin would do me good and let me clear my head.

What think ye?

Thanks

irlpotato

lots of companies advertise positions for a year, or used to... it depends what course your doing. if your doing a useful one like compooters or engineering, id say theyll offer.

my advice is:
don't. Go away on your j1 for a summer. it'll be long enough. alternatively, if your course lets you do the erasmus thing, learning in another country can be fun.

everyone i know who took a year out was either:
a) hated it and was dying to get back to college
or
b) loved it and was glad to be out of college, and it was hell when they went back.

if your fairly young now, youll be fairly young in a year or two.

oh, and all of your mates will have been finished a year, and earning lots more money than you have while your still doing your finals.

do the j1 or the erasmus. anything else is just prolonging the torture that is ucd

ferdi

i'd be interested in this too, can i take a year out between 2nd and 3rd year?

Dave!

Thanks for the post irlpotato!

irlpotato wrote:

lots of companies advertise positions for a year, or used to... it depends what course your doing. if your doing a useful one like compooters or engineering, id say theyll offer.

hmm well, I hadn't intended on spending the whole year in Ireland working in the same place. What I'd like to do is work for maybe 4 or 5 months and then go abroad for the rest of it, and either continue to work there, or if I have the funds, just do some travelling etc.

irlpotato wrote:

my advice is:
don't. Go away on your j1 for a summer. it'll be long enough. alternatively, if your course lets you do the erasmus thing, learning in another country can be fun.

I was planning on doing the J1, but I'm not in a position to do it this summer so it'd have to be next summer, and I don't know if I can take another straight year of college!

irlpotato wrote:

if your fairly young now, youll be fairly young in a year or two.

3

irlpotato wrote:

oh, and all of your mates will have been finished a year, and earning lots more money than you have while your still doing your finals.

Well, a. my course is a year longer than most people I know's, b. most people I know are gonna be doin postgrads whereas I am not, so I could even still get out of here before them!!!, and c. I haven't really forged any long-term friendships in my courses, and most of the people I do know, I'd talk to more outside of lectures, tutorials, etc., so it don't matter.

ferdi, why do you wanna take a year out?!

panda100

Heya-I'd definatly reccomed taking year out in college.I did this back in second year,well at the time it was for health reasons but then I got better so had December till september free-yipeee!!One of my best friends took a year out and went teaching English in China for the year.She always says it was the best descision of her life and would reccomend it to anyone.Its easy to get a year out-you just go into the administrators for your course and ask for a year out.

The majority of my mates in England took gap years after their A levels.Its something that is really common in England but no one does over here.I can only see a year out as helping you grow and mature in your own way and not in the confines of an education system.
If you think of it you've been in education since you were 6.Whose to say your too old or too young when you graduate?These are just certain 'guidlines' and 'rules' that people make up.As Jem said 'who are they,where are they, how can they possibly know all this?' Break the mould and dont just follow everyone else because its the 'right 'thing to do.
If your parents dont mind and you have enough cash for it then go for it.You will only regret it if you dont.Really it just adds an extra year onto your degree.You'll come back refreshed,rejuvinated and ready for anything........

Chinafoot

Dave, I took a year out after my leaving cert and went to Australia. Best thing I ever did. You really find your feet when you are away from home and travelling around.

I know my situation was different as I hadn't already started my degree but I'd still thoroughly recommend it. But I'll be honest, it is tough getting back into the swings of things at first. But you soon adjust.

If you are going to take a year out I would definitely recommend you go travelling. If you just get yourself a job for the year then chances are you'll get too used to the money and you won't want to go back to being a poor student again.

