—Leda Metro, Darien, Connecticut Plenty of students bomb as freshmen, with no one having a clue beforehand. Reasons vary wildly (from stress to finances and being just plain sick of schooling), but they have little to do with ability or intelligence. Spending much of one’s youth sitting in classrooms, doing homework and taking tests is unnatural and taxing. And then in college, students must study subjects in which they have no interest and will never put to use. It’s not surprising that roughly 40 percent of them leave before graduation.
