“Do I have to tell my professors that I am taking a leave?”
One of the first things we do when we process your Leave request is contact your professors on your behalf and inform them that you are taking a leave from the college. We also ask them to report your last date of attendance. Once we have those responses, we send the information to the Registrar’s Office. They will drop you from your classes. For this reason, you do not need to contact your professors, or take any extra steps to drop your classes.
“How will a Leave appear on my transcript?/How does a Leave affect my grades?”
Students taking a Leave mid-semester will receive “W” grades on their transcripts. These grades do not count as successfully completing the course, but they also do not get factored into a student’s GPA calculation. They do, however, have an impact on students making Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP).
“Is there any way to get credit for some of the classes I’m in?”
When a student takes a leave of absence from Emerson, they need to actually take a leave of absence from Emerson. Just like you would not be able to participate in extracurriculars or work on campus, you are not able to earn credit for the courses you are enrolled in either.
If you are hoping to leave Emerson before the end of the semester, but wish to complete your course work for credit, you will need to ask your course instructors about exceptions to the expectations laid out in the syllabus. This may include taking an incomplete for the course, which is an agreement negotiated between you and your professor to allow for extended time to complete the learning objectives of your class. You can find more information on Incomplete contracts as well. Students cannot take an Incomplete in a course during a semester they are taking a leave.
On some occasions, students may file for a leave of absence while they still have pending incompletes from an earlier semester. You are still able to keep working on those incompletes. A student’s prior Incomplete contract is an agreement between them and their professor, and is not directly affected by your leave. So, unless the professor or department chair approves otherwise, the incomplete coursework will need to be completed by the original due date, regardless of the leave of absence.