Reactions to College Withdrawal,

Problems in validly determining reasons for withdrawal from college are reviewed. This study examines the reasons given by several different subgroups of withdrawals, hopefully circumventing some of these problems. Questionnaires were sent to 1135 students (and to their parents) who had withdrawn from three liberal-arts colleges. Different subgroups of withdrawals reported quite different reasons for leaving. Academic dismissals reported more severe problems (both academic and personal) than did voluntary withdrawals (who ranked second) and transfers (who had fewest problems). Students who withdrew during a semester did so for very different reasons than did end-of-the-year withdrawals. Few differences were associated with class standing (i.e., freshman, sophomore, etc.) at the time of withdrawal. Implications of the results are briefly discussed.