Gonna be upfront: didn't read your entire wall of text. As for your question, you need -- absolutely need -- to talk to an advisor about that. It may vary from school to school, they can have whatever rules they want basically. That said, usually all you do is put in an application for a leave of absence. You stay a student there, your loan payments are still deferred, all the stuff of being a student currently in school -- but you don't take any classes.Ask a counselor about it. Answers you get here will not necessarily apply to your school.