<p>Avoiding “freshman follies” is key but you are only human. One of my son’s went to too many parties at Duke and had to drop his Calc class (goodbye 5 grand!) and retake it. Vandy son over-committed and majored in his extra curriculars of a much more serious nature on campus, and thought he could study the night before an exam like in high school. (hello summer school@!) The key is to have a serious talk with your student re they are in charge of facing reality as a semester wears on. If illness, poor social decisions or too many weekend trips for a school activity have resulted in a class with a bad grade that will not be possible to rectify, there are options. First, your son or daughter has to learn their limitations and change their lifestyle to fit them…very difficult as all our kids that make it into Vandy were “perfect” learners who worked very hard in high school. But they will be staying up very very late now and their social lives are challenging to figure out for each of them.<br>
At Duke you are allowed to drop ONCE if you do it in the correct Drop Add period and if you have a reasoned response to the reality that your performance and preparation for a class is subpar. Then you have to go to the academic dean and state your reasons, goals and remedial plan. This is a humbling experience for people with 4.0s in high school. Our son probably learned a lot from making these appointments and sucking it up re a big fat OOPS. You don’t get extra points in college for doing your homework, raising your hand, etc. You have to get real about the grades on exams and papers. </p>
<p>Vandy son dropped a class which put him on academic probation since he was below the required hours for a full time student. He had no intention of taking that science class again but he did go to summer session and take a new science. You can also overload a semester to make up for a semester when you goofed up but you will be held accountable by your advisors for your response and your addressing your own problems. It is your job to watch Drop Add deadlines carefully and to make sure you are getting your hours done properly in all categories.</p>
<p>Important to note for those who will take courses at Vandy. Vandy has what I think is an exceptionally sane approach to the problem of classes that must be mastered for career paths. You can for instance, take Organic twice. Yep. Not at Duke but yes at Vandy. Your Bad grade stays on your transcript! But it won’t go into your GPR. This is a safety net approach to excellent students who have different problems the first round in a required class in any department. Again you will be seeing an academic dean if you are permitted to do this and you will be seeing your advisor. But I think this is a great policy. Why discourage people in science, math, engineering? Everyone comes with different readiness and everyone hits their social scene differently. Again, Vandy does not allow abuse of this privilege but it is worth noting.</p>