Another idea, she can cross register at U Mass Amherst or Smith College. Take physics at Smith, its super tough there. My sense is that some LACs are harder than others. Smith College is known to be hard in the sciences. She is lucky to have access to all those good schools, including Hampshire College and Mount Holyoke too. She can TA to learn subjects in more depth perhaps, or get a job too and learn to earn some money and take responsibility for herself. Perhaps demand that she pay for her dorm on her own! You have a lot of control as a parent and you can ask her to be responsible. The fact that she admits that she does not bother to study to you, what is your reaction to that? I would be pretty peeved, if my sons ever said that to me. They always say the opposite, I mean I am paying good money for them to learn ! (and they know me, but in fact i know they work hard, given how they sound on the phone, their grades and their heavy course loads. )
If she is really so bright that she needs more, then she should do more:
She could do athletics. She could try art, learn a musical instrument. The place she is at , there is no reason at all to transfer, given that she has access to so many colleges from Amherst College. And buses to get to all the other campuses.
I don’t see how it is “irresponsible” for her to get a 3.7 freshman year, even if it isn’t a lot of effort. Why in the world would she go to one of the other schools to take a course not in her wheelhouse or her major, just because it is harder? I am sure physics at Amherst would challenge her if she took it.
My D1 went to a college where she did very well freshman year. One reason is because she hadn’t yet developed deep involvement with her ECs. In time she did, and also got into more challenging courses in her major. And her senior thesis was a highly stressful (but successful) experience. She ended up graduating Phi Beta Kappa.
If the kid enjoys the college, is doing well, is on track for her major, and is on track to be self supporting when she is done (which the parent may want to remind the kid is a big part of the reason the kid is in college), then I wouldn’t dictate what they should do.
I think its very irresponsible to whine to a parent about being “bored at Amherst College” Its a total disgrace and I would cut off a kid who did that to me. I mean the mom is now stressing about her kid being BORED at Amherst?
I think the problem is mom is doing all the worrying so the girl can play day and night. I would force her to pay for her own dorm and food. Why not? Its not that hard to get a term time job.
And for certain Smith College is harder if the girl really is “bored”. For certain. This is the beauty of Amherst, the five college system there. Any kid who does not take advantage of that is wasting her mother’s hard earned money and should go to community college. Any kid who says he "skims " his homework is being a jerk. I would not listen to a kid saying that, I would simply cut her off . And let her fend.
Heh, this is amusing. I graduated from Amherst last week, so I guess I have a first-hand perspective on this matter. I’ll note a few things here:
First, it is really quite easy to get an A- in a humanities/social sciences class at Amherst. In fact, I’d wager that it’s probably the average grade in most of these classes. That’s “grade inflation” for you. But as a reality check, I’ll also note that these days, many top employers expect a GPA of at least 3.7 from undergraduates. Next month, I’ll be starting work at an investment bank in New York that has an unofficial GPA cutoff of 3.6, and I know that several top consulting firms recruiting from Amherst this year preferred at least a 3.8. In other words, grade inflation works the same way as inflation in the broader economy: it’s not really that much of a problem, as long as everybody adjusts their price expectations (or in this case, grade expectations) correspondingly. So from a pragmatic perspective, I don’t really see a problem with a 3.7 GPA being easily achievable. A 3.7 in 2017 is just akin to a… say, 3.2 back in 1997?
Second, while it’s pretty easy to get an A- at Amherst, it’s still quite challenging to get an A. That’s the threshold where professors separate a paper that’s merely “good” from a paper that’s definitively “great.” If you want to give your daughter a challenge, then just tell her to shoot for “great.”
Third, 200-level English classes aren’t really that difficult. STEM classes at Amherst are generally quite a bit harder than the humanities/social science classes (and I’m speaking as social sciences major). Also, 300 and 400-level classes can be quite a bit more challenging as well.
Fourth, I’d like to make a more general point: Amherst’s difficulty is really whatever you make of it. One of my friends at Amherst was much like your daughter; he took a bunch of 100 and 200-level economics, math, and language classes during his freshman year, and found them to all be exorbitantly easy (perfect A’s all around). Filled with confidence, he loaded up his sophomore year schedule with 300-level advanced economics classes, 300-level math classes, and a 200-level Japanese class to boot. He nearly got crushed! My friend barely finished his sophomore year with a 3.4 average after spending 40 hours a week on classwork nonstop over the course of that year.
