How often do graduate students return from a leave of absence?

[Catria]

I often hear about how a leave of absence often ends up being the kiss of death for a doctoral student's graduate career. Even though family or medical reasons are perfectly legitimate reasons to ask for one. But I know that, even if a LOA is asked during the coursework stage, the department takes a big risk. Admittedly it is easier to calculate the risk of a LOA when the student is still in the coursework stage, especially if it is asked before any research is actually conducted by the student.

One can easily imagine that often, students who take a leave of absence during the research stage of a research-based degree (esp. PhD but also happens at the MA/MS level, albeit less frequently) will have a lot of catching up to do in their research upon return if they did return.

But how often do graduate students actually return from a leave of absence? I would understand if undergrads return from LOAs more often than grad students did...

[TakeruK]

I don't think these stats are readily available? And it's hard to guess at overall numbers since each grad student here probably only runs into a handful of other students who take leave.

I think the stats also vary a lot based on the reason behind the leave. For example, some students take leave because they need to be away from school for a few months or a year in order to sort something out / attend to another priority (e.g. sick parent, medical leave, etc.) The students that I know who do this almost always come back. Usually the length of the leave is set ahead of time and the student makes plans to start reconnecting and coming back as the leave near the end.

Another type of leave is for the student to take a break and determine whether or not they want to continue in graduate school. Sometimes, there is a set end date for this leave but sometimes not (well, not a fixed one, it might be something that gets re-evaluated every semester or something). In these cases, since one of the reasons for the leave is that the student may not want to continue, it makes sense that out of the students I know who have taken this kind of leave, most of them do not return (note that these are very small numbers though).

Overall, I would say that if the school and the student want to return, it's very likely that the student will be able to return from the leave.

As for "catching up", I don't think it really works that way. Most places think of leave as hitting the pause button. So, if you were a student for a year, then took a year off, then came back, you would be treated as a 2nd year student. There might be a little bit of time to get back into the swing of things, but it's not like you are still expected to be at a 3rd year student level when you return after a 1 year leave. (Just using example numbers). You should also treat yourself as a second year student! I don't think it's a good idea for students returning from leave to try to make up for the lost time as if nothing ever happened.

[St Andrews Lynx]

My understanding is that if a leave of absence is granted, then the department is willing to take you back afterwards (in fact, it's kinda obligated to do so). I wouldn't think about it in terms of "risk" or "kiss of death". 

I'd agree with what TakeruK says: a leave of absence is often taken by a student who isn't sure if they want to/can continue in the program. It could also be that if somebody is taking leave to deal with a chronic health issue (i) they might decide that grad school has been making the health issue worse, and so leave the program (ii) the health issue remains unresolved once they are back from leave, which makes the rest of their time in the program difficult. 

From your other posts it sounds like you've had a tough semester! Focus your energies during the leave on recovery; try not to second guess what your department wants or whether you should/shouldn't have taken the leave, etc