<p>This is a silly question that came from a discussion with a friend about retention rates. While Harvard's is extremely impressive, its retention rate is still not 100%. We were talking about where they go and she couldn't imagine that anyone would transfer from (or even give up the opportunity to attend) Harvard. This question is simply out of curiosity, but do any current Harvard students (or others) know of people who dropped out or transferred to another institution - and why? I searched but couldn't find anything like this on the board, so I'm sorry if this has been asked.</p>
<p>Years ago I had a friend who transferred to Harvard from Swarthmore. After a year at Harvard she transferred back to Swarthmore. She liked the smaller school and for her major at least, better closer relationships with professors. This was a long time ago. Equally long ago my sister-in-law flunked a couple of courses freshman year and was unhappy with the rest of her choices. She went back to Florida and enrolled in the U. of Florida. She spent a year or so there, then realized maybe she’d grown up and that she could cut it at Harvard after all. She came back and did much better. So she only almost dropped out.</p>
<p>I know of a student whose next choices were all laid-back LACs that were not hyperselective. He was surprised but pleased when Harvard accepted him.</p>
<p>He seems to have hated it from Day 1. Students too snotty, no fun, felt lost in his classes, struggled to keep up, embarassed to ask for help. Just miserable, and he was never miserable for more than 15 minutes at a time before. (Pre-med, by the way, I believe.) Last I heard, he was hoping to transfer out, but I don’t know whether he followed through on it.</p>
<p>Back in the day, I knew six people fairly well who dropped out or transferred out of Yale:</p>
<p>– African-American student who felt increasingly isolated, developed serious drug problem, felt he needed to be out in the world where other black people were. Dropped out, cut off all contact. A few years later, I heard he was a truck driver in Texas, but who knows? This was very sad, lots of people tried to help, which he always acknowledged.</p>
<p>– Working-class woman from Detroit, very smart and politically active, who felt terribly oppressed by the sense of privilege many of her classmates had, their wealth, their lack of political commitment. Transferred to Michigan after two years. Loved it.</p>
<p>– Woman from Walnut Creek who felt very homesick. Hated New England weather, couldn’t get used to it, didn’t like the way people talked, etc. Had always been very close with her mother, and missed seeing her. Transferred to Stanford after two years. Loved it.</p>
<p>– Not really a drop-out, exactly: man who completed four full years of college, but deepening alcoholism kept him from passing/completing all of his requirements his last semester. Went into the Peace Corps, spent three great years in Ghana, picked up malaria. Came back intending to finish his degree, but instead wound up a homeless alcoholic on the street in DC. After about a year of that, got his life together, dried out, and went back home, where he owns a landscaping business.</p>
<p>– Senior who murdered his sophomore girlfriend when she tried to break up with him. Went to prison. I don’t know if he ever finished his degree; if he did, it probably wasn’t at Yale.</p>
<p>– The murdered girlfriend.</p>
<p>I know a girl who transferred to a music school to pursue music and another person who left because he didn’t fit in with the rest of the students (I don’t know more specifics about that but he didn’t really like it from day 1).</p>
<p>When I was at Harvard, I knew one girl who dropped out to marry an Annapolis grad, another who transferred to GW to be near her fiance, and another who transferred to Stanford because she liked the weather and laid back atmosphere of her native northern Calif. I also knew some people who dropped out of Harvard for a few years, but later graduated from it.</p>