Enrollment (Half-Time, In Absentia, Leave of Absence, Withdrawal)

The system takes overnight (or longer) to refresh, so the student should be able to submit the form the next day. If the next day is after the deadline, the student needs to alert the department to submit it on his/her behalf ASAP; the department should provide a brief explanation. 

Students must be enrolled in 12 units of research (e.g., 298 or 299), and no other coursework.

For more details and FAQs regarding in absentia, please refer to the FAQs posted on the GEPA website.

The deadline is the end of the second week of the quarter.  However, it is recommended to submit LOAs as soon as possible, as the effective date is based on the day the form is initiated by the student or department. Students who have enrolled are subject to the refund schedule based on the day the LOA is initiated. Students will only receive a 100% refund of tuition and fees if the LOA is initiated on (or before) the first day of instruction; starting from the second day, students will only receive a partial refund.

When submitting an LOA that is initiated after the first day of instruction, if the student is enrolled in any course/s, please do the following before submission:

1. Determine the refund percentage that the student is eligible for based on the form initiation date and the Registrar’s Refund Schedule.

2. Confirm with the student that s/he is aware of the refund amount.

3. In the Comments section of the LOA form, include a statement such as, “Student is aware that s/he is not eligible for a 100% refund” or “Student is aware that s/he is eligible for a 50% refund.”

Course Drop/Withdrawal Refund Schedule for Graduate Courses. See Registrar's website for exact dates.

If the student was not enrolled in classes, then there is no impact.

If the student was enrolled in classes, then a refund or reversal of student fees will be issued to the student’s account. The amount refunded depends on the Registrar’s Refund Schedule. For example, if a 90% refund of student fees will be issued, then the student is billed the remaining 10%. The student is always billed, regardless if the fees are covered by the department or fee remission.  If the department wishes to cover the 10% fee balance, they must submit an exception request to GEPA's Financial Support Unit.

When submitting an LOA or withdrawal that is initiated after the first day of instruction, if the student is enrolled in any course/s, please do the following before submission:

1. Determine the refund percentage that the student is eligible for based on the form initiation date and the Registrar’s Refund Schedule.

2. Confirm with the student that s/he is aware of the refund amount.

3. In the Comments section of the LOA/WD form, include a statement such as, “Student is aware that s/he is not eligible for a 100% refund” or “Student is aware that s/he is eligible for a 50% refund.”

Course Drop/Withdrawal Refund Schedule for Graduate Courses. See Registrar's website for exact dates.

The student should notify the graduate coordinator of the intent to return to enroll prior to the start of the applicable quarter. Students may use the leave of absence tool in the Student Portal to request a leave return. 

Graduate coordinators use the "Return from Leave" tab in the Leave of Absence tool in the Student Database to submit a return request. The return request must come from the department/program. 

The appropriate GEPA advisor will be notified and will reinstate the student for the requested quarter. The coordinator will be notified via email once the return is processed and the student will be able to enroll. 

Please note: the return request is only needed if the student intends to enroll/register for the given quarter. Students who plan to defend and pay the filing fee do not need to be returned from leave. 

Once there is a lapse in a student's registration status beyond the approved leave of absence quarter(s), the student must be readmitted to enroll. The program must submit a General Petition via DocuSign, requesting readmission. The student will be assessed the readmission fee, as indicated on the General Petition. 

If the student is enrolling / registering for the quarter then a leave return must be requested by the graduate coordinator and completed by GEPA to allow the student to enroll. See question and answer above for how to request a leave return.

If the student is not enrolling, and is simply returning to defend and file with the filing fee, a leave return is NOT needed. Please do not submit one.

Please note: the leave return request is only needed if the student intends to enroll/register for the given quarter. Students who plan to defend and pay the filing fee do not need to be returned from leave.  

Students retain UCSD email and TritonLink access for the first quarter they go on Leave of Absence. Student accounts are suspended in the second consecutive quarter that they are not enrolled.

Students who will be on Leave of Absence for 2 or more consecutive quarters and want to receive UCSD emails can have emails forwarded to a personal email account for up to 1 year. Email addresses can be updated in TritonLink to a personal email account.

Sessions 1 and 2:

Students use WebReg to drop their courses for sessions 1 and 2. See details and deadlines here: https://summersession.ucsd.edu/enroll/dropping-classes.html .

Special Session/Session 3:

If enrolled in more than 1 course and the request is to drop only 1 course, students use WebReg to drop the single course (and remain enrolled in the other course/s).

If the student wishes to drop all courses (whether 1 or more), GEPA’s Withdrawal form must be used (https://gradforms.ucsd.edu/leave/ ).

• Please ensure the student is enrolled in Fall quarter prior to submitting the withdrawal form to avoid Fall enrollment being blocked. 

• Please annotate the form: "dropping summer course(s) only."

Policies on Summer Session are found here: https://summersession.ucsd.edu/ .

The effective quarter will be the quarter following the last quarter the student was enrolled or on LOA at UCSD. For example, if the student was last enrolled/on LOA in SP20, then the effective withdrawal quarter will be FA20.

In cases where the student initiated a request in EASy before the deadline, but due to administrative delay, the EASy request was automatically closed after the term ended and was not routed to the Registrar's Office, a formal petition may not be required. Instead, the program should follow the steps outlined below to process the request without a petition to GEPA Academic Affairs/EPC.

The program should first verify that the request was initiated prior to the deadline and that it is "stuck" in EASy (if you need assistance viewing a closed EASy request, please submit a ticket to support.ucsd.edu).

The approvals that could be missing are, 1) department/program, 2) ISEO (J1 / F1 student), 3) GEPA Financial Support Unit. In all cases, the program should open a ticket with GEPA's Financial Support Unit (https://support.ucsd.edu/services ). If program approval and/or ISEO approval are also missing, the program will need to provide confirmation of approval from both in the request to FSU. Please provide the following information in the ticket:  

• PID

• Quarter

• Course/s

• Confirmation that the EASy request was submitted before the deadline but closed before being approved

• If applicable, confirmation that the department approves of the request

• If applicable, proof of ISEO approval if the student is on an F-1/J-1 visa

• If the request is only missing FSU approval, follow the same process above, excluding confirmation of department/ISEO approval.

• If FSU approves, they will alert the Registrar to process the request.

Note: if the request was NOT initiated prior to the deadline, please see the process for retroactive requests on the Exception Letters and Petitions page.