Harvard Dropouts: Some Psychiatric Findings
ARMAND M. NICHOLI JR. M.D.1
1 Staff Psychiatrist, Harvard University Health Services, 75 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138, and Assistant in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Harvard undergraduates who had consulted a psychiatrist before dropping out of college and had been diagnosed as having a specific psychiatric disorder were defined as "psychiatric dropouts." in comparing these students with all other dropouts, the author found that they are equally as likely to return, attain honors, and graduate as are "nonpsychiatric dropouts." Psychiatric consultation was, however, four times as frequent among dropouts as among the student population at large. Depression plays a significant role in the student's decision to leave college, and the author offers his formulation of the dynamics of the dropout phenomenon.
