Taking a Leave of Absence from Graduate Studies

JasonRox · Apr 18, 2009

Has anyone done this?

I've been thinking about it.

Vanadium 50 · Apr 19, 2009

Lots of people do this. Only a small fraction come back - something to keep in mind.

Howers · Apr 19, 2009

This may be somewhat off topic... but why are you considering this?

The reason I ask is because over the years I sort of "followed" you on these forums, ever since way back when you were struggling with Spivak. That is, you asked a lot of things I was going through at the same time. And what grad school are you at, if you don't mind.

TMFKAN64 · Apr 19, 2009

I've done it. I was intending to quit, but fortunately, my advisor insisted that I should just ask for a leave of absence instead. After a year, I came to my senses and came back and finished.

JasonRox · Apr 19, 2009

TMFKAN64 said: ↑

I've done it. I was intending to quit, but fortunately, my advisor insisted that I should just ask for a leave of absence instead. After a year, I came to my senses and came back and finished.

Cool, I was thinking of just taking a year too.

My supervisor will kill me too.

My buddy dropped out of his Master's just awhile ago.

It's not what I thought it would be either. My supervisor is great, but I feel like I need time off. Last year, I even told my supervisor I did not want to do my Master's yet. I wanted time off, and he insisted I do it. And now I'm here, not really enjoying it right now.

turbo · Apr 19, 2009

All the best to you Jason, but let me warn you: a lot can happen in a year. It's understandable that you tell yourself that you'll come back to grad school, but if you get into a serious relationship or start pursuing a career that interests you (even temporarily) you may find yourself making compromises that make it hard to jump back into grad school. I hope you stick with grad school - an advanced degree might be pretty valuable in the job market in the next 5-10 years and ongoing. Good luck whatever you decide.

JasonRox · Apr 19, 2009

turbo-1 said: ↑

All the best to you Jason, but let me warn you: a lot can happen in a year. It's understandable that you tell yourself that you'll come back to grad school, but if you get into a serious relationship or start pursuing a career that interests you (even temporarily) you may find yourself making compromises that make it hard to jump back into grad school. I hope you stick with grad school - an advanced degree might be pretty valuable in the job market in the next 5-10 years and ongoing. Good luck whatever you decide.

Well, I'm going to talk to my supervisor about it. I do understand that lots can change, and I'm fine with that. I also know that if I don't come back in a year, I probably never will.

Lots have been going on in the term where I couldn't get work done properly. I feel like it's not going the way it should. I want the year off to take time and study basically. I just don't want to be bounded by any school related stuff. That's all. I don't care about the funding.