<p>Limabeans: </p>
<p>One of my kids was a TA and a head-TA in college for several professors. He told me that the TAs who grade papers are given a grading-instruction sheet for each graded assignment. The grading sheet contained the Professors’ grading guidelines, including key terms that the Professors expect to be identified. If a grading sheet had key terms that the professors were looking for (since learning the terms was part of the course), the students would get a point for using them. Likewise, there were points for issue spotting and for correct answers. The points got totaled up and were either provided to the Professors for final grading if there was a curve, or a grade was assigned based on the Professor’s grading sheet. </p>
<p>The TAs sometimes go back to the Professor - for ex., my kid once ran across a paper that was written extremely poorly. The paper was full of spelling and grammatical errors, and the student rambled incoherently about off-point topics. It was almost as if the student who wrote it was drugged or emotionally unstable, and my kid wanted to review it with the Professor. The Professor told my kid that they were not there to grade writing, but only to grade whether the student had identified the specific material in the answer-key. Aaaargh.</p>
<p>By the way, any paper graded by a TA can be appealed to the Professor.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone else about the surprises in college and the potential for dropping out of the honors college. One of my kids was in an honors college and had dropped out by Junior year. Aside from the housing option, it wasn’t a big deal at his school, didn’t affect his scholarship and dropping out relieved him from taking certain honors seminars so he could pursue other interests. I admit that I would have liked it on his diploma, but I understood his reasons. </p>
<p>Sometimes the study skills needed in college are very different than the ones that got students good grades in high school. The adjustment can be most difficult (1) for the really bright kids who floated easily through high school and may have to learn effective study skills for the first time, and (2) for the kids whose parents were very involved in helping them through high school, who are now on their own when it comes to time management and studying. Of course, there are also kids who can’t adjust to dorm life, enjoy the partying too much, hate their courses, are taking courses with curves (unlike high school) etc. First semester is often a huge wake up call for freshmen that they’re in a whole new world.</p>