This homecoming weekend represents a reunion for alumni with old friends, former professors and the University community. While many students returning for Homecomings consider the University to be home, others who initially enrolled subsequently decide to leave the University and may find their home elsewhere.
James Marshall Pattie, assistant vice president and associate dean of students, said students choose to leave the University for a variety of reasons, including medical withdrawal for both physical and mental health reasons, personal family needs or the wish to transfer to another institution.
“There isn’t really a prominent reason [that students leave the University] that we observe in the Office of the Dean of Students,” Pattie said in an email statement.
The University works with students to address their individual needs and encourage retention. For example, students who have to take a medical leave receive assistance in ensuring they have access to care while away and advice on the process for returning, Pattie said.
Pattie said there are a variety of resources available to prevent students from leaving, including Counseling and Psychological Services, the Student Disability Access Center, the University Career Center and Student Financial Services.
“Oftentimes we work with students to make connections in those areas to address a specific need,” Pattie said.
Christina Morrell, director of Institutional Assessment and Studies, said University data focus more on retention and graduation rates rather than attrition and dropout due to its difference and difficulty to manage.
“For us, a key objective is to ensure all students are successful and graduate, hence our focus on that outcome,” Morrell said in an email statement.
Vicki Gist, assistant dean of students and director of Multicultural Student Services, described the University’s retention rate as “very good compared to other institutions.”
The University reports a 97 percent retention rate for first-year students, according to the most recent data available from the Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies for the 2015-16 academic year.
Although the University works to maintain the retention of students, there are some who ultimately leave.
Former student Kelsey Hackett, who was a member of the University’s class of 2019, made the decision to transfer for financial reasons.
“I’m from Long Island, so I had to pay out-of-state tuition,” Hackett said. “By the end of my first year I was figuring out my plans for the next couple years — like if I wanted to go to medical school and the money just became too much of an issue”
Hackett is now a sophomore at Stony Brook University, where as an in-state student, the tuition cost is less for her than it was at the University.
“I’m just in a weird situation with my finances because where I live people tend to have a higher income and just general cost of living, so on paper it looks like my family is a lot more wealthy than we are,” Hackett said. “So for someone like me who is decidedly middle class, the financial aid system is not very helpful.”
While Hackett said she did not view the University as home during her first semester, her increased involvement in organizations on Grounds helped to change her mind during her second semester.
Despite leaving the University at the conclusion of her first year, Hackett still thinks of Grounds as home, and said she would “absolutely, 100 percent” return if possible.
“I’m also so grateful for the time that I had at Virginia that I don’t regret going there and falling in love then having to leave,” Hackett said. “It’s better that that happens rather than never having gone there.”
Gist said some students choose to leave because they decide the University is “not the right fit for them” and may “prefer a smaller environment or want to pursue a course of study that is offered somewhere else.”
The latter reason is part of what encouraged Hannah Cho to transfer to Cornell University following the end of her first year at the University. Cho is currently a sophomore at Cornell University.
“I already had a transfer option at Cornell in which I was guaranteed to have admission with a couple of prerequisites,” Cho said. “I kind of already knew I was going to transfer as a sophomore, but also because of my major — I was undecided at U.Va. in the [College] and having a major at Cornell was a big factor in my decision.”
Cho is currently studying Industrial and Labor Relations and said if the University offered a more specific business major, then “it would have been harder to decide to leave.”
Despite not having her desired major, Cho said she wouldn’t have considered leaving the University if she hadn’t had the transfer option at Cornell.
“I really loved U.Va.,” Cho said. “It was actually really hard for me to leave even though I knew I was going to go. I really like the community there, the people were great, everything about it was just awesome. Just major-wise and considering career prospects and prestige, Cornell had the better hand.”
Alex Rein, who is now a junior at the University of Michigan, had a similar reason as Cho for leaving.
“I think the biggest thing for me was what I really wanted to study was a combination between [the Commerce] School and political economy with a focus on China because I lived in China for four years and that’s what I was really interested in studying,” Rein said. “I felt there wasn’t a good route to study business but complement it with political economy.”
Rein said he felt his schedule would consist mostly of classes in the Commerce School and he would be unable to pursue his other interests, such as Chinese. He found the University of Michigan better suited his needs and is now double majoring in Business Administration and International Studies with a concentration in political economy of East Asia, along with a minor in Chinese.
Rein said another factor in his decision to leave the University was the need for more variety in interests.
“What I found myself aspiring to do at U.Va., I felt like it was a very common aspiration,” Rein said. “I felt like I got into a rhythm where I was just kind of locked in with doing the same things.”
Although Rein said he misses being on Grounds, “Michigan feels more like home” to him.
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