Thompson said that once fully trained, those students may be deployed multiple times throughout their college careers.

Brian Clark, Penn State's Veterans Affairs director, said other students do not return to college immediately because the adjustment from military service back to school is a difficult one to make, and they may need some time off.

"Anybody who goes through that is going to be forever changed," he said. "It's a sobering experience."

Kaye Keith, administrative assistant at the Office of the Registrar, assists students in their transition between military service and enrollment at Penn State.

She said that there are many factors that may contribute to a student not re-enrolling, such as feeling out of place if many of their friends have graduated.

"They just want to get their academic career behind them because it's been on hold for so long," Keith said.

David Manwiller (senior-business logistics) said some students do not re-enroll immediately because of their military obligations.

He said he returned from deployment in September 2003 and was quickly deployed again.

"We were re-deployed within two months," Manwiller said. "We didn't bother registering again."

Manwiller added that his unit returned twice and was deployed a third time. However, he did not go that time.

Clark said that it is difficult for students to go from the most regimented experience of their lives, military service, to the least regimented, college.

"The contrast between these two realities must be mind-numbing," he said.

Clark said that Veterans Affairs operates like a guidance counselor's office for students in the process of making this adjustment.

Christopher Yanik (junior-crime, law and justice) said he has been deployed twice since he has been in college, and that Penn State has a particularly good outreach program for veterans due in part to the size of the school and number of veterans.

Living a structured lifestyle like that in the military becomes a comfort, and it can be hard to adjust when this structure is gone, Mars said.

Keith said that when students are deployed, tuition is refunded for the semester of the withdrawal. Although students may lose the mid-semester coursework they have done before being deployed, Keith said professors are willing to work with them whenever possible, in some cases offering a deferred final.

"I've never heard of a professor not willing to work with a student," she said.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said Penn State has a long tradition of students in military service.

"We do everything to make their transition as easy as possible," he said. "We go out of our way to help them in any way."