<p>How have others handled this situation? He studied his heart out. He had already accepted the defeat from the rigors of the previous semester (his first) by dropping his life-long goal (literally) of becoming a doctor. He is confused, down on himself, and beside himself. He is a bright kid who knocked himself out. He has never faced failure like this before. Help.</p>
<p>maybe he shouldn’t be taking three difficult classes at once. just because he failed once doesn’t mean he’s a “failure” – maybe he’s just doing something wrong. get him to take a lighter load? a lot of times course material really isn’t that inherently difficult and only become hard because you’re taking all of them at once and you have to pull all-nighters and stuff. it’s especially hard because as a freshman he’s still getting used to studying “the college way,” it’s a big adjustment from high school. there’s a reason places like MIT have the first term on pass-fail</p>
<p>just tell him don’t give up and keep trying. good luck :)</p>
<p>aw this sucks. maybe find a different way to study?</p>
<p>Oy vey…is he at MIT and taking 3 really difficult courses at once, freshman year? NOT a good idea. I know a lot of people at Yale who did that, and it didn’t turn out well.</p>
<p>Tell him that he’s not lacking intelligence…he just took a courseload that was far too difficult. I know people at school who literally failed one or more classes and ended up fine. </p>
<p>Don’t let him give up on being a doctor. He can try again!! Not everyone is perfect in college! Everyone has to fail, literally or figuratively, sometimes, and giving up just isn’t right!</p>
<p>maybe he’s having some emotional issues/trouble adjusting to college?</p>
<p>i would definitely have him get some counseling. to me it sounds like something is up. a counselor will help him find out what’s wrong and help put him on a reasonable path to fixing it. </p>
<p>tell him not to give up on those dreams of being a doctor just yet. after all, the college accepted him - clearly they saw him as capable of succeeding and indeed excelling with their curriculum and campus atmosphere.</p>