When to return to college after a Leave of Absence

The age-old question of whether the young adult is ready to return to campus after taking a leave of absence is hard to assess. The question is are they ready to return? Did they do the work they needed on themselves to get stronger to return? Are they returning too quickly? Is returning to the same institution the best idea? There’s a lot of ambiguity and there is no right or wrong answer. There is a way to simply assess readiness to return though.

First, I ask the question: Has the student really committed to wellness and building resiliency?

These are two key components to a young adult being successful outside of the classroom on a college campus. There’s even more pressure for this if they attempted college previously and it didn’t work out. Taking that break is key for them to focus on their wellness and resiliency. Then how do you gauge this?

I ask these three questions:

1. Who did they connect with to help with wellness and building resiliency?

This encompasses sleep hygiene, healthy eating, seeing a therapist, balance in stress load, doing things they enjoy, taking initiative to reflect on their previous academic experience to have insight and accountability of what skills they need to be able to return to do well the next time.

2. Did they attempt to take a class or two while connected to the people helping them build resiliency?

There is no way to assess is a student is ready to be a student if they didn’t take at least one college class while they were simultaneously focusing on their wellness and building resiliency. Being a student will continue to establish routine and focus on academic maintenance skills – but this time with the foundation of wraparound supports to do school differently.

3. Are they going about this alone?

If they’re isolated during this process, that will carry over to their on-campus life. They won’t have adults and peers to give feedback and help them build good habits during this time away. We need them to lean on their community during the time away from school to then build up their strength to find their community when they return to campus. Not having a sense of connection – even just one person – on a college campus is often a leading cause to a student feeling disconnected. That disconnected can lead to homesickness, depression, and disengagement.

When leaving a college campus, a young adult can be filled with shame, regret, fear, and embarrassment. If they aren’t with the right supports immediately after leaving campus, they will certainly associate those feelings with their time at that institution. Chances of them returning is unlikely even if they build resilience and focus on their wellbeing. They’re more likely to start fresh at another school. Having a clean slate without the time to focus on habit changes, wellbeing, and the resiliency needed to be a college student will literally create the same outcome, just at another institution. Be very wary in jumping ship without taking a break to focus on their needs is what will only reinforce the feelings of shame, regret, fear, and embarrassment. Let’s avoid doing that again if we can.

For questions or comments contact Joanna.