The fact that you’re very worried that he might crash and burn suggests that you don’t really have a grip on his true capabilities yet. He went from being unschooled where you had limited feedback on his test-taking abilities and his ability to fulfill formal requirements, to what looks like a more socially/athletically oriented high school life where he didn’t really push his academic limits. Time will tell.
I’d say he deserves UCR (his best academic option) if he wants it. Maybe he’s a bit scattered and overly social by your standards, but it sounds like it isn’t all his doing. He lacked academic structure for many years, maybe needed a more social outlet for his personality type, and he has at least one parent that doesn’t show a huge amount of confidence in him! He’s going to surprise you!
A parental GPA requirement of 3.0-3.2 would probably lead to half of traditional frosh dropping out after the first semester, and some of the rest feeling pressured to look for easy A courses and grade-grub to keep their 3.25 GPAs above the parental requirement. When one gets away from the most highly selective colleges and universities, many of them have average GPAs in the 3.0-3.2 range, and note that frosh often have the lowest GPAs because many of them stumble early in their transition from high school to college (and juniors and seniors also exclude flunked-out students and are taking mostly courses in their majors that they are presumably more interested in).
Hey, I’m back. I want to thank everyone, again for your replies. I can not tell you how helpful you all were. I am so very appreciative.
I want to answer a few questions, and provide a bit of clarification, and after that, I think I’ll shoot over to my other thread where we were working on school selection. That one is titled something like budget and choice.
I realize that all of you could only go off of what I gave you. I think most of you understood that I was writing from my angst and worry, and as such, was highlighting the areas of concern, and not delineating fully the positives, including how hard he can work - when not afflicted by Senioritis - and our support of him. If I say more, I’ll look defensive and as if I’m protestething too much.
As for rigor of the schools he’s considering, I’m guessing they are about right, but will have some challenges, and he will have to step it up some from even his best habits, I suspect. I’m going to see if he’ll maybe want to take a writing class this summer, along with pre-calc. He is presently trying to decide between one UC and three state schools.
I hope no one minds, but since you have all succeeded in talking me down from the ledge, I’m gonna jump over to that other thread for further help on school choice, and I would love your continued insights. Here’s a link:
Hey, so, wanted to update you all. My son ended up choosing to go to UC Riverside. It really just kept coming up to the top for him, and in so many ways it feels right. He will be only an hour/hour and a half from home, which seems to be in his comfort zone. It’s NOT a party school, and that’s a plus. But We’re hopeful that he will get a great education, and have plenty of fun too. And the good part is, when he comes home once in a while, he will ask me if I will help with his laundry, and not just expect it. Thank you all for your posts. You really did talk me down from a ledge and I am so very grateful.
I was this kind of kid. And it got worse for me in college when I ran up against courses and teachers that I could not fake my way around with minimal effort. I also had a great time partying, skipped classes etc… I had a 1.8 at close of first semester. Many parents would have yanked me back home right then but my parents were patient with me. Eventually I realized my parents did not have a cushy job waiting for me upon graduation, and I was going to have to figure out what to do after graduation on my own. I improved my grades, concentrated on what I liked best and was good at, and got into grad school for my eventual career. Your son will face many challenges ahead but if he comes to understand they are HIS challenges and he is the only one who can do anything about them, he will be OK.
Thank you all for your posts. You really did talk me down from a ledge and I am so very grateful.