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In February 1826 Edgar enrolled at the university of Virginia. The university had opened the year before after, what was said, forty years of planning, and now had 177 students.
Edgar was proud to attend to the University and he had high ambitions in language. He took ancient languages taught by George Long, and modern languages taught by George Blaettermann. Edgar was an excellent student and his translations were remembered as \"precisely correct\". He studied French, Italian and probably some Spanish. He also joined the Jefferson Society, a debating club, and grew noted as a debater. He was also remembered as an outstanding athlete, he sketched in charcoal, and continued to develop as a writer.
Edgar was during his university year described as moody and gloomy. This might be due to his first known romantic attachment with a girl named Elmira Royster, which he met in Richmond before he left to the university. Edgar wrote to her frequently but her father opposed to the match due to the age, Edgar was then about sixteen and a half and Elmira was fifteen. He intercepted the letter and hence Edgar did not receive any replies to them.
Edgar was very young to attend the University. The average age for attending the university was about nineteen years back in 1830 while Edgar was only a month past seventeen.
The student life was chaotic and at times even dangerous. During a riot in the school\'s first year masked students threw bricks and bottles at the professors. During Edgar\'s year, seven students were expelled or suspended for high-stakes gambling.
The violence and chaos took up much room in the surviving letters Edgar sent to John Allan. In the letters you could read that one time a student was struck on the head with a large stone and he pulled a pistol - which apparently were quite common. The student misfired but would otherwise have killed the attacker. At another occasion a student was bit in his arm \"and it is likely that pieces of flesh as large as my hand will be obliged to be cut out.\"
The quarrels with John Allan grew stronger, mostly because of Edgar\'s financial problems. During the year he got large gambling and other debts which he claimed was because John Allan did not provide well enough. Thus he had to stick to gambling to cover his expenses.
When Edgar returned to Richmond he had debts that reached to around $2000 - $2500. John Allan refused to pay his debts and did not send him back to the university but forced him to work at Allan\'s firm. Edgar was also disappointed to discover that Elmira Royster was no longer available. The first evening back in Richmond he went to a party at Elmira\'s house only to find that it marked her engagement.
In March 1827 the strain between Edgar and John Allan climaxed. This was the result of more than two years of indifferences going back to the death of Jane Stanard, and now the loss of Elmira. Edgar moved out of John Allan\'s home and where he went is uncertain. Edgar was looking for \"some place in this wide world, where I will be treated not as you have treated me.\" Edgar felt that Allan had misled him, restricted him and rejected him. The letters Edgar sent to John Allan showed without concealment that he did not feel as a part of the family. He also wrote:
\"I have heard you say (when you little thought I was listening and therefore must have said it in earnest) that you had no affection for me.\"
After several hostile letters in their correspondence Edgar was in need for money and his things, and changed the attitude in his letters. He wrote a friendly letter almost begging John Allan for help. The letter was returned and on the back of it Allan had written: \"Pretty Letter\".
Edgar lead a reckless life roaming the streets and drank a lot. He sometimes took his brother\'s identity to mislead his creditors and John Allan. He sometimes used the alias Henri Le Rennet, a frenchifying of Henry Leonard. At the time no one knew where Edgar went but some letters were said to be sent from St. Petersburg, Russia. In reality he had followed his mother\'s advice from the water color painting and gone to Boston.
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