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I’d note that my son failed to complete a year-long course that represented 1/3 of his academic credit the first year. Despite the incomplete, the college did NOT place him on probation and renewed his National Merit scholarship for year #1, certifying to National Merit corp that he had a B average. (Which he did - his overall GPA after 2 years was a 3.0 – he had a pattern of getting A’s in classes he liked and slacking off and doing poorly in the classes he was not interested in – and the course with the incomplete did not factor into his GPA). His college would have continued his financial aid and allowed him to enroll for year #3, despite the fact that he had failed to attain junior status. </p>
<p>So – colleges do not always take action against failing students. What happened is that my son realized on his own that he was in trouble and decided to “take time off” from college, but did not inform me of the true reason. He was technically in good standing and could have returned, and I put down a deposit to hold his spot. (Though, in his defense, he urged me not to). I learned about 6 months later when he was applying to transfer to the UC system and had his transcripts mailed to our house. At that time I told him I would not pay for the LAC if he returned there; I honestly don’t know if he would have wanted to return in any case. The problem was that the LAC would not provide financial aid for a 5th year, and my son could not have graduated within 4 years with that academic record, even if the LAC allowed him to continue. So it would have been throwing bad money after good for me. My son’s transfer app was denied, and he ended up waiting another 2 years and then transferring to a CSU instead. Because of the timing, he lost all parental support, because I had put a deadline on the “return to school” option – I had told him I would pay for 4 years of school which had to be completed within 5 years of high school graduation. </p>
<p>The point is, you can’t assume that the school will take appropriate action if the student’s grades are failing, or if the student fails to make satisfactory progress toward a degree. My guess is that it would be very easy for a student to keep the minimum required GPA for 4 years but fail to complete required courses for a major and end up without a degree – for example, a quick overview of my son’s transcript also revealed that he had failed utterly to meet his school’s PE requirement – something highly unlikely to impact academic standing, but can you imagine the parent who spends $$$$ for 4 years of college and then finds out that the kid doesn’t graduate because he didn’t take PE?<br>
Again, we are not talking about a bad grade - we are talking about issues that could either indicate a serious problem going on with the student (depression, drug or alcohol use, etc), or which might stand in the way of graduation or jeopardize needed financial aid. And what the parent can do is either advise or guide the student, if the student is receptive to that, or else discuss & impose consequences, with one consequence being withdrawal of economic support. In many cases, the parent taking or threatening action might be the wake up call the student needs.</p>