Alexa Little was halfway through the spring semester of her sophomore year at Yale University in 2013, when her health began deteriorating. “I was in near-constant pain, and every day was a struggle,” Little says. She considered leaving school to get medical treatment, but learned if she withdrew mid-semester, she’d have to pay tuition for the full term, borrow money to take courses while she was away, and reapply to Yale when she returned—with no guarantee she’d be readmitted. “I had several panic attacks over spring break,” she says. “The cold logic that saved my life was the thought that my family would rather take on $25,000 in debt than see me die.”
Little, who left Yale that spring and only returned last fall, is one of several students struggling to make sense of Yale’s withdrawal and readmission policies. In recent weeks, students have written columns in the campus newspaper, shared their stories about struggling with mental health in an online blog, and boycotted the senior class fundraising campaign to express dissatisfaction with Yale’s policies. Although college campuses have long grappled with the question of when it's best to ask students to leave, the debate at Yale has taken on new urgency since January, when a student died in an apparent suicide. In a Facebook post the student wrote before her death, she said she loved Yale and that she feared not being readmitted if she withdrew for health reasons, according to Geoffrey Smith and Rachel Williams, two students who said they read the post.
Yale's policies surrounding withdrawals are largely in line with those of other Ivy League schools, yet campus debate has brought Yale's specific rules into sharp relief this semester. Students have up until the 10th day of the semester to take a leave of absence. After that point, students who need to leave Yale for any reason—whether it’s because they’re depressed, fighting a chronic illness, or otherwise struggling—must withdraw from school. Withdrawing and then re-enrolling brings with it requirements that taking a leave of absence doesn't. Students who have withdrawn must usually take at least two college courses, prove that they have been “constructively occupied” (the university does not specify what this means), obtain recommendation letters, and travel to Yale’s campus for in-person interviews to have a shot at coming back, according to university policy.
Few, if any, students are forced to withdraw for medical reasons in a given year, says university spokesperson Tom Conroy. “That is, in part, a reflection of all the supports provided within the residential college system and by Yale’s health professionals, who provide counseling to all students free of charge,” Conroy says.
Yet some who have been through the withdrawal and readmission process say that the support disappears when they're off the college rolls. “The university washes its hands of you. You’re forced to leave, and the university gives you very little transparency about how hard it is to be readmitted,” says Williams, who left campus as a freshman in 2013 for a mental health-related withdrawal, and returned in January 2014.
Some say the way Yale currently handles the readmission process is unacceptable. “Students who get sick later in the term, or whose chronic health issues flare up unexpectedly, are treated as if they chose to fall ill and punished severely with financial burdens and this complicated process,” says Little, the student who was a sophomore with health issues in 2013. Yale’s policies may dissuade students—especially those with mental health concerns—from seeking medical attention, says Smith, a senior who is leading a boycott of Yale’s senior class gift to protest the policies. “People fear speaking to Yale therapists because of this underlying concern about readmission,” Smith says.
Students have been trying to get Yale to change its policies for some time now. In March 2014, student leaders published recommendations (PDF) for how Yale could simplify the readmission process. They include suggestions that Yale extend its deadline for applying for a leave of absence and eliminate requirements to take courses or work part-time. Students also recommended making documentation from health-care providers the only requirement for students to be readmitted, in certain cases.
Such changes might have made getting back in easier for Williams, the student who withdrew in 2013 as a freshman. She had to see multiple health practitioners every week to satisfy the university's readmission requirements, take two college courses—which would have cost thousands of dollars had her father not been a professor at a university in her hometown—and work at a part-time job to show she had been, per the language in Yale’s policy, “constructively occupied” throughout her time away from campus. The costs of getting back into school added up: A hotel room and airfare to return for the on-campus interview; independent courses; and specialized therapy to show she was ready to come back. “For many students, what Yale requires you to do to come back is financially prohibitive,” Williams says.
Beyond being costly, the readmission process can also feel frustratingly disorganized. Eli Benioff, a student who withdrew in spring 2012 and returned in August 2013, didn’t find out that he would be allowed to come back to campus until about two weeks before the fall semester began. Students say this appears to be the norm for those returning in the fall; typically, Yale conducts interviews in the summer and notifies students of readmission in August, just weeks before move-in. Benioff had to scramble to book flights, pay his tuition and fees on time, and find housing before classes started. “It’s a huge financial burden, having to take out a loan just because Yale can’t get its act together,” Benioff says.
Conroy declined to discuss whether Yale helps students deal with the costs of withdrawal and readmission. Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway named a committee in December to review the school’s withdrawal and readmission policies, according to Smith, but that committee has yet to report back to the dean.
Most students who reapply to Yale are readmitted, Conroy says. The university, however, does not share detailed statistics on withdrawals and readmission. Williams, recalling how anxious the readmission process made her, says Yale should be open about what percentage of people are eventually readmitted. "I didn't have confidence that I'd get to come back to Yale, and that kind of despair and uncertainty only makes everything worse," Williams says.
Knowing that the odds are good doesn’t change the financial and logistical hurdles faced by many students who withdraw and try to come back. Benioff believes it will be hard to see significant change until a deeper cultural change takes place—one that gives the school the space to acknowledge that Yale will not always be a happy place for students.
“Reforms to the withdrawal and readmission process can’t start until this institution is willing to have an honest conversation,” Benioff says. “If that means we have to admit for a second that Yale is a real place and not a mythical fairyland, that’s fine.”