"I have the impression that a year in the oilfields is one of Harvard's most valuable contributions to a college education," --McGeorge Bundy, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The commonly accepted reasons for leaving college are not applicable to the Harvard student. He is expected to, and usually does, complete his college training within the normal four year program. To a greater extent than at most other colleges, Harvard's four year program is a formalized, patterned period of time. At many other colleges, only about 25 per cent of the original entering class graduates; and many of its members do not graduate with their class.

In contrast, at Harvard over ninety percent of those entering the college graduate, a greater percentage than that of any other college in the United States. By far the greatest proportion of these do so in the normal four-year program. It is socially unusual to leave Harvard. Many people, however, do leave this college before they graduate, and a great many others consider leaving at some time during their college career. The decision to leave is regarded as a serious one by most of those making it, reflecting the degree of seriousness with which most of those people regard Harvard.

The student wanting to leave Harvard in the past was not considered "unusual" at all. In fact, the University once provided an institutionalized program for this. The Harvard term for time spent on a leave of absence is still "rustication." This term has its origins in the nineteenth century, when Harvard owned a farm in Concord where people taking a leave from college could work. The farm is no longer available, but the student wishing to leave is still very much a part of Harvard.

In the class of 1956, out of the 1215 people originally admitted, 283 withdrew. Two hundred fifty-five of the 1150 people composing the class of 1957 did not graduate on schedule. Of those leaving, less than half were forced to withdraw by the Administration. There is no reason to think these classes untypical.

Those leaving of their own accord are categorized under several different headings: withdrawals for medical reasons, for financial reasons, for military service, for transferral or the all inclusive "for personal reasons." With the possible exception of the approximately 25 people withdrawing for medical reasons each year, the rest can be considered voluntary drop-outs who leave "for personal reasons."

Once a student decides to leave, there is little to detain him. All he must do is talk with his senior tutor, who will rarely try to dissuade him from his intention. Granting a leave of absence is an almost automatic administrative act, as is being readmitted when and if the student decides to return.

Why a student, unpressured by academic requirements or the Administration, decides to leave is a most interesting problem. There has been some study made of this phenomenon by the psychiatrists at the Department of Hygiene. The major study was that on the Class of 1956 by Dr. Graham B. Blaine and Dr. Charles C. McArthur. Extensive information was compiled on the class, its withdrawals, where these people spent their time, and how many came back. Most of the people who left were interviewed by these psychiatrists.

The most intensive study done within this group was a comparison of 44 students who did leave to an equal number who finished Harvard in four years. The family backgrounds, geographical origin, preparatory school background, medical history, personal difficulties, College Board scores and the future plans, of both groups were compared.

As a scientific study, this revealed no discernible difference between those people who left and those who stayed. Dr. Blaine comments, "We found no difference in any category, except that of the report of the physicians' examination made at entrance. The examining internist had doubts about 18 of the 44 people who dropped out, and only about seven of the 44 who stayed."

Even if the study did not definitively answer why people tended to drop out of Harvard, it did give the psychiatrists their own personal ideas about the drop-out. Dr. Blaine thinks the drop-out is much more academically and esthetically oriented than the average student.

McArthur gave Rohrshach tests to both groups of 44. His conclusions from these tests were that the people leaving were generally emotionally constricted; able to be classified neither as extroverted nor as introverted, merely as having no emotional effect. He describes this person as uncommunicative, as unable to ask for help. "This kind of person does not see the Bureau of Study Counsel, the Psychiatric Services, or see his advisor. If he does go to these places, he only goes once or twice."

McArthur qualifies his generalizations by saying that there are not enough facts to be entirely sure of his position. "If all these facts were cross-verified, I might be all wrong," he frankly admits. "My description does not even apply to all of those who voluntarily leave. My ideas represent an over-simplified syndrome, the quintessence of the behavior pattern," he adds.

More than any other University official, however, McArthur has formed an interesting and developed description of people who voluntarily leave Harvard. "These people don't come to anyone's attention while they're at Harvard; they're neutral and don't offend anyone. They never give the impression of being in trouble; always being sunny and affable; when they do leave, even their roommates are usually surprised." The life of these people, McArthur thinks, is somewhat vegetable-like. "My guess is that they probably don't get up for breakfast and are apt to cut a lot of classes. These people become tremendously apathetic immediately before they leave, more so than they ever will be again in their lives. Their decision to leave is the fist step into a more vigorous, healthy life and they feel better the instant they make it. I myself, view these people as a Charlie Chaplain at the end of a movie walking down the road with a stick over his shoulder."

"These people," he continues, "are often very concerned about their own identity, who they are, and if Harvard has any meaning to this identity. Most of them view their problem in physically overwhelming terms, that of ordering their cosmos, of finding their place in the the universe. Sometimes there are other questions, such as "Am I a homosexual?' but these are only sub-forms; the main question is asked in cosmological terms. When they do come back to Harvard the reaction to these questions might be summarized, 'I still wonder about all that, but it doesn't matter as much.'"