Parents of prospective Hoyas frequently ask me how many of our students graduate in four years. They often seem startled by my reply, “Too many.” But that’s my answer, and I’m sticking to it.For all sorts of historical and pedagogical reasons, elite American colleges and universities have settled into the view the ideal undergraduate experience is a sequence of eight consecutive semesters. For most students that works well, but for some it doesn’t – and that is as it should be. There is nothing magical or even self-evidently superior about receiving an undergraduate degree after four years; any school that claims to understand cura personalis knows that.But try telling that to the average student. After years of running on the hamster wheel of pre-professional schooling, many students find it very tough even to entertain the notion that maybe the best thing they can do for themselves and their education is take off a semester or a year in the middle of their undergraduate experience.That lack of imagination is unfortunate, and it compromises the quality of many students’ Georgetown experience. Sometimes, time away from Georgetown can make it possible for students to gain life-shaping and intellect-deepening educational experiences in ways an academic semester cannot provide. I have been reminded of that many times this past week as I have heard from students who took the fall semester off to work on political campaigns this year.Every one of them reports the time away from the Hilltop, a period spent in the trenches of the American political process, was transformative for them in all sorts of ways, not the least of which was intellectually. They are now ready to return to full-time academic work with a renewed vigor and a more meaningful understanding of the political reality about which they had previously read and thought. They will be able to come back to the classroom as a different sort of student, because they will return with richer, deeper experience to bring to bear in their studies.y colleagues and I in the dean’s office have seen this played out over and over again through the years. The handful of students who take time away from Georgetown to pursue educational and experiential opportunities that deepen and broaden them as human beings – even though they don’t “get credit” for them – always graduate with a richer Georgetown education. Always.That’s why we are so happy when we can bring tidings of great joy to one another at our weekly staff meetings. Tidings like, “I’ve got one who wants to take off a semester to herd sheep in Britain,” and, “I met with two students asking for time off to work in a medical clinic in Tanzania before they finish their econ degrees and jump into the process of applying for jobs on Wall Street,” and, “Let’s hear it for the kid who’s going to spend next year volunteering in a hospice in Los Angeles.” Talk about win-win-win.It could be fairly argued that time away can be thought of as a luxury. (Or, perhaps more accurately, as luxurious icing on the cake of luxury that is a Georgetown undergraduate education.) It is certainly made easier if a student has a raft of AP credits to back her up. Or the ability to afford summer school. And the forbearance of parents who take an expansive view of education.For other students, though, time away from Georgetown is not so much a luxury as a necessity. Sadly, it is often those who need it most acutely who resist it most fiercely. There are all sorts of reasons for that resistance, and some of them are legitimate, but in the end, stubborn resistance to crucial time away – even if it does not prove to be academically disastrous – almost always leads to unnecessarily protracted human suffering.Sometimes the reasons that beg for time away are psychological. The demanding workload of a Georgetown undergrad is a challenge under the best of circumstances. It can make for a miserable slog if something is amiss. Depression, eating disorders, severe anxiety and addiction are common phenomena that can bedevil college students everywhere, including at Georgetown. Occasionally they can be treated effectively while a student continues to work though the rigors of the semester. More often, they call for full-time attention in their own right, the sort of attention that is fostered best outside of the academic whirl.The simple truth is we are human beings before we are students. The more profound truth is we are human beings after we are students. The practical upshot of both is we are well reminded there is nothing sacrosanct about “eight semesters and out.” At least that’s how this Jesuit sees it.Fr. Ryan Maher, S.J., is an assistant dean for Georgetown College. He can be reached at rjm27georgetown.edu. AS THIS JESUIT SEES IT. appears every other Friday, with Maher and Fr. James Schall, S.J., alternating as writers.”