| Hi there...I've been in your son's shoes. One of the worst feelings in the world. I should preface this by saying that I am a regular here on CC, posting under a different name b/c I don't want my usual name associated with this post.
I was a A/B student in high school. Great grades, balanced extra curriculars--4 sports, band, FFA, student council, you name it and I probably did it. Go to a 4-year public of similar standing to GaTech.
Freshman year was okay. Low B/High C, with a D in one class. Did alright with time management, but something wasn't clicking. This past fall, sophomore year, I bottomed out. A D-, D, 2 C-'s, and a dropped class. I couldn't balance my job and school anymore, and I had absolutely no interest in my classes, but I didn't want to tell anyone. I was put on Academic Warning, one step above Academic Probation. (AT my school, AW is receiving a GPA between 1.0 and 1.99. Probation is either two consecutive semesters of AW or one semester of a 0.99 or lower GPA.)
My dad was furious. We had a "talk" for over an hour. More him yelling and me sitting there, already feeling bad w/o his talking. Any student on AW here has to meet with their advisor, so I did that and we made some study plans, got me in touch with a campus tutor, and went over my grades and how to get better overall this spring. I did eventually change majors, and am looking forward to fall when I'll be in classes that I'm actually interested in. Interest in a class helps me with attendance--this was a problem. I'm on my 3rd major, btw. I came out of this semester with C-, B-, 2 B's, and a B+.
It sucks not knowing what's going wrong. Talking with an academic advisor definitely helps though. Yelling, punishing, etc., will only make your kid feel worse than I imagine he already is.
One thing that has definitely helped is putting everything in a planner. It sounds borderline insane, but I write down every assignment, when I have to be at work (even though it's the same shift every week), when an outside event is going on, and I try to stick to the calendar. I remade my graduation plan, and lightened up my regular-year loads to 12-14 credits/semester. 12 if minimum full time here. I'll take 2-3 classes every summer, and hopefully it works out for the best.
Being at the bottom of the pile when you used to be at the top is a bad feeling. Hopefully your son can get through this and start off strong sophomore year. |