<p>What’s next for a young adult when this happens?</p>
<p>Usually, leaving college.</p>
<p>In some instances, the student may be able to stay for another semester on probation, but if the situation was caused by something that is unlikely to be corrected, this may not be helpful.</p>
<p>It may be best for a student in this situation to go home an get a job, and then try again in a few years at an open-admissions community college, with the hope of transferring to a four-year school later.</p>
<p>Not sure if you are the parent or the student but in either case you need to go back and figure out what happened. Partying? Illness? For a gpa to be in that range lots of opportunities to work with professors, withdrawal from certain classes etc had to have been missed.</p>
<p>Most colleges have a minimum GPA requirement for a student to be allowed to stay. Often it is a GPA of 2.0 but sometimes it may be a little lower for freshmen to allow for adjusting to college. But <1 is pretty low. If it is after 1st semester freshman year then the student may be allowed to stay for the 2nd semester to see if they can improve. It will really depend on the school and their policies. If the student stays they need to figure out why their GPA was so low and what they are going to do to improve for the 2nd semester including going for help throughout the semester.</p>
<p>Expanding on ebeeeee’s point … college academics aren’t that hard when compared to what it takes to be successful in life (please hold the groans, all you O.Chem and Calculus students). And colleges aren’t in the business of admitting students who can’t do the work. So it’s really important to figure out how and why that sub-1.0 occurred. It may take a couple of years to gain the maturity to do this … and that’s another reason “leaving college” is generally the favored outcome.</p>
<p>In addition, if this student is receiving financial aid…a 1.0 GPA might NOT satisfy the Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements at the college and the student could risk losing financial aid.</p>
<p>A 1.0 GPA would imply either a D in every course or some failed courses in the mix. Either way, these are not going to count towards the student’s major (if any of these were IN the major). If this happened in THIS household, the students knew that they would be leaving their college, and coming home…working part time and attending the community college part time.</p>
<p>In our house a 1.0 would mean no more parentally supported college for probably a year or two until the student figured out if they really wanted to be a college student. It would also mean that we would set a reasonable month or two maybe three for that student to become financially self sufficient (find a job, an apartment etc.) while figuring out their next move. We were pretty clear before the kids went off how things would work, so none of this would be a surprise in our household. I think about a quarter of Americans have a college degrees …we told the kids to make a decision whether they were going to be in that quartile or not so bringing home a 1.0 would tell us they definitely aren’t interested at this point in life in being in that quartile.</p>
<p>My S2 made less than 1.0 his first semester. Yes, we know the reason and decided to give him a second chance. He re-took the classes he failed (thank goodness for grade replacements) , got off probation and has done well since then. He’s a jr. now.</p>
<p>Do we know if the OP is talking about a student in high school or college?</p>
<p>Good question…well…if it’s at MY high school…the student would NOT be promoted to the next grade.</p>
<p>Well the OP referred to a young adult. Sounds more like a college student than an adult to me.</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad at CMU, we referred to that as “the square root club” - that’s where you take the square root of your GPA, and it goes up.</p>
<p>Anyway, I had a few friends in the club. Some of them were enjoying college life, some not; but none of them were interested in being students. They all left school, but one continued living at his fraternity for the next few years. :)</p>
<p>Each one that I kept in contact with has done fine subsequently. It’s really a matter of finding something that you actually want to do.</p>
<p>Soul searching. Being realistic about why they did so poorly- ie admitting to themselves they need to make a lifestyle change. Then either finding a viable way to improve on the gpa next semester or dropping out for now. The student had potential to succeed and blew it- s/he needs to be honest with her/his self and not shift blame.</p>
<p>The parents. Course of action depends on the students’ above actions. Consider if what you allow is enabling or truly helping your child mature. Factors such as being willing to pay for another semester, offering room and board, requiring financial independence all depend on resources and your student’s attitude et al.</p>
<p>A GPA this low would indicate:
- THe student didn’t want to study OR
- The student was not able to study due to the difficulty or illness
- The student did not reach out to the professors or get tutoring or go to the writing center…Did they not know what to do? Were they afraid? Were they in denial? Did they just not care?</p>
<p>Quite simply, a student with a <1.0 GPA is either supremely stupid or supremely apathetic.</p>
<p>Lets not make rude judgemental statements when there is not enough information about an individual to make that call. A post of that nature is of no help to the op or anyone else reading this thread looking for insight. </p>
<p>If a student has gained admission to college, it is unlikely that they are “supremely stupid”. There can be various causes/reasons for a catastrophic semester. It is up to the student to figure out/acknowledge what went wrong and then work out with his/her parents what is the best course of action for the future. For some, it’s a second chance. For other’s, it’s a change in venue. It’s a call each family has to make based on individual situations.</p>
<p>AFAIK most colleges have a period of academic probation, usually one or two semesters. With a GPA this low, the student must talk to his or her academic advisor and discuss plans on how to improve it. If the GPA improves next semester, even if it is not a 2.0, the probationary period could possibly be extended. If not, next step is probably a semester or two of academic suspension, which could be good thing, as it would give the young adult a chance to get a job, maybe take a class at a local community college, and decide if he or she really wants to go to college.</p>
<p>Most important is discovering the reasons why. That many Fs suggests that the student wasn’t trying, maybe did not turn in required assignments, was partying too much, or might have serious mental health issues that need to be dealt with. Good luck.</p>
<p>Many parents provide “Executive Function” help during high school. Time to get up, time to study now, time to eat now, etc. It would be worthwhile to ask the student what the student thinks went wrong. </p>
<p>You would think that a student who is sharp enough to get into college would be familiar with the use of the alarm clock, calendar and “To Do” list, but that is not always correct. </p>
<p>I would suspect that this student didn’t understand class lectures as a “mandatory” participation event. No one may be taking “roll call” as they did in high school – but it is hard to do well in a course if one is not attending the lectures and labs. </p>
<p>We used to have the term “The October Exodus” to describe kids that showed up in early September, partied hard for six weeks and then were faced with an unredeemable 0.0 GPA at midterm. There was nothing to do but go home and wait tables or work at the feed store. Those students were under the illusion that there would be time “later” to get their act together. College doesn’t work like that, however. A six week vacation at the start of term is enough to sink the entire semester.</p>
<p>Depends on what the ‘young adult’ wants to do. Many young adults find themselves in a major that is not suited to them and a lack of necessary study skills to do the job. My solution for DD was to take her out of the college she was attending and let her get her act together at community college her second semester freshman year while she worked to help pay for it. Her outlook about her studies changed dramatically when that happened and she quickly got back on track. Of course, an art major rather than a science major proved to be much more suited to her abilities.</p>
<p>1.0 requires huge attitude adjustment. No matter talents/ability level/background, 1.0 indicates complete absence of any kind of work. Did “young adult” attend lectures, turn in ANY assignements, take ANY tests/exams, show his face to any prof at least once? Was he possibly sick in bed whole semester, had family trouble, any other bad situation? I feel we are missing tons of info to make any semi-intellegent suggestion.</p>