If you are not sure what leave type best fits your needs, you can reach out to the Time Away Office and we can discuss it. If you select something that may not bee the best fit, we can make that change during the time away process.
Time Away Definitions
Personal Leave allows you to place your studies on hold for one or more semesters. Typical reasons for a personal leave might include a desire to travel, participate in a non-academic program, campaign, complete a paid or unpaid internship, attend to a family crisis, or gain a sense of direction.
Medical Leave happens during the course of a semester where an unexpected medical situations impacts your education that requires you to put a pause in your education to keep medical treatment.
Discontinuation/Transfer means your are planning to transfer to another school and/or you do not plan to return Duke to finish your degree.
Voluntary Withdrawal means you want to take a time away but plan to return to complete your degree (are not transferring to another school). It is important to note that voluntary withdrawal partway through a term of enrollment can have major impact on final grades (use link above for more information).
Special Completion means that you have already met all graduation requirements and plan to return to participate in graduation activities.