Stressed and overwhelmed, Amanda Nunley, senior political science major, dropped out of classes at Missouri Southern in the spring and fall 2000 and the fall semester of 2001.

She eventually returned, but at the time, Nunley had a 1-year-old daughter, and said she just couldn’t afford college and daycare at the same time. She had to work full-time to be able to support her and her daughter.

“I just didn’t care about school,” Nunley said.

Many students, like Nunley, withdraw completely from classes every year.

David Clary, exit counselor in the financial aid department, visits with students each semester as they go through the process of dropping out. Clary said there are many reasons why students drop: personal, medical, family issues, transferring to another institution or financial.

Clary said students who have federal loans or Pell grants “should” go through an exit interview before they leave. He advises students to make an appointment and come talk to him so he can familiarize them with the exit process.

Clary said students don’t always understand the ramifications of completely dropping out of college, especially if loans and grants are involved.

Carrissa Lawrence, senior theatre major, had to pay back her loan after she dropped out of college in February 1999. She was put on academic probation when she returned to classes in the spring of 2000 until she made up the credit hours she needed. By carrying 20 credit hours and making a 3.8 grade-point average, Lawrence was soon off probation and able to obtain the amount of money she needed from loans and grants.

Lawrence dropped out for several different reasons.

“A lot of things happened that overwhelmed me,” Lawrence said.

She said the race ratio made it hard for her to fit in.

“I felt uncomfortable about being a black student here,” she said.

Besides the racial issue, she said she also had medical problems and problems with her roommates. She wishes the theatre department would have done more at the time to pull her back in and some instructors would’ve been more lenient when it came to taking time off for medical reasons.

Lawrence was a freshman when she dropped, and said as a freshman, there’s really not much an institution can do to retain students at that level.

“It’s something the students have to do for themselves,” Lawrence said.

When a student goes through the exit interview and fills out a withdrawal form, officials ask the student to fill out a survey to find out why they drop. The surveys are given to the student support center and Kelly Wilson, director of SSC, said if the student marked a personal issue or academic reason for dropping, her office will try and counsel the student.

“A lot of times they really don’t know what their options are,” Wilson said.

Sometimes just taking a lighter load of classes or seeking some financial advice will help a student’s situation. Both Wilson and Clary will talk with students to see if there is anything Southern can do to keep them from dropping.

In Jason LeMasters’s case, he said there wasn’t much Southern could do to help him. LeMaster, former senior math major, was having a hard time keeping up with his upper-level math courses and was having family problems at the same time.

“I was just really in over my head that semester,” LeMaster said.

He dropped everything in spring 2001 and hasn’t gone back to college yet, mostly because of financial reasons.

LeMaster said he went to an instructor for help, but the instructor acted like he didn’t really care.

However, he said that wasn’t the case with most of his instructors at Southern.

Clary said his office tries to get students to talk more with their instructors to keep from dropping.

“Sometimes, there’s a lot they can do to help,” Clary said.