A very similar thing happened to my bf and I at very similar ages.

He went back to school for an engineering degree at 29, and the best community college in our state was 40 minutes away. Initially we continued living together, but he quickly found he couldn't afford the gas of using my car for the long commute. Adding to that, he was so busy that we only hung out 3-4 times a month (he was out by 8:00 AM and didn't come home until 11:00 PM 5 days a week, studied for most of the day on Saturday, and then worked in a bar all day on Sunday).

We ended up breaking up for several months because I was miserable. He moved out of our apartment and closer to his community college. We stayed in contact as friends, and were supportive and sweet to each other when we had time to hang out. He did very nice things for me on my birthday, and supported me emotionally through problems I had throughout the year. The break was a really good thing. It allowed us both to de-stress from all the tension that had built up from our lives being turned upside down, and realize how much we valued and missed each other. There was no relationship to force, and we both relaxed.

1 year later, he was accepted to a top engineering school which happened to be very close to my apartment, and moved 1.5 mile up the street from my home. It's been amazing to have him close enough to be able to walk to, but his program is so tough that we still rarely see each other more than twice a week. However I've become so used to being independent in the time that we were apart, that I'm comfortable maintaining this lifestyle with him until both of us have compatible schedules.

tl;dr sometimes breaks are the end, sometimes they are a new beginning