Stanford
Student Services

Military Leaves of Absence

The university is proud to provide accommodations to our active duty students (domestic and international, including National Guard and reservists), in the event that they are temporarily unable to attend class or have to suspend their studies due to service requirements. If you are an active duty service member and are called away for required military service, you may elect to take a leave of absence and return upon the completion of your service requirement.

When taking a leave of absence due to required military service, all leave of absence policies apply with the following exceptions:

  • Your leave of absence may exceed one calendar year
  • Any leave of absence quarters related to your service will not be deducted from your total allowable quarters of leave (two calendar years, up to eight quarters).


Please see Undergraduate Degrees: Leaves & Reinstatements and Graduate Degrees: Leaves & Reinstatements to review the full policies.

How to Request a Military Leave of Absence

To request a leave of absence, you must submit a leave of absence eForm in the Student eForms portal, available via Axess (My Academics > Petitions & Forms). The eForm is electronically routed to the appropriate approvers and, if approved, is processed by the Registrar's Office. Students will not be penalized for a delay in eForm workflow after submission.

During submission of your eForm, you must attach documentation confirming your service requirement, including the start and end dates. For international military service, your documentation must be in English. This documentation will inform the Registrar’s Office to discount your requested leave quarters when they process your leave. Submissions that do not include military service documentation will be treated as a standard leave of absence, and the requested terms will count toward your 8 quarters of allowed leave.

Note: The eForm will only allow requests for up to one calendar year. If your service requirements exceed one year, please submit the request for one year (4 quarters). Students will work with the School Certifying Officer to determine if resubmission is required beyond one year (4 quarters) based on the provided military service dates.

For questions regarding a military leave of absence, please contact the SCO team at vabenefits@stanford.edu.

Timing of Your Military Leave

  • If you are called away to military service, you will have the option to either take Incomplete grades in all courses or drop all courses without penalty, based on your last date of attendance. Whether you may drop all courses or request Incomplete grades will be determined by your last date of attendance as follows:
    • If you are called to service within weeks 1-8 of the quarter, you may complete an LOA request form and receive a full tuition refund regardless of attendance.
    • If you are called to service within weeks 9-11, you may take Incompletes in any or all courses; or you may receive a grade for work completed in the course to date, based on an agreement with each instructor. 


Please see our Incomplete Grades policy for further information regarding military leaves that begin after the quarter has started.