A letter in the April 23 issue by my friend Harvey Rothberg ’49 comments on a current proposal to create a “bridge-year” program for students admitted to Princeton to spend a year abroad before starting their freshman year. In 1965, my colleagues at the University Health Service, Lawrence Pervin and Louis Reik, and I organized and presented a Princeton University conference titled “The College Drop-out and the Utilization of Talent.” Our own papers and those of colleagues from other institutions were presented, and the entire proceedings were published the next year by the Princeton University Press.

We obtained the academic records of Princeton undergraduates who had taken one or more years off from their college studies. The large majority of these students had distinct improvements in their academic records following the leaves of absence.

We did not analyze possible differences between leaves of absence taken at the various times in a college career, nor did we compare the possible differences between a year off taken before starting college and a year or more taken at a later time in education (although one of my sons who took a year off before starting college at Northwestern University had a rather startling improvement in grades between secondary school and college). Furthermore, my impression is that there was no difference in the effect on grades between a year taken off after freshman, sophomore, or junior years.

Willard Dalrymple, M.D.