This research sought to explore undergraduates' experiences of non-completion and re-uptake, with a particular focus on coping strategies. Five undergraduate students who had left the university system and then re-entered it took part in semi-structured interviews about their feelings and experiences in this context, and these were then analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Six themes emerged that are highlighted by quotations from the students' concerns to illustrate their difficulties in decision-making, coping, identity-development, and social and academic issues. The findings suggest the need for: (i) greater academic and social support for such returning students; (ii) greater academic and social support generally in the first year of study; and (iii) improvements in the ways of promoting higher education and its alternatives to potential and incoming students.