Leave of absence?

[802ginger]

Hi

So I'm in my third year of undergrad and I'm falling really behind in my bills. I work 40+ hours a week and I have a full class schedule. People have suggested I take a leave of absence for a semester so I can work more to get some bills caught up/paid off and then go back. If I do this it'll put me at least year behind because the only classes I have left to take are mostly split over 2 semesters. However, I'm seriously considering it because I don't want my credit to drop to the point that I won't be able to pay for med school at all, but at the same time I'm afraid if I take this time off it will ruin my chances entirely. I know if I tried to work more right now my grades would drop and I don't want that either. Does anyone have any advice on this?

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[NotASerialKiller]

Some (a lot? can't remember) schools might ask if you've taken any breaks and why. Saying that you had to for financial reasons (with employment entries during that timespan) is a good reason. Also if you try to work more and your GPA tanks, that would be a whole lot worse than having to explain some time off.

Can't really advise you about your life, but you should protect your GPA at all costs, and leaving school briefly isn't the end of the world.

 

[Shirafune]

Take the semester off and get caught up financially. Can you get more student loans to help with school costs? You may consider taking more time off from school just to make sure you can cover all your financial bases. Nobody is going to blame you for putting your academics on hold to make sure you're not screwed financially.

 

[Petrichor1]

You should take the semester off. I know how difficult it is to balance education and a 40 hour courseload. You will appreciate yourself.

 

[RxStudentatUB]

If you don't take the semester off and suffer a courseload full of subpar grades, say 15+ credits worth of C's, it will take you 30+ credits worth of A's (NOT EASY) just to get this current semester averaged out to a B+/3.3ish GPA (which is notably below allopathic medical school average across the states). These 30+ credits cost money as well, so keep that in mind as you make a very important decision before the school deadline. If I were in your shoes, I would just take the semester off and eat the cost of Fall 2015 tuition - withdrawals are much easier to explain than a cluster of subpar grades in an essay/interview.

 

[frosted_flake]

I feel your pain, friend. Hang in there, and PM me if you ever need to vent!


Bills are why my GPA suck (in terms of SDN at least, its a solid B/B+ avg.)... But I can't keep taking time off at school just to work to survive (boy would that be a vicious cycle). Hopefully adcoms appreciate that not all students live off of their parents/SO/loans and see that those who busted their a*s working 40,50,60+ hours a week all through undergrad (some of us don't have a choice, contrary to popular belief) bring a unique perspective to the table: you have to work to get what you want.
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End rant for the day. This (and religion) always get me nice and fired up.

 

[Catalystik]

So I'm in my third year of undergrad and I'm falling really behind in my bills. I work 40+ hours a week and I have a full class schedule. People have suggested I take a leave of absence for a semester so I can work more to get some bills caught up/paid off and then go back. If I do this it'll put me at least year behind because the only classes I have left to take are mostly split over 2 semesters. However, I'm seriously considering it because I don't want my credit to drop to the point that I won't be able to pay for med school at all, but at the same time I'm afraid if I take this time off it will ruin my chances entirely. I know if I tried to work more right now my grades would drop and I don't want that either. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Take time off. Better that you'd be "a year behind" in completing your course sequences, considering that the probable alternative would be that you'd be spending an extra year (or maybe more) trying to get your GPA back into a competitive range before you could reasonably apply.