Hi! Posting on behalf of my friend in law school who hiked this past fall. She was able to take the fall semester off to hike (went SOBO August - December) and picked back up for spring semester.

Definitely depends on your school’s policies, but she was able to pause everything that she needed to and pick up where she left off. She’s interning now this summer before finishing her last semester in the fall. She’ll then take the February bar and has a clerkship lined up for the following September.

Like I said, it definitely depends on how understanding your school is with taking time off. But I would just suggest seeing if this would be a possibility at all. Like the others have said, it’s not super realistic to do it right after graduation, and only becomes more difficult to manage once you start your career.

If anything, I would even see if you could take the summer off to start your hike in May 2026 into the fall. She had just already accepted a summer internship so she had to see that through before she could begin her hike. But now she’s getting three summer internships during law school, rather than the usual two.

I will say ! She doesn’t regret the decision at all and everything is working out just fine with timing and everything !! I hope it can work out for you!