My parents are forcing me to sign a GPA-contract

Parents Forum
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<p>My parents agreed to finance my college degree under the condition that I do “well”.</p>

<p>I didn’t do anything in high school, so they’re wary that I’ll repeat this in college.</p>

<p>Thus, they are planning on making me sign an agreement that entails different levels of financial contributions for different levels of academic (i.e. GPA) achievement.</p>

<p>What do you parents think of this? Certain GPA cut-off points will be designated, and the primary purpose is to make sure their “investment” pays off with me getting into a good grad school. </p>

<p>Oh, and does anyone have comprehensive GPA statistics for Swarthmore? My parents need data to base their grading criteria by.</p>

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<p>You didn’t do anything in high school, but you got into Swarthmore.</p>

<p>How much did your parents pay 'em? :rolleyes:</p>

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<p>ee33ee, if you are going to an expensive private school, I see nothing wrong with what they did. Lets face it: life generally requires you to earn whatever comes your way. They are just implementing this lesson sooner than later. I see too many kids attending expensive schools and not working to their capacity or are negligent regarding their studies. I applaud your parent’s efforts. </p>

<p>I guess if you don’t work really hard, you will be out of there! Let that sink in.</p>

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<p>I thought I recognized your “name” from the Swarthmore forum. Seriously, you “didn’t do anything” and got into Swarthmore? This, I doubt. I have a kid who graduated from Swarthmore last year, and I can tell you that a 3.75 is a superb GPA. Most of the Honors programs in the various departments require a minimum of a B+ average to be considered for admission to the Honors program. You need a 2.0 to graduate. Other than that, GPA isn’t really discussed at Swarthmore.</p>

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<p>My college roomate’s parents did a similar thing with her. She wanted to transfer to my school to be near a bf. Her parents OK’d the idea but if she didn’t make Dean’s List every semester she would have to go back to her first school. She stayed at the transfer college and is about to celebrate a milestone wedding anniversary with the bf.</p>

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<p>I, too, am very suspicious of someone who “did nothing” in high school and got into Swarthmore.</p>

<p>You must have had a hell of a hook.</p>

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<p>You could just think of it as maintaining a certain gpa for the “Parent Scholarship” that you got to attend Swarthmore. Merit awards at many colleges have gpa requirements in order to keep them.</p>

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<p>Taxguy: I’m not fighting it, I just wanted people’s opinions and such because I’d never heard of it before.</p>

<p>momof3sons: I have a vague idea, but I would very much appreciate hard data</p>

<p>No hooks here, though I think I have several anti-hooks. I had all of one EC, that I was terrible at, didn’t study for SAT’s, didn’t put much effort into classes, spent all my time playing computer games, etc.</p>

<p>I agre the contract is justifiable.</p>

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<p>I ask again: how much did your parents contribute?</p>

<p>Alternatively, why are you ■■■■■■■■ on the Parents Forum?</p>

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<p>I would really not want to sign an agreement like that.</p>

<p>But yeah, if it’s a condition of the money you’ve got to decide whether you want to be contract-free or go to college.</p>

<p>I would, however, suggest that your parents not use GPA as a strict criterion for doing well. It provides an incentive for you to take easy classes rather than being challenged (and being challenged is where all the fun is). I think you can often get a better education getting a C in a really challenging class than getting an A in a really easy one.</p>

<p>Maybe you could sign the contract a week into class when you have a better idea of how your classes are going to go, and agree on a semester GPA that seems fair. You could ask your advisor for help figuring out the way Swarthmore instructors grade and then give that information to your parents as well.</p>

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<p>Average GPA at Swarthmore is 3.3 or so if I remember correctly.</p>

<p>We never had a “GPA cut-off” for our kids, but it was mutually understood all along that academics is their first priority at their very expensive schools, and they are there for education first, and for “college experience” second. I am not sure what we would have done differently (if anything) if we felt that “college experience” is interfering with education…</p>

<p>I think that it is extremely important not to over-emphasize the GPA to the point where the student starts choosing classes based on the probability of getting an A instead of their interests…</p>

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<p>

the first semester at Swarthmore is pass-fail (you get “shadow grades” that are not recorded anywhere), so you will have some idea where you stand by winter break.</p>

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<p>My dad and I signed a contract for the last two years. It accomplished two things. I knew that he couldn’t raise the bar and he knew that I couldn’t lower it. It turned out to be great for us both.</p>

<p>My daughter had a reading disability and school was difficult for her - for what it’s worth she has been successful at almost everything in life that wasn’t school. All I wanted was for her to graduate and she did. I would never have considered grade point pressure other than staying in school and moving toward graduation.</p>

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<p>yeah i agree with your parents (sorry but i do). That’s why i’m going to be taking out loans instead of borrow from them.</p>

