Every male citizen of South Korea must serve 2 years in the military before the age of 30. Many male South Korean students at Carleton take 2 years off from college to serve out their military duty. While most Korean students choose to leave after their freshman year, some leave after graduation. After debating whether I should leave after my second year or after graduating, I have decided to leave school for military duty after my second year. My decision to leave after my sophomore year was determined after a careful analysis of trade-offs and opportunity costs between taking time off after my sophomore year and after graduation.

The opportunity cost of leaving after my second year at college is the gap in my college education. As an international student whose native language is not English, this gap is significant because while I am in the Korean military, there would be no chance for me to practice English at all. The problem gets worse when I come back from the military because not only will I be not used to conversing in English, but will also no longer be used to taking college classes in English. Some of my friends were a bit worried when I decided to leave after my second year because when I return from the military, I will be taking my major classes right away. Other trade-off of leaving before graduating is that when I return from the military, my friends from the Class of 2017 would be gone and I will have to make new friends. On the other hand, the benefits of leaving after my sophomore year is that taking the 2 years off from college after I declare my major would give me time to cautiously think about how I want to spend the remaining 2 years at Carleton. Also, spending 2 years of my life under strict rules of the military will make me more disciplined and allow me to mature as a person. Therefore, I believe that I would be more psychologically equipped to spend the second half of my life at Carleton than my peers.

The opportunity cost of leaving after graduation is exactly the same as my benefit of taking 2 years off after my sophomore year. My 4 years of college would go very fast without any break for me to think about my future and what I really want to accomplish here at Carleton. Additionally, finding a job after 2 years in the military would be very challenging because if I am at college, I would be able to utilize every employment resources available on campus, such as the Career Center. The only benefit of leaving after graduation is that, as I mentioned, I wouldn’t have to worry about losing my English skills and classmates. Therefore, in my personal view, the cost of going to the military after graduating is greater than the cost of leaving after my sophomore year. I strongly believe that I would benefit more from taking 2 years off after my sophomore year than going to the military after college.