My son has ASD (autism spectrum disorder). He is going in to senior year. His GPA is just below a 2.4. It seems this past spring, again, he did not realize he had to attend classes. He knows the professors told him he had to attend, but he thought they meant for extra credit. Apparently, outside of attendance, he would have had a high B or an A in this one class. But the teacher did quizzes in class which were worth 25% of his grade. Since my son did not attend, he missed the quizzes. His final grade was a D-.
He can return to the school. His major is computer science and he has a 2.8 in his major. He will only have two semesters left so he cannot raise his overall GPA by much. He is at a small liberal arts school, so he only needs 7 classes in his major to graduate. And not many classes are offered. He can maybe get his major GPA up to a 3.0, but no way can he get his overall GPA up to a 3.0. It seems like many companies will not want to interview him with that GPA.
He can transfer to the local state university. They have a computer science program that is ABET certified. He will have about 4 semesters left in school if he does that, pretty much all computer science classes he has not had yet. He will have to redo the science because the liberal arts school did not require calculus based physics.
He seems sad about leaving his college. I am sad that he was so close to graduation. But we are all concerned that his degree won’t mean much anyway because his GPA was so low. IF he switches to the local state university, he will live at home so we can make sure he goes to class. Also, they have a disability office that even has a social group for ASD and such. What do you think? Should he just finish his degree at the small liberal arts school? Or should he transfer to the state university and live at home?
This is a question for career services at his current school. They know who recruits and hires their kids and what the expectations are in terms of grades. And they know that employers understand the relative rigor of the program vs. other colleges.
Realistically, having him transfer is going to have very little impact on his GPA. And only you can determine if living at home is going to be a positive or a negative for him both academically and socially.
He can be living under your roof, taking a bus to college which stops in your driveway, and STILL not make it to class all semester.
Then what? You can’t guarantee that a change in living situation gets him to class on time.
I would only transfer if you felt certain your son would attend every class. Would you drop him off and pick him up after each class? For a student who thinks professors have nothing valuable to say during class time, I 'm not sure how you could assume he would actually go to the classes instead of sitting in the cafeteria or a study lounge on campus. If you will have 100% control over his attendance, then perhaps it is a decent idea.
He does not really lie to me. He just makes life decisions that make little sense to the rest of us. So, if he leaves the house to go, I know he is going. That simple. He just doesn’t always get what he needs to do. But he is not manipulative. He needs life skills very bad.
My concern was that if he went to campus for the day and had several classes to attend, he might do his own benefit-cost calculation and decide not to attend one of the classes and spend the time studying or relaxing instead. Regardless of where he goes, I think you would want access to the student portal so you can keep an eye on regular homework and quiz grades.
I don’t see how transferring will help. He has a 2.4 gpa and when he transfers he’ll have a 2.4 How does transferring fix the issue?
Can he get an internship? That may go farther toward him getting a job than raising his gpa a tenth of a point.
Could he raise the gpa by retaking courses where he received a D? Many schools allow that and while the D will still appear on the transcript, it will not be factored in the gpa. Maybe if he retakes a couple of classes or has an internship, it will take him an extra semester to graduate. That could also raise his gpa if he can take more classes and get A’s in them.
If he decides to just graduate from the LAC with the lower gpa, could he get a masters at the local public school? That way he’d have a new master’s gpa when applying for jobs and it would take the same amount of time, two more years.
I do think you need to accept that he’s a C student. Do C students get jobs? Yes. Do they get any job they want or even have a big selection of offers? No.
I cannot answer your other questions, as my kids are not yet in college. The following is just my own experience as a hiring manager…I I had hired IT staff, including CS major fresh out of school, for a number of years., I never looked at a candidate’s GPA ( I don’t think I am alone)…Depends on the type of work he wants to do, you may want to help him to gain more hands-on experience, say the suggestion on internship in the above post…What limits his option may be what he knew rather than his GPA…
I would assume if he were to look for on-campus interviews, the GPA may play a role.
Starting with six semesters of 2.4 GPA, even if he transfers and gets all A grades for four semesters, he may be only barely able to bring up the combined GPA to around 3.0. But it may be unrealistic to plan for straight A grades in this case, because even the best students find getting all A grades in college to be difficult.
Realistically, a sub-3.0 GPA can limit the number of employers that will want to interview him right out of school, but the number is non-zero these days due to current high demand for CS graduates.
Unless there are cost issues (i.e. if two more semesters at the current school would be unaffordable and/or significantly more expensive than four semesters at the other school) or academic quality issues (i.e. if the current school has a very limited CS department), it does not seem to make much sense for him to transfer.
