Quote:
Originally Posted by kailua
good luck op
It sounds as if you've given your plan a lot of thought and are well prepared in all facets to pursue your dream.
Taking your junior year 'semester abroad' in Las Vegas circumvents any potential resume gaps following graduation.
I followed my own dream on a "jaunt" through Japan at a similar life juncture. It in turn has shaped my life for the past thirty-two years in ways that I continue to be thankful for.
"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told." -- Alan Keightley.
I'm relatively neutral towards OP's plan but think advice like this is really bad advice.
The nature of college has changed dramatically since you were there, and it's changed even since I was there.
Graduation is a low bar to clear. Graduating on time is a low bar to clear. Everyone takes high school AP classes. Having a diploma isn't a golden ticket to success, it's the entry ticket to a cage fight.
You'll see tons of 60-year-old CEOs who got their bachelors degrees in history or English, then climbed from mail room clerk to CEO with an MBA somewhere along the way. You don't see too many 40-year-olds on track to do that. Because as more and more people went to college, people can be pickier about the people coming out.
College matters now. **** this "learning how to learn" ****, the people who are getting scooped up right out of college and funneled into the success track are the people who aced AP classes, and then aced their college classes, did a few prestigious related internships at leading companies, and got the red carpet rolled out for them. Why settle for "young and learns quickly" when you can have young, learns quickly, has already learned a bunch of ****, got to experience life at a top company, and found time to be president of a charitable club?
Whenever someone tells me they could have graduated early, I immediately ask what they did with all their spare time.
That all being said, if you had to pick a time in your life where you can disappear for 6 months and not be noticed, junior year of college would probably be #1.