Dave!

hmm some good replies here thanks

peachy, did you go to Oz on your own? I don't think anyone I know would be willing to take a year off, and I've never travelled on my own so it's a bit daunting! :eek:

pandapandapanda-show, would I have to tell my programme office a long time in advance? I'd imagine there's various administrative crap they've gotta do if I'm deferring.

hmmm

Blush_01

You can defer the year up to a few days before you start next september as far as I know. A friend of mine deferred the year last year after a month or two for personal reasons, and had no problem settling back into college. Another friend of mine is deferring the rest of this year and starting all over in september. Just don't waste the year by working in a balnd job here in Ireland. Do something different that you've always wanted to do but never actually had the time or guts to do. You'll regret wasting a year if you don't do something different with it. Just make sure you get some sort of a qualification at some stage - life's getting increasingly hard for people who don't have one!

Chinafoot

DaveMcG wrote:

peachy, did you go to Oz on your own? I don't think anyone I know would be willing to take a year off, and I've never travelled on my own so it's a bit daunting! :eek:

I went with a girl I worked with and a few of her friends. I left them after a few months and went on my own and then met up with my sister a few months after that.

Tbh the time I spent on my own was great. You meet so many people that are travelling by themselves or in groups and its easy to make friends. Hostels are fantastic for things like that.

You should totally do it. Australia is a really relaxed, laid back place and backpackers in general are great

Like Blush said, if you are going to take the year out do something different while you can. You'll be working long enough in the years to come so you might aswell enjoy your freedom and youth while you can.

Dave!

Yeah that's what I would do if I actually took the year, not just work the whole time.

What would be the age of your average backpacker, do you think? I'm asking cos, while I know that gap years are popular in England after your A Levels, most of the Irish people I know who've gone to Oz did it at least after college, and my brothers were bout 26! It'd kinda suck to be the youngest person there I gather you were bout 18 or 19 when you went, were ya?

BTW, how did you afford it? Did you work in Ireland for a few months and take the money over to Oz, or did you just work in Oz, or did you take out a loan?

Danke!

Dave!

Anyone able to help?

m1ke

The age thing doesn't matter at all.... everyone is travelling and away from home etc... so everyone has a lot in common.

About financing it: if you're going for 6 months, i'd say you'd need to work for a minimum of 2 months here and take out a small ~ 1000e loan on top of that. Or work for 3 months and don't take out the loan. Then you're sorted and you can supplement your income with a bit of work when you're over there. From what I remember over there, the work for backpackers pays pretty **** but you can get free accomodation and food out of it etc...

Chinafoot

DaveMcG wrote:

Yeah that's what I would do if I actually took the year, not just work the whole time.

What would be the age of your average backpacker, do you think? I'm asking cos, while I know that gap years are popular in England after your A Levels, most of the Irish people I know who've gone to Oz did it at least after college, and my brothers were bout 26! It'd kinda suck to be the youngest person there I gather you were bout 18 or 19 when you went, were ya?

BTW, how did you afford it? Did you work in Ireland for a few months and take the money over to Oz, or did you just work in Oz, or did you take out a loan?

Danke!

Hey Dave,

The age of the backpackers varies a lot. I was 19 when I went and a lot of the people we met were in their early to mid 20's.
The thing with Australia is that a lot of people are there on the working holiday visa and you can only apply for that up until the age of 30.
Age really isn't an issue when you're backpacking. Its easy to make friends with people of all ages, races, creeds....once both you and them are open to it, which 99.9% of backpackers are.

As for funding it, I worked two jobs for the summer. In an office Monday to Friday and then part time in a shop on monday, wednesday and Friday evenings and all day Saturday and Sunday. Your best bet would be to work for a few months and then, like Mike said, get a loan to top it up.

If you do head out there, you should sign up with a recruitment agency as soon as you get there for work. Theres some good ones out there and if you stay in a hostel (which I would totally recommend....cheap and the best way to make friends) they can usually help you out on the work front.

Your money won't last very long in Sydney but to be honest I found Melbourne to be a much nicer city Oh and head for the Gold Coast, really laid back, great weather adn great people.

If you do decide to go and have any questions feel free to PM me.

Dave!

Thanks for that peachy

Can anyone confirm that you can defer the year up until a few days before you start, as Blush said? Thanks, don't wanna get excited about this idea and then to have to do another straight year