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Leopold wasn’t as far ahead of his peer group as Loeb was, but he still started university two months before his sixteenth birthday. He had already started to hang around with the small group that Loeb associated with, and stayed part of it after beginning his studies in the fall of 1920. At first relations between the two had been cool, and even hostile. Their personalities were very different, Loeb sociable and charming while Leopold was reserved and shy. Over time things thawed, though. There were more commonalities than differences. Both were much younger than the other students, and both were Jewish. They came from wealthy families who lived in the same neighborhood. Initial disdain soon thawed on both sides and by the time Leopold was admitted to university they were friends. The relationship was not an equal one though; the quieter Leopold was mesmerized by Loeb and constantly trying to monopolize his attention. It was an unhealthy situation that contributed greatly to what was to come.
As well as being unequal the relationship had also become sexual. As early as summer 1920 there was a physical element to their association, and they weren’t very good at keeping it secret. A scandal that summer had later repercussions.
Leopold had been at the University of Chicago for a year when he and Loeb both moved to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. At first they shared a room, but after a few months Loeb joined the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and moved into their house. One condition of his acceptance to the fraternity was that he end his friendship with Leopold; a fellow student who worked summers on the Charlevoix estate had started rumors of a homosexual relationship based on what he’d seen there in 1920. Eager for the social advantages of being in the fraternity Loeb agreed, and relations between him and Leopold cooled - outwardly, at least. They stopped being seen in public unless accompanied by others, but in secret they occasionally went drinking together. Loeb later said this was all on the advice of his brother Allen.
In 1922 Leopold transferred back to the University of Chicago and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in March 1923. Loeb stayed at Michigan. He lived in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house, but his frat brothers thought his behavior was often childish and he wasn’t allowed to mentor pledges. He graduated in June, the youngest student to graduate in the history of the University of Michigan (although the university doesn’t acknowledge this publicly.) Apart from that his academic career had nothing to distinguish it, but he planned to enter the law school at Chicago. Leopold, on the other hand, intended to tour Europe in summer 1924 - his father had already given him $3,000 for this - then go to Harvard Law School. They both decided to start law school in fall 1924, and in the meantime they studied part-time courses at University of Chicago. Free from the scrutiny of the fraternity they became inseparable friends again.[6]
