| Abstract: | Reasons for wishing to discontinue study which are given by students in formal applications to withdraw or in response to questionnaires tend to simplify the grounds for leaving. External factors such as accident, ill‐health, financial or family problems which are cited as “acceptable” reasons for leaving may merely reinforce or even disguise an underlying problem. In‐depth interviews with discontinuing first‐year students from the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences made possible identification of five basic patterns, each of which represented a problem central to the decision to discontinue. These patterns may be identified as (a) commitment to a prior goal; (b) need for “time out”; (c) reality‐testing a career; (d) specific academic difficulty which aroused strong latent fear of failure; (e) factors beyond the control of the individual, such as accident, illness, family crisis or lack of money for the continuation of study. |
