The problem of explaining why some students leave Harvard is almost an impossible one. "My guess," McArthur says, "is that a lot of these guys have prior business, sometimes within themselves. Sometimes this prior business is in the old neighborhood; they suffer from 'anomie' in coming from one culture to another. One person I knew who left used to commute back to the Bronx every weekend 'to see real people.' The cultural difference between Massachusetts and New Mexico is astonishing. Many people leave because they feel that they must touch home base. They don't want the 'You Can't Go Home Again' feeling. Leaving for this reason is very wise.

"However, sometimes the prior business is in the family. People want to find out what their parents or their brothers or sisters are doing back home.

"What we don't know is what causes a person to be emotionally constricted, and unable to ask for help. We know that the private school boys tend to be more emotionally constricted. These people never really become American Legion types, but they do greatly improve. We also know that the acting-out types tend to get fired from college, but we do not know what causes a person to be unable to ask for help. Most Harvard men are so articulate, that when they bleed, they bleed all over. The average Harvard neurotic seeks help from 25 or 30 sources.

"Perhaps the basic answer", McArthur concludes, "is that the person who leaves really does not feel that college is a normal thing to do. What they really want to gain by leaving is a complete adult status."

Dr. Blaine calls this unwillingness to ask for help "a peculiarly good structure. The kind who drops out, is right in doing so. This does not hinder his graduation; it makes it possible."

All the Administrative people who come into contact with those leaving largely find that they cannot make generalizations about the type. This would seem to indicate that even if the psychiatrists' description of the people leaving is largely correct, it is certainly incomplete. Drs. Blaine and McArthur would be the first to admit this. Most University administrators coming into contact with people leaving feel that the decision to do so results from a feeling of lack of purpose and direction at Harvard.

Elliott Perkins, Master of Lowell House, who thinks the person who leaves voluntarily more introspective than the average student, is an articulate example of the University attitude. "In all the voluntary withdrawals the man feels he is not utilizing his opportunities as he should. He wants to study and can't. Or if he isn't a student type, he feels he should be having a worthwhile extracurricular life and isn't. Predominant in all these people is the awareness that one can have only four years at Harvard. They often leave at mid-term, because they think if they stay for finals, they'll lost the term completely."

Zeph Stewart, Allston Burr Senior Tutor of Adams House, concurs with Perkins' emphasis on the importance of the shortness of the four year period in student thinking. "College years are so important. The worst thing is that going to college can't be redone. If the college years are wasted they are irrevocably wasted. Students who feel this intensely and who find that they are not getting enough out of the place or who are unhappy often leave."

Dean Watson finds that many of the students who leave, have come back here with a fixed notion of what they will do in life, such as going to medical school. "They don't want to do what they originally intended and feel they have to leave out what they really want to do. Another group of students who often leave are the underachievers, who leave because they feel they have wasted their time."

Carroll F. Miles, Allston Burr Senior Tutor of Dunster House, has defined somewhat unique reasons for leaving: "The curious type is the student who leaves in January of his senior year. This is a person who is potentially bright but who has done nothing in college. He wants to go away in order that he can come back and have one great year. In some cases, usually seniors, students leave to postpone their occupational choice another year. Of course, sophomore year is the crucial one for most, a natural time to leave."

More sophomores leave Harvard voluntarily than in any other year of their college career. This is in part attributable to the recognized "sophomore slump" which often consists of having to make a choice of how one is going to conduct one's college life. John H. Finley, Jr., Master of Eliot House, suggests that part of the reason for the great sophomore exodus may be the disillusionment sophomores initially feel for House life.

In most cases, if a student's reason for leaving seems at all valid, he is usually supported in his decision to leave by Administrative officials. John U. Monro, Director of Financial Aid, says, "I give three cheers when people want to leave. I encourage people to leave because it gives them a different and better perspective."

Perry G.E. Miller is one enthusiastic exponent of leaving, who left his own college for a three-year period. "I encourage people to leave generally," he states. "I loved my years out of college, they were far more important to me than college would have been. I knew what I wanted when I came back. I have the impression that many more people left college in my generation than they do now. We felt freer from economic and graduate school pressure in the 'Twenties.

"Today I sense in the people wanting to leave some vague yearning for the vagabond life, a wanting to run away from it all. I think the worst reason in the world for leaving is to get some experience to use for writing."

"When the student decides to leave, the first Administration official he usually consults in his senior tutor. His senior tutor is usually sympathetic; one, Miles, states his position in this manner: