I’m sure there are colleges that are going to have more kids taking leaves than others. Expensive private colleges in urban areas might be places to avoid this coming year. Some colleges have already decided that certain grades won’t go to campus in the fall, opting to have fewer students per semester in campus housing. That would be a deal breaker for a lot of students who would have gone back otherwise. Seniors get to go back but sophomores do not? Look for sophs to take a leave.
I don’t think activities are “not happening”. That seems to be something that’s coming up here on CC now. I’ve seen colleges who are going to try very hard to make sure students can still gather in small groups for the club meetings etc and, as of right now, some sports are not off the table. S19’s XC coach just had a FT meeting with the team and they are full steam ahead for summer training as usual from home. He’s very optimistic.
I mentioned this on another thread but Bates decided to do the 2 classes for 7 week mini semesters schedule. One of the reasons was that, with four classes, they were going to have to spread out class times and have class 4:30-9:00pm and that’s when kids do their extracurriculars. They want that time of the day saved for that. I realize this is only a LAC option but it shows that the college is planning for kids to have as full of an experience as possible within the Covid limitations.
As for leave of absences, it seems that private schools are more likely to grant them than public schools.