Hi,
I attend a top 20 school currently(freshman), and have decided to take a LOA due to personal/medical reasons pertaining to mental health. Although the LOA isn’t finalized yet.
I finished the first semester with decent grades (A/A-) in fairly rigorous courses. I did really well in my Organic Chemistry class and should be able to get a good rec letter from the professor.
I’ve been wanting to transfer out of this school for numerous reasons (comp sci department isn’t that strong, social, etc), but I’m not sure how the LOA will affect my chances. I’d like to transfer to schools of the same level or higher such as Rice, Cornell, and etc.
My high school stats were also fairly decent: 35 ACT, 3.92 GPA (Unweighted and no rank), rigorous courseload (multivar, physics, etc) Only problem is I didn’t win many competitions
Currently, in college, I hold an exec position in a compsci/hackathon club where I organize our annual hackathon. I will still be involved in this club remotely during my LOA.
Basically, how badly will the LOA have on my chances of transferring to another good college? I managed to get good grades the first semester, but I’m not sure if I could handle another semester with my depression. I’m almost certain that taking a semester off will improve my depression as well as my direction (career interests) in life. My LOA still isn’t finalized yet, so I could still cancel it.
Should I stick it out to improve the chances of transfer or take the semester off and write essays that discuss why I took a leave of absence and what I learned.
Thanks!