So I'm almost through with my first year of university, and I hate to say it, but I'm already pretty fucking burned out, emotionally and academically. I feel like I need a few months to clear my head, refocus on my goals, and make some money. My parents are cool with it (they each took multiple semesters off in their college years, and they're very successful), but most of my peers think it's a bad idea. They say that I probably won't want to go back, that I'll get complacent with whatever job I find and stick with it. I don't think that's gonna happen because I want and have always wanted to have a degree, and I understand the benefits that come with it.

I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about it. Have any of you taken a semester or more off? Do you regret doing it or not doing it?

hey, man, do what you think will help you out in the long run. theres no use in becoming drained so much from schoolwork and such and ultimately getting worse off staying in school. sure, working might help you out and keep off your mind from school, be productive in the time off, dont have any downtime to improve on yourself.

you do you, fam. stop being a degenerate, tho

Depends on where you're at in the curriculum. You're through calc 3 (or will be soon), so that's good. I would never recommend a break between calc 2 and 3. If you're anticipating some hard classes coming up, I'd either recommend a part-time schedule to focus on one or two difficult ones (for me, that'd be statics/dynamics or physics 3). If you don't anticipate needing to retain a lot of what you learn this semester, a break can be a good way to re-cage and ensure success. Then again, you will have a few months of summer break to do the same without losing an entire semester.

I'm at the point where all I have left to take are major-related classes. I came out of high school with something like 43 credits, and I only had to take three classes unrelated to my major for the state requirements. I had to drop discrete structures this semester because I was failing, and that's one of the two important classes I'm taking, but I have to retake it anyway, so there's no need to remember any of it.

The other class that's important is programming, but I already do that as a hobby anyway, so I'm not worried about getting rusty.

Whenever I do go back, I'm gonna have a brutal course load until I graduate, and I'm just really not ready for that.

I don't know about a complete break but I would lighten the load.  I took 6 classes this semester and it's draining as hell.  I'm going to take 3 classes over the summer and go back to just 4 classes during fall and spring.  Some progress is better than stagnation.  Even if you only took one or two classes that's better than nothing.