@CupCakeMuffins I hope you are encouraging those concerned parents you meet to open their own CC accounts so they can lose their own questions.
Kids succeed and fail for different reasons. The best way for someone to get advice is to outline what their specific concerns are. Generic answers might not be that helpful.
“It can also be a shock for students in very competitive programs where everyone around them was also the top of their HS class.”
I certainly saw this as an undergrad. When every student in the university was one of the top 3 students in their high school, and tops in math and science, expectations are high. When you have never had a math class in your life that was even remotely difficult, somewhere in university you are likely to run in a class that is way past what you are used to.
I was bad at a few subjects in high school, particularly French. Tutoring and some extra work outside of school helped a lot. I think that this turned out to be an advantage in university. When I ran into a difficult math class I actually had some vague clue what to do. Some of my classmates did not. They had never had a class that they found difficult.
“When someone is accepted to a college with stats in the bottom 25% of accepted students they are overjoyed here on CC. I wonder how they do at that college.”
I have wondered the same thing. I might have occasionally been the “stick in the mud” in my lack of enthusiasm for any student attending a university where they are coming in as part of the lowest 25% of admitted students, or lowest 50% for premed students. I do not think that we are doing students a favor when they are accepted to academically tough schools where they are near the bottom of the incoming class.
No matter how you set the cutoff, there will always be a bottom 25% of the class.
I’ve always been a fan of the big fish, little pond. But of course if everyone starts doing that, then the little ponds will be full of big fish.
Do you mean big fish in a pond of little fish?
You can have a small pond of big fish (e.g. any small super selective college).
It can be things like:
Health, mental health Issues
Relationship issues
Family Issues
Too much sports
Too much partying/Clubs/videogames?
Working too many hours
Feeling like what happens if you try your best but still don’t do well?
Too much freedom
Executive function issues
Not prepared from your HS classes
First time going to college
Big fish in your HS, but now a small fish and you don’t want ask for help because you have always been the “smart one”.
Taking courses that you just cannot succeed in
Also for HS, your parents and teachers and school are supporting you and making sure you attend and do your work.
At college you are very much on your own to do these things