Easy senior year in college?

Parents Forum
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<p>I’m curious about your input CCer’s. If your kid has done really well in school (college) but wants to take it easy senior year, or even second semester senior year, how do you feel about that?</p>

<p>I am a parent and academic advisor of college students. I have three positions. </p>

<h1>1-- You are paying a lot of money, usually, to attend college. You should make the most of it and take the courses that will benefit you in the future that are informative and challenging. You can always do those PE courses on your own, but you may not have a chance to take–insert–.</h1>

<h1>2–You’ve worked hard, have a good or great gpa and why not relax and have a fun second semester senior yr. You have not skimmed through, so give yourself a break.</h1>

<h1>3–You have not done #2, so you should do #1.</h1>

<p>I have to admit, I state #2 for my advisees but really want #1 for my own kids.</p>

<p>My senior D has done very well in a top school. She has been offered, and accepted, a job upon graduation. She has near a 4.0 and has had 3 internships. Two in the summer and one now abroad. </p>

<p>However, she was offered to graduate w/ honors. This involved a senior thesis. She originally accepted, found a professor to work with and started the process. After her job offer in August, she decided it was too much work and not worth it. Her words," It means a lot of work a an extra sentence at graduation".</p>

<p>Her senior yr is not extremely easy, but does include beginning tennis and a scedule w/ Mondays and Fridays w/ no classes.</p>

<p>I am a bit upset and she knew I would be. I told her that years from now she might wish she had that honors designation. </p>

<p>Any input??</p>

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<p>One daughter attended a school where the senior thesis was mandatory for all graduates- double major- two thesies! ( not that she did that, but her roommate did)- I think it would be much different if you were on a campus where most students just wanted to finish up and you didn’t have a strong interest in doing a lot extra.
Sounds like she has done well and even has a job? Personally I would not sweat it, but she may want to keep the prof in mind in case she has similar interests for grad school.</p>

3

<p>If she wants to attend grad school later on, that senior thesis would be of some importance. If not, I think that her job experience will be more important than what the diploma says.</p>

4

<p>At many colleges, the honors designation means “I did research.” The required thesis is based on an undergraduate research project.</p>

<p>My son – the less academic of my two kids – was and is interested in research. He got involved in an undergraduate research project, graduated with honors, and is now in a research-oriented graduate program.</p>

<p>My daughter – the more academic of my two kids – has no interest in research. She has chosen not to get involve in the honors program at her college and does not plan to go to a research-oriented graduate school.</p>

<p>Different strokes for different folks. </p>

<p>I didn’t push my son into his decision about honors, and after some discussion with my daughter about the reasons for her decision, I have no objection to it.</p>

<p>Also, making the most of college is not necessarily a matter of taking the toughest courseload. There are other aspects of college, besides the opportunity to take courses, that may never come again. Your daughter, who has the challenge of a very different lifestyle facing her next August, may be more interested in spending her last semester enjoying the lifestyle of a college student and spending time with the friends she has made over the past four years than taking the most challenging courses available.</p>

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<p>I agree that a very important factor here is grad school: is this contemplated? A similar issue came up for my son last year. While my son did write a thesis, he could have taken his 4th course pass/fail. Initially that seemed like not a big deal, but for grad school purposes it was recommended that he take the 4th class for a grade.</p>

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<p>Congratulations on raising a sane and well-balanced daughter. :)</p>

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<p>I don’t know anything about grad school considerations, etc, however, this one was interesting to me: “You can always do those PE courses on your own, but you may not have a chance to take–insert–.”</p>

<p>You could also say that once one enters the working world, gets married and has kids, when are they going to have time to take a tennis class? If I told my mom that she has time to go take that yoga class like she wants she’d laugh me out of town.</p>

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<p>I would explain to her why you believe it is important for her to pursue an honors designation, and then leave the decision up to her. College is tough; she’s looking forward to a full-time job soon and it seems like a good time for her to take a little breather. She has done everything right. She has earned the right to make the decision for herself.</p>

9

<p>Actually, I would like my kids to take tennis lessons in college. Teaching is usually good, and it is a lifelong sport that is easy to find a partner to play with. </p>

<p>I’m trying to think of a p.e. or fine arts class that I would have an objection to the kids taking rather than graduating with honors, and I can’t think of any. In fact, the only red flag that I see at one of the schools on D’s list-- they don’t seem to offer any sports classes other than the aerobics type. So, I’m in favor of the opportunity to learn a life long leisure activity.</p>

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<p>Older Ds college had a PE requirement they took very seriously.
She took lots of dance courses, swing, ballroom and salsa as well as self defense & weightlifting.
Younger D is taking swimming and is on the soccer team ( she is hoping to get a job as a lifeguard- which I think would be great, just as long as it is at the pool at her university and not on the beach in Goa)</p>

<p>I think just having class three days a week would be fine for myself- :wink: but if I was living on campus I probably would need the structure of class every day.</p>

<p>I know that some schools don’t have class on Friday for anyone, which seems a little cheap considering tuition.</p>

