College Life in WW2

Sources regarding the college experience in WWII, focusing enrollment and professors' responsibilities

Account from Harvard

"The freshman class soon dominated undergraduate life. Most of the other students had succumbed to the draft. Squeezed into a few Houses they tried to grab what education they could before turning 18."

"V-12 and ASTP members, however, doubled as undergraduate students besides being in the military. They received their degrees and commisions at the same time, and were kept quite busy in the process. A typical day in Eliot House began at 0600 (6 a.m.) with a two mile run and calisthentics. By 0710 the future naval officers had swabbed the decks, cleaned themselves and their rooms, and stood inspection. Classes started at 0800, continuing through the morning. Physical drill followed dinner. Buglers sounded taps at 2315."

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1956/12/7/college-life-during-world-war-ii/

Experience at Yale

“They’ve been calling up reserves unexpectedly, and I might get yanked out of school,” McDermott wrote to his mother Feb. 2, 1941. “I’d sort of like to finish college before I get militarized if it can be managed.”

"Allen was part of Class of 1945W, whose members saw their college years interrupted by service and eventually returned to Yale to graduate in the latter half of the decade. Upon entering in the summer of 1942, they only received six months of the old and elegant Yale education, which at that time included students wearing coats and ties to meals served by waiters.

Within the same year, military uniforms replaced the old dress codes, while mess lines replaced the waiters. As Winston Churchill prophesied, the New World rushed to the rescue of the Old World, and as an ironic result, Yale had to sacrifice the aristocratic old-world elegance it had previously offered its students."

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2001/02/21/yale-an-arsenal-of-democracy-in-world-war-ii/