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 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…
There’s really no national data answering this question. Individual departments may have some, but I doubt the majority of departments keep track of the in and outflow of their doctoral students. So there’s no real empirical way to answer this question.
Whether a particular student returns is likely based on their personal reasons for needing the leave and their personal circumstances, as well as their motivation to continue in the program. Some students take a short leave of absence to deal with a medical or family issue but fully intend to return, and have the resources to easily do so. Other students take a leave of absence as a way of exploring what it feels like to be away from academia; they may be testing out a new career or trying to decide whether they want to continue with the PhD program at all. Those students are probably more likely to to not return than others. I’d also be willing to bet that students who take a leave of absence because they need a “break” from the research or the stress of the degree are less likely to return, although that’s only based on my own opinion and not any actual fact or data.
Of the three people I knew during grad school that took a leave of absence (other than those on a defined-term internship) none of them finished their PhD. One left prior to getting their MS, came back, then left again. The other two left a year or so after their candidacy exam planning to return. One returned for a year, then left again. The other never returned.
At my school it was common to take a LOA during dissertation writing to save on continuing student fees. Though technically you weren’t supposed to be in communication with advisors during such time. Everyone came back from that kind of leave.
^Heh, that’s awesome. My school had a specific policy in place to reduce people doing that successfully (we had a continuous registration requirement and you had to be registered in the semester before you defended). Generally people remained registered until they defended.