Freshman year didn't go well!

[boysx3]

I don't know if this will be a helpful suggestion to you or not-- but around here, when kids know they will be taking an extremely rigorous course in college--they will often take the course at our local inexpensive community college before they attempt the course in college, without making any attempt to transfer the grade or credit. That way they hit the ground with a running start when they take the course at their regular college for credit, because they are already familiar with the course material.

[KittyCounselor]

I'm a counselor at a community college, and one of the first things we try to address with a new student, is the fact that the work load in college is dramatically different than it is in high school. Many students in high school can slide by and get decent grades by studying an hour or so every night. We point out that a new college student should count on putting in 1 and a half to 2 hours of study for every credit hour that they take. If a student is taking 12 credit hours, this translates into a MINIMUM of 18 hours each week, usually more like 24 hours. And for students with some type of learning disability or ADHD (yes, they go to college too!), they should increase that figure to 3 hours of study per week for each credit hour they're taking. Many students (at least at the community college level) are shocked - SHOCKED! - at this level of time commitment.

I agree with the earlier poster who suggested day-planners as a good way to keep track of study time and other commitments. Our office has long discussions with each "newbie" about the importance of using a day-planner to manage life and school responsibilities. Some kids just feel too "restricted" by this type of planning, but others find the structure pretty liberating. Having a student track a full week's worth of how he actually spends his time (literally 24/7) goes a long way towards figuring out if too much socializing, not enough sleep, or not enough studying contributed in any way to the rough semester. Hope this helps!

[mam1959]

kitty - I agree with your organizational bent. But I find that the most common reason for freshmen failure is the failure to go to every single class. Class attendance - as others have mentioned here - is so important. If students know that going to class is never optional, it also encourages (if not compels) being prepared for class since no one likes going to class unprepared. This is easier said than done but my own view is that any serious look behind most failure stories reveals some spotty class attendance.

[BCEagle91]

Some things that have helped with our son his first year:

Use of technology:
Google calendar to put in syllabus due dates for the semester, his class schedule including the room number (helps the first few weeks).
Google documents for his todo list
Web page with the course links, course description and links to things to help with the course, links to school administration functions and his department

Previewing classes. I think that he's previewed every class that he took this year either using free, online videos, reading through multiple textbooks for his intended course or using open courseware.

He took Computing II this semester and the dropout rate was about 40%. This is with those that survived Computing I. Computing II had something like 120 labs. State schools can have a sink or swim mentality.

In physics, I think that about 50% dropped out in Physics I and that of those, about 40% dropped out in Physics II. Most professors and department heads push withdrawing from a class to protect the transcript.

The one thing that I've bugged him about this semester is getting into study groups. He prefers to try to do everything on his own and I told him that it isn't always the most efficient way to go.

[owlice]

whynot, your S may not be able to take the classes elsewhere for credit, but he could certainly take them at a community college so that he has more exposure to at least some of the material before he retakes these courses at GT, couldn't he? Or he may want to cover the GT course material over the summer on his own with a tutor. Whatever it takes to give him some confidence and understanding of the subject matter for next fall when he retakes these classes.

[whynotniwot]

After much (calm) discussion, my son has decided to attend summer school. He will take just these two courses. We have asked him to contact his advisor to check on this and the advisor is okay with this. They do want to be kept advised of progress during the term. They also, like us, want him to work with academic success office to get help with his study habits, organization, etc..

I was truly amazed that GT had a "Do Over" policy for freshman. You can take up to 2 classes in which you got a F or D. If you get a better grade, the lower grade is dropped from your gpa. It is on the transcript, but this at least gives you a chance. You can do this only once for each class.

I want to thank everyone for their comments. Even if I did not agree with them I appreciated that folks offered well thought out ideas. They really did help in how my wife and I approached this with our son. In fact he thanked me for trying to offer suggestions vs "yelling" at him.

Hopefully, I will have good news to report at the end of July.

[DunninLA]

I knew a lot of kids who worked really, really hard in high school, and then first year of college thought they could lighten up a bit. I agree with the poster who mentioned that rushing a house can take up a ton of free time.

Suggest you go light on the lad. He is probably more embarrassed about this, and disappointed in himself, than you are.

I'll bet switching his major will take care of most of the problem anyway.

[somemom]

Whynot- it can be a surprise how much that apparently blase kid really does care about what's happening, how scared and confused they are despite missing class, partying, or just plain not knowing how to study and it is rewarding to see how a parent's surprise offer to help rather than a screaming lecture can make a turning point in a relationship.

Good luck to your son this summer

[ellemenope]

whynotniwot (what is the genesis of your screen name)--glad that plans have been calmly made. I can't tell you how many times I've read on this board that GT is really murder, especially on the engineering newbies. Maybe they should go to a pass/fail first semester, like MIT.

[QuantMech]

^^whynotniwot,

I think it would be a really good idea for your son to find a friendly grad student or advanced physics undergrad who can help him check his understanding of the physics and calculus, during the summer, on a routine basis. Someone who really understands the material can often diagnose specific problems that are interfering with a student's understanding, while it's still opaque to the student himself.

[huguenot]

I wondered if "whynotniwot" was a play on something everyone used to say in the Air Force years ago - "Why not Minot? Because you'll never get Offut." Both were, shall we say, undesirable bases.