Dropping out (was re: Ultimate and Last Bragging Rights)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 171292

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Bruce Alan Wilson" <bawilson at ...> wrote:
>
> "Dropping Out" isn't exactly the right term. Harry has passed his 
> OWLs, which is a perfectly respectable qualification. If he did 
> not choose to go on for the NEWTS, it would be more like someone 
> who finished an Associates who decided not to go for a Bachelors 
> than a 'dropout.'
> 
> I think he will return to Hogwarts, but not as a NEWTS student, 
> rather as a 'special'. Hermione and Ron will be NEWTS candidates, 
> but Harry will be taking private lessons with the various teachers 
> in specialized skills he needs for the Horcrux Hunt.

Geoff:
I don't recognise the term Associates but Bachelors sounds more 
like University to me. From a UK standpoint - which is more relevant 
to Harry - and looking at the situation in the summer of 1997 which 
is the setting for the end of HBP, a real world scholar would have 
completed GCSE at the end of their Year 11 (old Fifth Year) and 
done a year towards their A-levels. 

There would be nothing untoward or any suggestion of a drop out 
in deciding not to complete their Second Year Sixth Form and taking 
other routes of training or  education. The current situation is slightly 
changed in that Sixth Form pupils take AS level which is a kind of 
"halfway house" to A-level after their first year.