Anyone who took a leave of absence - did you regret it?

I'm an undergrad about to go into final year and I've had a lot of medical problems in the past two years. I've been wondering about taking a leave of absence because though I truly love my subject, I feel absolutely exhausted. The uni have been great with giving information about leave of absence stuff, it's now just up to me whether I take it or carry on into 4th year.

Part of me wonders if I should just push through and finish 4th year so I'm making this post as a devil's advocate. Did you regret taking a leave of absence? (Did you run out of money, fall behind when you tried to go back into uni? Did the burnout get worse?)

Note - I'm living away from home and moving back in with my parents is not be the right option for me

Reply 1

Kingston Maddie

Official Rep

Hi
I didn’t but my old flatmate did!
She said it was a really good decision and really glad her university could offer her the support.
She took the year to focus on her health and said it was really helpful. She also reread her old notes so she wasn’t behind when she reentered uni.
The only downside is that her friends graduated but she got to make another batch of friends so she is grateful for that.

And on the other hand I had some bad experiences with doing group projects with students that are in and out of the hospital. I feel bad for their situation but it was still pretty frustrating when they were unable to attend the group meeting for the third time and in the end I had to cover and rewrite their section because it was straying from the focused direction.
I’m not discouraging you from studies but you should prioritise your health and if you are ill and exhausted you won’t be as sharp mentally as you might be. And if you got a bad grade you might blame yourself forever. I don’t know about your exact issue though so maybe talk to your module leader to get a look at your curriculum and syllabus for next year and it can help you estimate if it’s something you can handle.

Best, Maddie (Kingston Rep)

Reply 2

gjd800

Take the interruption.

NONE of my students in the past 10+ years who have taken one have regretted it, and they can be a crucial tool for resetting yourself to finish strongly