Because the phenomenon of delayed graduation--the practice of prolonging the college career beyond the normal 4 years of undergraduate study--is so widespread researchers speculated that "continuers" might have certain common characteristics which would differentiate them as a group from "completers." The objective of this paper was to investigate characteristics differentiating completers and continuers which might account for the the ability of the former to complete school. A group of dropout students was included to identify characteristics differentiating continuers and dropouts which might account for the ability of continuers to return to school. Hypotheses to explain delayed graduation were derived from Erikson's (1958) psychological theory, in which adolescence is conceptualized as a period of trying out, in reality or fantasy, a variety of social and occupational roles. Three scales of the Omnibus Personality Inventory administered to 10,000 high school graduates were selected and combined to form an operational measure of intellectual disposition. Evidence substantiated the thesis that the greater the degree of intellectual involvement a student manifests, the greater are his chances of successfully completing college within the conventional time limit. Hypothetical differences between the family climate of completers and continuers were also substantiated: continuers were less likely to perceive their parents as intellectual, energetic, ambitious, loving, or appreciative. (JS)