<p>I thought I’d throw this out there for parents worried about their kid(s) keeping their grades up and not wasting your hard-earned money:
My parents made a deal with my sister who decided to go OOS when she could’ve easily gone IS and done just as well. They told her that her rather large loans were hers to pay off if she got a C+ or below on any one semester final grades. If she maintained all As and Bs, then they would pay them off for her. Needless to say, the thought of graduating with a huge debt motivated her to keep up her grades, for the most part. Come graduation, they counted up her semesters they “owed” her and wrote a check, and the rest are hers.
They are now doing the same for me, even though i’m IS. They’re reasoning is that it’ll be motivation to keep up my grades, which it definently has been. Although my dad has twisted the rules a bit and has said as long as a I keep above a 3.0 (i’m in engineering, and since he went through it all, he remembers how tough it was =P phew), even though mom is keeping to the “no Cs” rule (we’ll see who wins). </p>
<p>Just thought i’d throw it out there to parents, because it’s basically a way to hit two birds (loans and grades) with one stone =P</p>
<p>It seems to have worked exactly as planned for your sister, and I like that your parents (at least your dad ) are adapting it as they see appropriate for your tougher-grading major.</p>
<p>I think it could be a nice plan for many families, setting the grade cut-off wherever appropriate for the given kid/school/major.</p>
<p>This is interesting because we, too, took out unsubsidized Stafford loans for our oldest. We would the balance of the tuition and the accrued interest on the loan as long as she was in college…hoping that the debt at the end of the tunnel would motivate her to keep her focus while in school and eventually be gainfully employed. However, in reality, if she does “well” (no GPA attached) we will gladly pay it off…so far so good. We two more children at home…and plan to do the same for them. ;)</p>
<p>We both have/had Stafford loans as well. And since those are done semester by semester, there was a total of 8 semesters worth of loans. I think she’s paying off 3 or 4, and is wishing she kept her grades up. I’m 2 for 2 right now, which is good for me I guess =P The best thing about this idea is that it’s very flexible and accomedating for multiple children, while making sure one kid doesn’t feel “screwed” because their sibling(s) didn’t have to take out loans for going somewhere cheaper. Plus, the parents’ money isn’t wasted because if the child does well, they pay for that. If the child messes around, then it’s the child’s responsibility to make up for that.</p>
<p>archermom: that was my dad’s rules: as long as i’m doing “well”. My sister was a comm major, so her GPA needed to be higher to get a good job. As an engineering major, a 3.0 is pretty standard for grads and will get me a job post-grad, so my dad’s pretty much left it at that.</p>
<p>Well, our son’s U has already imposed a 3.0 minimum & credit requirements for him to keep his merit aid. He knows none of us can afford for him to remain at his U if he doesn’t keep his aid, so he’s highly motivated, even tho he’s also in engineering. This is his 1st year & he’s doing better than he did in HS, so we’re all happy!</p>
<p>question- say the student (this is for the parent deal, not the school one), if she say, gets C as a senior, does all the hard work of getting no Cs for three years get ignored?</p>
<p>I believe they did it term by term, cgm. So she’d be paying 1/8 of the loans back, if she missed the benchmark for one term. Seems fair if that’s the deal the family struck from the get-go. I imagine most students could avoid a senior C, if that was a priority for them and they’d never had one before.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of grades being the deciding factor for this sort of thing. If my parents had wanted to do something like this, I would have asked that it be done in a slightly different way. I think it would be much better for a parent to say “at the end of every semester, prove to me that it was worth my money. Tell me what you learned. Show me the projects you did and the papers you wrote. Also, show me your grades.” </p>
<p>But that’s just because I don’t think that grades are a great measure of learning, and I don’t like things that motivate people to think about college as little more than a process of accumulating letters on a piece of paper.</p>
<p>Ive never paid for grades- ( or chores)
The college didn’t even hand out grades which we saw as a plus.</p>
<p>It apparently works for some people- but not for us.
It also isn’t the only way to keep from graduating with huge debt ( it also assumes the parents have the money to pay for school without student loans)</p>
<p>For wholly different reasons, I LOATHE plans like this. They can really distort the choice of courses and even majors. In the OP’s case, dad has adjusted a bit, recognizing that engineering is a tough major. But what if at some particular college, it’s easier to get As in communications or journalism than it is in philosophy? Do we want junior to pick his major based on the likelihood that he can meet the gpa the 'rents have set? What if there’s a wonderful professor who is a really tough grader? Do we want junior to avoid his course because he does give Cs and getting one would mean paying for the entire semester? Do we want our sons and daughters to choose “college math” rather than multivariable calculus or environmental science instead of organic chem in order not to risk getting the C? There’s already enough pressure on kids to do this—parents don’t need to add to it.</p>
<p>Our kid’s U gives a “grace period” of a year in case the student has a bad term, allowing them to bring the grades back up.
I agree that too much pressure and focus on grades can be counterproductive and detract from the learning process and limit the risks the student is willing to take to challenge himself.</p>
<p>We have always told our kids that we really want them to put forth their best efforts and learn as much as they can, with grades only being a secondary issue that of course can affect what their future options include (especially if grad/professional school is a consideration).</p>
<p>We have told our kids that once they get their bachelors degree we will give them the pink slip to the car. We are not dealing with student loans as they chose publics, so that variety of school costs could have added other complications. We deciuded their grades are their business and will affect their future, we are paying for them to earn their degree, if they stick with it and graduate, they will have a mature, but well-maintained and reliable car to begin their adult lives.</p>
<p>Earning As v Bs v Cs, I hope they can see the value for themselves and if they don’t, I guess they will live with the consequences. One D goes to Berkeley and struggled enough to accept her first ever B in a famous weeder course. That was tough, a really tough lesson. Now she is proud of a B+ in chemistry, but she is hard enough on herself I would not want to add to it with the pressure of loan repayment.</p>
<p>I do have to admit, I like the semestre tracking and the fact that the OPs program is not all or nothing, but rewards the good terms, so it is never a hopeless situation.</p>
<p>In D1’s case it was not about earning A’s versus B’s. In fact, we do not even see her grades. I think she offered it up at the end of her first yr. But, we did know, that in order for her get her summer researchfellowship last yr, she had to have had a GPA of 3.5 or above in her major…so that was telling. And, this summer, she is doing research with one of her professors…so, we are assuming that she is doing “well.” Grad school is on her agenda…she will be taking the GRE this summer in Philly…so, this is all her doing. ;)</p>
) are adapting it as they see appropriate for your tougher-grading major.</p>