Education in the United States has developed from two opposite starting points. Colleges were organized to train leaders, particularly for churches and the courts. They needed schools to prepare their prospective students, and so a system of academics grew up dominated largely by colleges. Widespread public elementary schools, however, developed for a quite different purpose. The people needed education for their own personal satisfaction and for the requirements of citizenship. These schools were soon supplemented by high schools. States established State universities. Thus there came to be the unbroken chain of public education from the kindergarten through the university. Liberal arts colleges, while originating in the former movement are a very important link also in the public education chain. They are affected, therefore, by the present tendency of communities to extend the period of secondary education upward to include the thirteenth and fourteenth grades. They are also affected by the increasing distinctness with which the two functions of the college, namely, general education and specialization, are being identified, respectively, with the first 2 years and last 2 years of the curriculum. Because of the influence of these trends upon the continuity of attendance of students in the liberal arts college, it has seemed important to study, for colleges of different types, such questions as: How many years do students remain in a given liberal arts college? How many transfer from one college to another? How many drop out from year to year? It is believed that this bulletin, which has resulted from such a study, will prove helpful to those interested in the liberal arts college. A copy of the questionnaire used in this study is appended, and a bibliography is included. (Contains 9 tables.) [Best copy available has been provided.]