<p>We are collectively holding our breath and crossing our fingers as D goes through finals this week. Her merit scholarship is tied to a 3.0 GPA, and she was at 2.86 first semester. She got all B’s and one C+. This semester, she felt she was doing great until getting a low test grade back on an Economics test last week. She is struggling with the class and the final is Thursday. Hopefully, her other 4 classes will be high enough to pull her up over the 3.0, as we are not able to pick up the cost of paying/borrowing the difference if she loses the scholarship. It would be heartbreaking for her to have to transfer, as she really has settled in and loves her school. Not sure if there is any appeal process, but hopefully, it won’t get to that point. Freshman year is so hard as it is, and this added pressure hasn’t helped.</p>
<p>^^^ There is usually an appeal process, and, especially if you are close to the GPA requirement number, they will let you have a semester or so extra to bring it up.</p>
<p>Thanks for the “heads-up”, MomofWildChild. If we have to, we’ll check to see if her school offers it.</p>
<p>zmom, I couldn’t see a 2.7 from where I was after freshman year.</p>
<p>so nice to see andi here! Hi Andi…now zoosermom…your girl will find her optimism when she is not sick as a dog to boot. Bless her.<br>
Our son also got mono freshman year, and frankly…from some poor decisions,compromised his recovery by upping his social life instead of his rest, and ended up using a one time only “withdrawal” from a class he was floundering in that he made a nice strong B in the very next fall…when he by the way also figured out that there is no way to “make up for flunking a test” easily in college with the fantasy of “acing the next one.” His high school “saves” and recoveries for lapses were precedents that could not be repeated at Duke (where you get no points for turning in homework and raising your hand and other freebie grade-padding.) He has thankfully gracefully accepted not being “on the top” at Duke but has also learned to manage his life responsibly and he shines in a few arenas. He is much humbled and we hope ready for the bumps in life ahead. As hard as Duke can be…I am aware it is a cotton candy day in the park compared to the work force and some other forces of nature at work in his future. He took comfort in all the local lawyers, engineers and docs who freely told him about their worst grades in college…cheer her up with testimonials from the 40 somethings and 50 somethings you know…She is special…and will hit her stride soon!
It is awful watching our kids get slammed, but my son at Duke is working this summer for a man who did not take college seriously at all, and has a very successful business based on his adult decisions and adult interests. School is not life!
good luck to allie’s mom…and I agree that entry classes are often more harshly curved than the later classes…I regret quitting biology when I made a C for the first time…I should have toughed it out…and encouraging my sons to stay in the game when they find their majors.</p>
<p>allie’s mom, please keep us posted.</p>
<p>Really curm? I was just saying to someone in PM that I have no frame of reference here and am, possibly, more freaked than someone else might be. I have had the idea that if one has any difficulty in the 100 level classes, there’s no hope for higher level classes?</p>
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Some schools let the students off the hook one time. My school’s scholarships are awarded for the semester, so one subpar semester is allowed. Good luck to your D!</p>
<p>(For some) Freshman year bears little resemblance to senior year. Grading. Classroom participation counts , doesn’t count. Curved or not. No extra credit. No grace periods. We take off for grammar. What 10 page paper? And what is Chicago style anyway? You Don’t take roll? Who is going to kiss my boo-boo? I was sick , what do you mean it’s still due next week? I got the right answer, what do you mean it’s wrong anyway? If it’s right why did you take 5 points of anyway? Right is right. Isn’t it?</p>
<p>Lots of things, little things add up and snowball and it gets away from them, looks hopeless and by the time their survival instinct kicks in there is not enough time to recover.</p>
<p>I know some are going to say “Well, our high school prepares them better than that.” Maybe they do but maybe they don’t. ;)</p>
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That one still gets to me, and I’m not a freshman! (stupid physics dept…grumble, grumble)</p>
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<p>From my oldest son’s perspective, his upper level classes have been much easier than the 100 level. Easier might not be the right word, they are smaller, more interesting, more in line with what he came to college for, etc. so he has done better in them. He found that the 100 level classes, with hundreds of kids in them, were “weed out” type classes designed to get kids to drop the idea of being doctors or lawyers;)</p>
<p>allie’smom – My D will be in the same position next year, and it is my biggest worry. She has not had the best study habits in high school, and I am worried this will bite her in the butt next year.</p>
<p>And plain old maturation is a big part of the equation. My son has been digging himself out of a sub 3.0 performance freshman year ever since. He improved slowly, semester by semester and has a really nice GPA in his major, 3.7+. We talked about this when he was home for a few days last week and he basically said, “If I knew then what I know now it would have been a lot easier and I would have a better GPA”. He said that he now knows how to figure out what the profs want and how to study more efficiently. I think its all part of the the college learning curve. He recounted a conversation recently with some friends who wanted to know why he was still registering for so many 400-level classes senior year when he was pretty much done with his major requirements and he responded that he wanted to learn what was being offered. He said, "Why would I want to take survey classes at this point…to fill time? At that point I knew that he had figured out what college was all about . Zoozermom, your D will be fine. I think college is 4 years for a reason!</p>
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<p>I had a 2.76 after my freshman first semester in engineering at Rice and went on to have a rewarding career as a burger flipper.</p>
<p>I mean, a structural engineer who designs high-rise hospitals.</p>
<p>I get mixed-up sometimes.</p>
<p>Tell ZG not to worry!! =) I sure wish someone had told me that if I made a C or two my freshman year, that I wouldn’t be doomed to failure, which is pretty much why I still hang around here.</p>
<p>Well, she’s been in the hospital since Wednesday, may come home Saturday. I have a feeling she’s going to make a school change next year or take a delayed gap year. As long as she gets well, we can figure it out. Thanks for all the support and advice.</p>
<p>zoosermom, is she hospitalized for her mono? </p>
<p>hi faline!</p>
<p>“zoosermom, is she hospitalized for her mono?”</p>
<p>Complications thereof. Sigh.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear your D is in the hospital. I hope she is feeling better. Please keep us posted.</p>
<p>Oh, zoosermom, so sorry to hear that your D is ill. Hope she feels better very soon!</p>
<p>Oh, I am very sorry to hear she is in the hospital. Sending very best wishes for her rapid homecoming and recovery. GPA is not that “off”" this will all resolve itself…</p>
<p>ooh zoosermom…bless you guys…what a bummer. The kids really do get run down this time of year, so sounds like she got hit pretty hard. My son’s freshman mono was different…he felt lightheaded and ill in the last three days of fall term during exams and was conveniently extremely ill during Christmas break, diagnosed the first time he was seen by a doc, without all the drama of trying to keep up in his classes when feeling awful. He was able to rest three straight weeks.
Of course he blew his recovery by returning to the No Sleep Zone lifestyle of freshmen…this generation of college kids have so many electronic distractions…they really do need seven-eight hours of sleep a night but don’t believe it.<br>
It took him a season to get his body clock back frankly…he rested 24/7 in dark December and his body clock went wacky. He had to relearn the art of getting up and out to breakfast, getting some sun, eating three squares at regular meal times, getting some exercise (which he feared because he worried about a relapse) and retiring to a dark room at midnight to really recover that spring and to get his resistance and body clock functional again. </p>
<p>Please keep us posted, and may she get some traction and recovery going soon!</p>