My kid is at a reputable LAC. She also initially said it was easier than high school. She had an easy time first semester making the Dean’s List. After all, these kids no longer have six hours of classes a day, including gym. They are right on campus, and it’s easy to get to the library. They seem to have a lot more free time.
Then came second semester,when she enrolled in a class that was primairly filled with seniors. It was hard, very hard. Harder than any class she ever had in high school. She managed a C. Bye bye Dean’s List. It was a science course that was far more in depth than anything in high school. She had to study for it all the time. It gave her a new appreciation for why college means working and studying hard to do well.
Your D is at a very rigorous and highly respected college. Just because she is easily getting A’s doesn’t mean she isn’t getting a quality education. FWIW, D’s good friend also goes to Amherst and has said the same. I am guessing that next year she might not be still saying that. Interesting comments from @ReallyFantastic .
“I don’t know what it’s like in STEM majors, but for liberal arts, at the premier ~Georgetown University~ in our nation’s capital, getting an A- requires a standard effort - no more. No all-nighters, not even a quick spell check on your essays. The A- is the gold standard for the good student”
So so true. My daughter is at a top 10 university and is a STEM major. She has to work tirelessly for even a B+ in her STEM classes. When she’s taken a humanities class, she think they are " a joke". Very little effort will get her an A-, she has worked for As. But not as had as she does on any of her STEM classes.
Until the OPs daughter gets all solid “A” grades without effort she shouldn’t think that it’s " too easy"
Lots of great comments here which I hope the OP is heeding, especially those of @ReallyFantastic. My D just finished her sophomore year at Pomona and her experience pretty much tracks what is described in the last paragraph. She was sailing along during Fall semester of sophomore year taking 5 classes plus Spanish conversation and getting A’s and a few A-'s. Then second semester of sophomore year she tried to take 5 classes, Spanish convo plus an independent study project. At the same time, her two economics classes became much more math intensive and demanding. Fortunately she realized it early enough to reassess her course load and she dropped one math class (taking it next semester) and changed another elective to Pass/NC. Even so she worked harder than she ever has, especially in her econ classes. She was hugely relieved to just find out she got A-'s in the two econ classes and felt she had worked hard to get them. Even more importantly she felt she had worked hard to successfully master the concepts she needed to get those grades. It was not something she could “skim” her way through, but instead required many visits to the professor’s office hours and lots of time at mentor sessions.
@JenJenJenJen, yeah I figured this had to be a joke soon after I posted a response. Even so, for the most part the responses have been helpful and interesting.
It is entirely possible that a college frosh finds college easy, if s/he is in courses where s/he has seen some of the material in high school (particularly if s/he takes conservative placement, like repeating his/her AP credit) and/or which are in his/her strongest subjects.
It is also possible that a college frosh runs into difficulty if s/he does not have good time management and self motivation, even if the courses are not that hard (or repeats his/her AP credit and pays less attention to the course than s/he should).
@Coloradomama, re your post #19. You can’t just load up and graduate early at Amherst to save a ton of money. The usual schedule is 4 classes per semester x 8. 5 classes in a semester are permitted, but the student has to have permission from the advisor. It wouldn’t happen, but even 5 classes EVERY semester wouldn’t be enough to graduate in 3 years. Amherst does not give credit for AP or IB classes,they are only used for placement. To the OP, the beauty of the open curriculum at Amherst is that a student can stretch themselves and take classes OUT of their wheelhouse. Have your daughter do that, then come back and give us a report.
Amherst, unlike most LACs, has an “open curriculum”. This means that she can go through four years only taking classes that will play to her strengths. If she doesn’t want to take a single math or science course, for example, she won’t have to.
That’s exactly backwards. Every LAC encourages students to stretch themselves. Williams, for example, is not going to discourage a physics major from taking classes in Asian philosophy; Swarthmore is not going to bar a French major from also studying economics. On the contrary, they love that kind of intellectual breadth. In fact, the traditional LAC curriculum has distribution requirements precisely to ensure that students experience it.
The reason students are attracted to the open curriculum is because then they don’t have to stretch themselves. In an open curriculum, you can avoid taking STEM classes if you are a mathphobe, or avoid English courses if you hate writing. The open curriculum attracts people who want to stay within their wheelhouse.
