Eugene is sent to university at the age of 15. Despite spending four years with the Leonards, he graduated with “the kiss of love and death burned on his lips, and he was still a child” (319). The Leonards wish Eugene farewell and call him their child.

During the summer before university, Eugene grows closer to Ben, who withdraws from everyone except Eugene. Ben shares his deep frustrations with his life, his parents, and their constant focus on financial stability.

Eugene finds it difficult to make connections in college, and his “first year at the university was filled for him with loneliness, pain, and failure” (321). Eugene finds his professors unengaging and unchallenging, and he is accused falsely of relying on translations for his Latin work, a crutch that many of his classmates use. Eugene pretends to struggle with his Latin translations and is then commended by his clueless professor.

During his first year at university, Eugene moves residences four to five times before eventually living on his own. Eugene first lodges in the home of a widow with a son who attends Eugene’s university and “set himself to thwart and ruin the beginnings of the boy’s university life” (329). Despondent over his lack of human connection, Eugene isolates himself and “withdrew deeply and scornfully into his cell.