Hi! This year has been rough so far (who am I kidding the past 3ish years have been garbage), and I’m not doing so hot right now. I’ve been considering taking time off from uni for a while now but much more seriously recently. Since we are mid-semester how would I take a leave of absence (if that’s what it’s called) and would it mark all my current course as incomplete/failed? That would tank my GPA which I can’t afford. I’m at UTSG if that makes a difference. Please and thank you!
hey there,
i’m sorry to hear that and given midterm season right now it’s definitely hard not to feel at least a bit like everything’s a whole dumpster fire. but i really hope things get better and less garbage for you, and some time away could help for sure.
for starters, here’s a bit of good news — there’s actually still a two two weeks left until the course drop deadline, which is on november 16th this year. as long as you drop your courses by then, they’ll completely disappear from your transcript without affecting your gpa.
if you drop all your courses now, you’d be able to cancel your registration on acorn and take a leave of absence, no problem (more info on that here). okay actually, don’t do that right now, just hear me out first…
the not so good thing is, you’ll probably still be charged for those courses because the “program/course freeze date” for fall and full year courses was on september 21st, and usually you’d be charged for any courses you had enrolled by that date. it might still be possible to ask for a refund, but you’d have to speak with your registrar for the details.
on the other hand, maybe CR/NCR would be a better option? the deadline for that is december 7th. if there are some courses that you think you can pass, you can add it as CR/NCR on acorn so that it doesn’t affect your gpa. if you’re able to complete these courses and get the credit, this could save you some money and time in the long run so that you won’t have to retake them in the future. but as you may know, you won’t be able to use CR’d courses for program requirements, and you can only choose CR/NCR for maximum 2.0 FCE in your degree, so those are just a few things to keep in mind.
in any case, i’d definitely recommend talking to your registrar asap to go through all your options, whether it be possible refunds, withdrawals, CR/NCR, whatever, you never know until you ask.
best of luck,
aska