While the majority of students at the University pursue the traditional four-year path to graduation, an increasing number are choosing to deviate from standard timelines.
Though "the numbers vary from year to year," former University Registrar Joseph Greenberg GS '77 told The Daily Princetonian in 2004, 75 students withdrew voluntarily and 35 were required to withdraw for academic or disciplinary reasons in 2003.
Numbers have increased each year since then as growing numbers of students decide to either step away from campus to take a break from the academic rigors of University life or to explore nonacademic opportunities and interests off campus.
Get thee to a nunnery
Erica Greil '10 entered Princeton as a member of the Class of 2009. After a short stint doing missionary work in the South Bronx, however, Greil said she felt a "calling by God" to serve others, particularly those living in impoverished circumstances. She decided to leave the University to pursue a commitment to religious altruism.
"I didn't think I was going to come back [to Princeton]," she said. "I was positive that after six months [of] training, I was going to enter the convent ... I was ready to just withdraw from the University."
But rather than leaving the University permanently, Greil's father told her to take a leave of absence "so that in case something happened I could go back," she said.
During her three months of religious training, Greil traveled to Rwanda where she volunteered at an orphanage and a boarding school, teaching young girls skills in English, math and piano playing.
Despite her previous intention of not returning to Princeton, Greil said she eventually came to realize the possibility of continuing her service while still in college and the prospect of pursuing a religious vocation after earning a University degree.
"With the fact that I was given the opportunity to go to the number one school in the nation, I thought that maybe I shouldn't throw away that opportunity," she said. "The girls I helped [in Rwanda] would never be able to have that [kind of an opportunity]."
Pursuing a 'calling'
Like Greil, Chris Lumry '10 said he decided to take a leave of absence this fall to pursue passionate religious interests.
Lumry is currently involved in Generation Interns, a Christian leadership program associated with his hometown church in Seattle. Currently completing the first half of the program, he is receiving training in Christian doctrine and "Christian living." During the second half, he will recruit new converts in various Seattle-area communities.
"What I'm doing is great because I'm able to get more involved with the Christian ministry, reach out to other people and share God's love," he said. Though Lumry only decided to take a year off at the end of August, he said Princeton refunded him for everything except some housing deposits.
The alternative 'pre-frosh experience'
After talking with several graduates who expressed a retrospective desire to have taken a year off before college, Anna Moccia-Field '10 decided just before what would have been the fall of her freshman year that she wanted to take a year off.
During her year off, Moccia-Field spent time managing an organic vegetable farm near her house in Lebanon, N.H., explored her interest in nonprofit organizations by interning for a social services agency in New York City and went to El Salvador for three months, performing social work such as translating in hospitals and assisting organizations that provide housing to families in need.
"When I was on my year off, I had absolutely no responsibilities to anyone but myself," Moccia-Field said. "I had limitless opportunity."
Though many students think that if they take a year off, they won't be motivated when they return, Moccia-Field said she rejects that assumption, arguing that taking time off makes you clear about what you're passionate about.
Leaving for medical reasons
Each year there are students who need to leave campus for medical reasons. Though they may not originally have wanted to take this time off, some see in hindsight that the year spent recovering was beneficial for their personal growth.
Nick Crumpton '08 took a year off due to a metabolic reaction to an antimalarial drug. Though he wanted to take only a semester off, he was forced to take a full year's absence due to academic and administrative constraints. After recovering from his illness, Crumpton, who is a 'Prince' photographer, spent time interning in Washington D.C. at a lobbying and advocacy firm.
"I learned firsthand how a bill gets passed through Congress and how a significant portion of our government functions," Crumpton said.
Li Deng '10, who took a medical leave of absence after winter break of her freshman year, found that taking time off greatly helped her with her first-semester course selection.
"It gave me a second chance to figure out what classes to take," Deng said. "I liked my classes a lot more the second time around. You only have a certain amount of time to patch [courses] in. This way, my freshman year was more fulfilling academically."
While Deng admitted that receiving Princeton group emails while off campus was hard sometimes, it gave her something to look forward to when she returned. "It helped me so much that I belonged to a community," she said. "I felt when I came back like I hadn't really left."
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