"The legend of the sophomore slump probably arose in the days of the Gold Coast, before the creation of the Houses," observed David Reisman '31, Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences. "The sophomore was thrown out of the world in which he had lived as a freshman, the protected atmosphere of the dorms."

But even today the transition from the Yard to the Houses is one of the major causes of the sophomore slump. "Self-respect," Master John Finley of Eliot House said," is a precondition of friendship. Everyone flees the House initially and tries to find himself elsewhere. Toward the end of the sophomore year there is a reflux to the House-Eliot is a huge success for juniors and seniors."

People in the Houses, generally don't pay much attention to sophomores. The House organization does the best it can, but most of its energies in the fall are spent getting seniors into graduate school. Furthermore, the apparatus of House advising is far less watchful than that of the Yard; "in the Houses," Dean Monro said, "it is usually some time before a student's academic troubles are realized."

Diffidence and Isolation

Also, as Riesman pointed out, "the sophomore may not, in his House life, get caught up in conversations about ideas which create a renewed academic interest." The sophomore is often reluctant to approach faculty members or even other students in his House and talk to them; this diffidence may isolate him form an intellectual atmosphere.

It is a most point whether anything can be done to eliminate the sophomore slump, and Finley even questioned whether anything should be done. "I can't fight anybody's battle with Harvard," he said. "The sophomore slump is a common problem, the facing of which is a precondition to freedom an success at Harvard." Monro disagreed: "We feel a deep responsibility not to take this problem for granted."

It is doubtful whether the fundamental institutional causes of the sophomore slump can be remedied. Anxieties will always arise when a student makes a transition to a new environment; they will always arise when he