[kathe-rine]

My university's policy is that for student-elected gaps, if you returned within three years, "re-admission" was guaranteed. It was a bit dicier if the university required you to leave due to health problems or disciplinary/academic violations.

[collegeburner]

Usually, yes, but now colleges are having revenue problems. The president may block foreigners from attending (big revenue source), and many students may want to delay. So colleges are pretty likely to tell students to suck it up for a year or not get admitted to try to force them to attend as normal.