I was a freshman (engineering) in fall 2014 and took a personal/financial leave of absence for my second semester to work, take classes at a state university, and figure out what to do with my life. I just received approval to return for fall 2015 since I left in good academic standing and I’m debating whether to accept.
Anyone have any experiences returning to Cornell after a leave? My advisor made it sound like personal leave is pretty common, but I’m not sure what to expect.
It seems like I had about every possible experience there is to have at Cornell.
Including this one. I took a leave, and came back. Granted we were writing on papyrus at the time. But still.
I had the worst semester of my college career the semester I came back. All my friends had moved on, and I was not there in the prior Spring to arrange housing with people I knew. So I was thrown in to a suite with these transfer students and random stray upperclassmen, with whom, as it turned out, I had nothing in common.
It is a very bizarre feeling being in a place you are intimately familiar with, yet knowing absolutely nobody.
Were I to do it over again, a different housing arrangement might have made all the difference. Such as one of the coops. potentially.
Similarly I was not there to preregister for Fall courses. I don’t recall that this was a problem for me, at that time, (It has been a couple years, after all). But it could be, for you, at this time. Some courses/sections you might want to take might be full now. Of course they might not be full.