11

<p>It really is your kid’s education, not yours. (Your money – but you have to look a the whole package – would you rather have a kid who had slacked off at the beginning, and now had to work extra hard just to earn enough credits to graduate on time?</p>

<p>During her junior year, my daughter applied to a 5-year combined BA/Masters program that essentially would have meant a double course load her senior year. Her major requires a senior thesis, so no getting around that – the combined program would have meant signing up for a slate of graduate level courses on top of completing the requirements for the major. Everyone who has ever been in that program says it is very difficult and intense.</p>

<p>She didn’t get in. As part of planning for the possibility, she had made sure to complete as many major requirements earlier as possible – so now she is left with very little to do senior year other than the thesis. She’s taking only 12 units this semester, all with seminar classes that meet only once a week. She actually has 4 days a week free under the schedule - (one class is an evening class, the other two meet on Wednesdays only) - but she has filled up the time with a part time job & internship, and she is busy applying for internships for spring semester as well. </p>

<p>You’re lucky your daughter has a job lined up after graduation – mine doesn’t, so I’m glad she will have extra time spring semester for job hunting. </p>

<p>Anyway – unless you feel like researching and writing the senior thesis paper for her… I think that it is her choice, not yours. You really should giver her credit for the great work she has done so far-- as I said, there are plenty of parents who are not so fortunate. </p>

<p>When your daughter starts her working life after graduation, it may be a long time before she gets any real breaks – she will be in the real world, where “vacation” means 2 weeks off a year and a few paid holidays. So if her school schedule allows it, now is a good time for her to relax, recharge her batteries, and be ready for the transition that next year will bring.</p>

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<p>She essentially did an extra 3 semesters in her internships.</p>

<p>We have a similar decision with our son. He’s going to graduate in 3.5 years (he could do it in 3 based on credits but the courses needed to graduate aren’t available in the upcoming semester). I suggested that he take 13 credits instead of 16. One of the courses will be a grad course. He will probably take two or three grad courses in the fall.</p>

<p>Money is a means to do things with your life. You can never get back your time. But you may be able to get back your money.</p>

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<p>Her plans sound perfect to me…tennis is likely to have as good an effect on her life as any other course, or better. And she has a job. We’re all overscheduled, imo-- the chance to look around, take a deep breath, let her mind wander a bit, could be a great thing, especially for someone who’s walking out of college straight into the working world.</p>

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<p>D1 had a very easy semester abroad this fall. It’s the first time since middle school that she had a break, very sad about our kids generation. It was very good for her. With OPs D high GPA from a top school I am not sure if an honor designation is that big of a deal, especially if she is thinking about going into finance. Ability to play tennis may help her more in the long run than a thesis paper.</p>

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<p>I’ve got those latin words after my degree, I don’t think they’ve ever gotten me a job. It’s all about recommendations.</p>

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<p>morris- I think our kids went through the same program. My d also decided not to do the honors route as she too wanted to savor the memories of her senior year. And there really isn’t that much opportunity to take it too easy at school. Even the wine class that d took senior year included alot of work and was way more time consuming than she thought it would be.
Let her enjoy her last year at college.
If she really wants to impress her peers in the business world, I’d suggest golf instead of tennis as her PE class.</p>

17

<p>haha She is also taking the wine class and we’ve already discussed golf.</p>

<p>Of course she is making her own decision. She is an adult. My being able to insist she do anything has long passed. I just think she may regret not doing the honors thesis someday.</p>

<p>Graduate school is always a possibility. I think it is for any undergraduate. </p>

<p>Interesting to hear all of your input. You are, after all, my advisees parents, figuratively and you usually pay the bills.</p>

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<p>Morris, I am confused. Tennis is a course for credit towards graduation? We had Phys Ed where I went to school, but you didn’t get graduation credit, and it couldn’t have been more than 2 or 3 hrs per week. No homework. (I also took squash, skiing, and a forerunner of an aerobics class). Of course it is up to your D, but I would probably be lobbying for the honors project. I don’t know what she plans to do in life, but the scholarly work that goes into it would most likely benefit any endeavor that will require writing skills. Maybe I am a bit too idealistic after all these years, but wouldn’t the opportunity to work closely with a professor be one of those once in a lifetime opportunities? Does the thesis really carry the same credits as a PE class? I must be so ill informed, because that seems incredible.</p>

<p>I did not have the opportunity to write a senior thesis, but I did write a law review article that required that I work closely with a prof as my advisor. It was one of the most memorable and among the best experiences of law school.</p>

<p>I can understand taking only 12 credits if that is all one needs to graduate(and having an easier time that way), but if I was the student, I would take tennis for fun, and write the thesis anyway.</p>

<p>BTW, I dropped out of wine tasting. It was senior year. What a miserable professor he was. He wanted to fail me even though I did not take the test. One of the assistant Deans had to call him and grovel so that I would not graduate with an F in wine tasting. The lesson: drop early (and often) if you must.</p>

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<p>Boy…an F in wine tasting…that’s harsh…!</p>

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<p>Wine tasting is actually a difficult course at D1’s school, a lot of kids take it P/F.</p>