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<p>ee33ee:</p>

<p>I’ve probably read about as much about Swarthmore as anyone you’ll find and I wouldn’t begin to try to lay out a spreadsheet of GPAs.</p>

<p>Here’s what I know, some of which momof3sons has already covered:</p>

<p>a) It takes a C average (2.0) or better to graduate.</p>

<p>b) It actually takes more than that. For upper level courses, you only get credit for a “C” or higher in a given course. Thus, no courses below a “C” count towards graduation. Thus, it would be statisitically difficult to get credit for enough courses and still have only a 2.0 GPA. You’d have to get pretty much a straight “C” in every course, which would mean that you couldn’t even manage to identify a couple of user-friendly graders.</p>

<p>c) The last number I’ve seen for “average” or “median” GPA (it wasn’t specified) was 3.25. I’m only seeing part of the elephant (I only know my daughter’s grades, and then only some of them – once we all realized that she was doing fine, grades became a non-issue here). But, I have no reason to quibble with something in the 3.25 to 3.4 range as the middle of Swat’s range.</p>

<p>d) 3.75 is a very strong GPA at Swarthmore. No more than a handful of students have ever graduated with a 4.0.</p>

<p>e) It’s really difficult to give your parents what they are looking for. Grades vary by department and division. I would not want to suggest the same scale for an engineering major as majors in some of the social sciences or humanities.</p>

<p>f) Remember, honors program students at Swarthmore never received grades at all until just a decade or so ago. To this day, whether they receive honors (and what level of honors) is determined solely by the panels of outside experts reviewing their theses, and giving written and oral exams in four different topics. These honors designations are then reverse engineered into a letter grade for the transcript.</p>

<p>The following is really important. Have your parents PM me or momof3 about this if they want. </p>

<p>I fully understand what your parents are trying to accomplish and I fully agree with the idea that it makes no sense to shell out $45,000 per year for a student that is not engaged academically. However, the way they are going about it flies in the face of everything Swarthmore is about. The culture of the school downplays grades and strongly rejects parents trying to “mandate” grades or anything else for their young adult students.</p>

<p>Why? In part because Swarthmore strongly believes that students are adults and should figure out this college thing for themselves. That’s kind of the whole point of college!</p>

<p>There’s a more practical reason, though. Swarthmore is a demanding school with a very high degree of academic engagement. One of the “types” of student who can struggle at Swarthmore is a student who feels inordinate internal and/or external pressure to achieve a particular GPA. That’s really a bad recipe. The students who handle the academic demands well tend to be those who work hard, give it their best shot, feel pride when they do well, and accept that they aren’t the smartest kid in the class when they don’t. Roll with the punches and the grades take care of themselves. The whole idea of the pass/fail first semester is to break the obssession with grades and put students in a more sane frame of mind.</p>

<p>What I would suggest to you and your parents:</p>

<p>a) You agree to share your shadow grades from first semester and your real grades from second semester with your parents. That’s the only way your parents will see them.</p>

<p>b) You agree to understand the various academic support functions at the school and use them as appropriate. Get your papers WA’d. Go to the weekly problem set groups. And so forth. Take the freshman writing course if you feel you need it. Do the winter break study skills seminar. In other words, take the academics seriously. $45,000 a year seriously. It’s your job seriously.</p>

<p>Sit down with your parents at the end of each semester and evalutate how you are doing and whether they even need to provide additional motivation. There’s a good chance that you guys are worrying about imagined problems that won’t even crop up. Cross the bridge when you get to it.</p>

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<p>I was just talking to a parent of a hs senior this weekend. She told me that her daughter will be starting at a private college this fall, and they told her if she ends up with a “C” in a class that she will have to pay her parents back the tuition for that class. And if she gets too many C’s, they will make her transfer to the state college that kids from our town go to if they don’t get admitted to Flagship State U.</p>

<p>We don’t have an agreement like that with our son, but he has always been pretty self-motivated. I guess if his grades slid I’d be more concerned with WHY they were sub-par. Was it due to difficult material, a bad professor, an overloaded schedule, or too many parties & video games? In some cases, a C may be a triumph over adversity.</p>

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<p>–I didn’t do anything in high school, so they’re wary that I’ll repeat this in college.–</p>

<p>If you got into Swarthmore, why would they be wary that you’ll repeat your hs performance?</p>

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<p>ee33ee - Believe it or not, there was a time when students paid for their own college educations. Signing a contract in exchange for a $45,000 after tax benefit? I’d say you’re getting off easy. So add me to the list of posters who say “What exactly is your problem?”</p>

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<p>I think it’s a great idea and you should too. This way when you “don’t do anything in college” they have the agreement to put an end to your whining.</p>

<p>I struggle financially to help my kids through college - I don’t make them sign an agreement - but some parents want concrete results from their kids.
This is there prerogative and I think its a great way to lay out all expectations.</p>

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<p>Count me in the “contract - good” group.</p>