What would you do if you feel that your kid is spending so much time on one EC and related activities that it’s beginning to hurt his grades and learning of other subjects. It’s not that he is getting B’s or C’s but enough diffrence to bring GPA down by 1/2 percent. Also you can see that this is just a school level EC so though it’s fun and games but not impressive for colleges or scholarships and he doesn’t want to make a career out of it.
A half percent? I would tell my kid to have fun and be thankful that they have an activity that brings them joy.
I would tell the kid to keep doing what he enjoys.
And I would tell the parent to chill. Leading a balanced lifestyle is better for any kid than an extra half percent in GPA.
School is more than just academics. I assume that by “not earning Bs and Cs” you mean he’s still getting As. Let him enjoy high school instead of micromanaging a GPA.
I would note that while there’s nothing wrong with spending a lot of time on an EC, school has to come first and the outside interests have to come second to studying hard enough to get good grades. However, as mentioned by the above poster, don’t let micro-fluctuations in their grade influence you too much because until they really start slacking off, it isn’t a bad thing to learn to balance a larger cognitive load either.
You mean something like 99 to 98.5 (in a percentile grading scale like commonly reported by students in NY and NJ)?
That seems to be within the range of typical fluctuation and not necessarily attributable to extracurricular participation or not, so it should be nothing to worry about.
“School level” EC’s ARE impressive to colleges if the student is doing them out of dedication to the EC and really cares about it, verses doing it for the prestige (see many other threads in which this is discussed). And as noted by several others, if the student is still getting A’s and is off by only 1/2 a percent, what in the world are you concerned about? But for your other threads, I’d think that this wasn’t even real. Please, step back and let your kid breathe.
If 4.0 to 3.5 yes, you should say something.
If 4.0 to 3.9 no.
I mean like 90-95 while he is a 97-98 student and in his district, 97-100 means 4.0 while 90-96 means 3.5.
Parent didn’t mention it to the student but is wondering if spending 4-5 hours in group rehearsals on 3 week days and every Saturday is really necessary as they do one performance every other month. I like his parents, they are usually very supportive of his hobbies and social life.
^^ That’s not half a per cent. Is it 4-5 hours each day or each week? And if I were not the student or the parent, I wouldn’t have an opinion.
IMO, its probably just normal fluctuation in GPA as the course is getting harder
and the student is much better off from the socialization and performance skill set (even though it can’t be quantified) that the EC can bring. I would 1000% recommend to keep at the EC if its something the student really enjoys!! Don’t underestimate the value of students feeling accepted and involved with peers at school working towards a group goal…
I wouldn’t worry about small reductions in a stellar GPA, so I wouldn’t say a thing. I’d be happy my kid had an EC she enjoyed enough to devote that much time to.
I guess I’m more concerned about this parent talking about this with you and then you are posting it on the internet. If this parent had an issue with their child’s grades, they need to talk to their child to see what the problem is. Maybe the EC has nothing to do with it. But my advice to you is to stop paying posting about other people’s problems.
Keeping mostly A’s, getting an A- while enjoying life. Sounds great to me. One thing I have no regrets about raising our gifted kid is letting him be a child and enjoy his HS years (his grades did drop because he was bored and didn’t always do the work- fewer ECs would not have helped, likely would have hurt). Years later will this student remember having a perfect gpa or the fun outside the classroom?
Remember students with perfect grades do not always get into a college over those with a bit lower gpa. Also- life is to be lived for the moment as well as a future life. I’ll assume the student is not stressed out and/or losing sleep because of the time commitments for homework and the ECs.
Ohhh… it isn’t your kid. Then I’d say it probably isn’t really your business. Up to the parent and kid to work out.
This is reminding me of when I heard my dad saying that maybe I was “going out” too much because I thought I would have a B on my report card. Not as a final grade, mind you. One quarter.
That’s not one of my happy high school memories, in case you were wondering.
The minor drop in grades and the EC may not be related. If there’s a genuine concern about time management, talk about that in order to figure out how to balance both (i.e., work smarter, not harder so that life can accommodate this passion.). But this sounds like the helicopter blades may be whirring so loudly that this parent can no longer hear himself think.
Do these parents know that you’re posting their business on an Internet board?
Are these the same people that you’ve posted about before?
No but I’m not mentioning any names, schools, districts, towns, colleges or anything else that’s private. These questions issues aren’t uncommon or specific, might as well consider it hypothetical for all purposes.
We talked our daughter out of doing lax junior year. She was a benchwarmer, didn’t connect with the girls on the team and it was a total time suck. She liked playing lax and if she loved the girls on the team, I would have suggested she continue to play even if she didn’t get to see the field. It’s a balancing act.