Not sure why ASD has anything to do with not attending classes. College students should assume by default that attending class is useful in doing well in the class.
I personally think he should just finish at the LAC. Then, if no one wants to hire him, look at going to the university for a masters degree. The GPA will actually change quickly with the state university because they said they will start his GPA over and his old grades will not show. I have seen this to be true. He transferred 12 credits from community college to the LAC and they all just came in as credit, not as grades. It would have helped if they came in as grades as he earned 2 As and just one C. So apparently, the state university will do the same thing. BUT…my opinion is, he should finish at the LAC if he can get the funding. His dad’s opinion is, he should move home and transfer to the state university. It is cheaper to go to state and the degree has ABET certification. BUT, he would have 4 semesters left instead of 2. I worry he will get to the state school and realize it is the same thing and be unhappy and crash.
I’m sort of impressed that he was even able to pull off a 2.4 without going to class. I think you and your son should go to the disabilities office and see if they can help-- maybe they can help put in place some sort of accountability. The truth is that all sorts of college students skip class, with or without disabilities.
There is no way I would have him transfer. I think I would do what I could to get him a couple of internships (maybe something this summer and something each of his remaining two semesters) and see if any pan out for job opportunities. If he graduates and is unable to get a job within a year and I am sure it’s the gpa, I would consider the idea of having him do a Master’s.
Not sure why lots of people are saying “just go get a master’s degree”. If his GPA is low enough to be an impediment for employment, it would limit the choices of master’s programs. And a master’s program would cost more money.
Remember also that timing matters, but it can be hard to predict the future in terms of whether the CS job market will be more favorable a year from now or two years from now.
Since a couple of posters have suggested that the solution to a poor undergraduate record is to get a masters degree, as someone who teaches masters students I would like to comment on that.
Ideally masters degree students are there because they are really GOOD at school - not because they were not very good students as undergrads.
Even if a student with a low GPA could find a good masters program, graduate students need to maintain a minimum of a 3.0 (rather than a 2.0) to stay in school. A graduate school C is like a D for undergrads.
It is advisable to put some time between college and grad school for students who didn’t have a great academic experience in college.
I am the parent of an adult Aspie (he’s 24.) Since you are getting answers to your question, I am going to pose one to you instead. How does his performance in school reflect his adult functioning and how will he function in a job?
This may not be an issue for your son, so this may not be worth the time it took me to type. I just thought I would ask bc we have been members of groups for parents of adult Aspies and this has been a common theme. Most of the parents in the groups have kids who are either under-employed or unemployed. Miscommunication and misunderstanding are areas of weakness that can impact employment (as well as speed of work completed (being too methodical can be a problem), not being able to complete larger picture requirements that are not explicitly stated but expected, etc.)
Getting an interview is only a small percentage of the process. Meeting (and exceeding) employer expectations according to the employers standards for maintaining employment without the need for supervision can be a bigger hurdle than college attendance (which is far more straightforward in expectations.)
What does your son want? I find myself wondering if skipping classes is maybe a sign that he’s getting restless with school and is ready to move on to the real world. Having relatives on the spectrum I understand that maybe this isn’t something he can express in words.
Does he have any work experience…internship, summer jobs, etc? Has he indicated any particular career or job placement goals?
Like annamom, I’m looking at this as a sometime hiring manager of CS grads. A GPA of 2.4 would not concern me at all if he had a track record showing work-ready life skills. This is true for any recent grad I would be looking at (for most positions).
My gut feel is that interviewers will likely ask why he transferred so late in the game and will ask to see his record from his prior school. I don’t think transferring at this late date will make his current academic record disappear. I’d probably have him stay put and work hard to improve his GPA as much as possible.
I’d also suggest you talk to someone in career services at his current school about his situation and get their take.
What should I do then? I have no one advising me specific to this problem. Do you have an online support group you could refer me to? I would love help!
It sounds like he wants to go back to his school. Can you cut the simple deal that he must go to class (every class every day) if you are going to pay for him to return? I have a kid on the spectrum, and feel like a non-negotiable rule like that might work best with her. But that may not be the case with your kid.
We have found the parents of adult Aspies groups through our local autism chapters. We really needed support bc we were not sure how to help our Ds. We ended up using our states’ Dept of Rehabilitative Services to get employment help. (2 different states bc we moved.). Both had dedicated counselors for Aspies bc maintaining employment is a huge issue. People don’t like to talk about it, but the statistics for under employment and unemployment of adults with Aspergers/autism is staggering.