<p>After you have tried to show your kid how important it is for him to take college seriously, and he still doesn’t, what would you do? “honey, it’s ok, mommy and daddy will continue to support you.” or “that’s it, forget it,we are not paying for it any more. You better get a job to support yourself.”
How often have we had parents come on CC mid year to ask what to do with their kid because the kid is doing poorly in college. Most of the time parents want to stop paying and have the kid come home to go to a community college until he pulls himself together. This is exercising the other end of contract without explicitly stating the terms of the contract. The kid may have thought as long as he was passing, he was doing ok, but you may not think so. </p>
<p>While your kid is making decisions on where to go, if he knew your expectation, it may help him decide whether he wants to take a full ride vs a full pay. Your expectation may be so unreasonable that it’s less risky to take a full ride from a lower ranking school. But at least it would be full disclosure.</p>
<p>I think I agree with those who don’t want to punish or reward kids for grades. If it affects a scholarship, that’s one thing–definitely fair. I think it makes sense to have kids take out some loan, too, because they might feel more stake in their own education. But I think if I were the kid, I would feel demeaned by being punished for grades.</p>
<p>I’ve yet to see an incentive plan that works all of the time or even a good part of the time for recalcitrant kids. The motivated ones don’t the rewards and the those who are just plain lazy find it hard to step it up even for the rewards. They may work for some kids some of the time. You do have to take the child into consideration. If someone has a surefire way to achieve what the OP wants, we’d have all straight A students.</p>
<p>I think this system may not have the useful effect that people imagine. The more time a student spends stressing about grades and trying to figure out where the money to pay for tuition is coming from, the less they have for studying.</p>
<p>Giving the student a manageable stake in their education, however, may be useful. This could be something as simple as having to pay for their own personal expenses, or their own housing, or something similar.</p>
<p>As HImom said, in many cases there are natural incentives. The student who wants to go to graduate or professional school, or who is receiving merit money, already has an incentive to keep grades up, with significant consequences if they don’t.</p>
<p>We had a type of contract with DS; well, actually more like a letter of agreement. It stated, among other things that he would be required to take out the loans in his FA package, make his “summer earnings contribution”, limit his computer game playing, live off-campus to save money at some point in his college career, and that he should actively seek out campus opportunities such as internships, research positions, etc, and would have to transfer to a cheaper school if he was not putting in the time and effort to take advantage of all the fantastic opportunities at this school. The letter acknowledged that college is a serious financial commitment from us and an “effort” commitment from him. Although it doesn’t have any absolute numbers, it served its purpose, which was to facilitate discussion about our/his expectations. He has more than lived up to his side, and is balancing work/play/studies in a mature fashion. 
I do think it helps to put it all down on paper, and think it is important to have some type of discussion with kids before they head off to college.</p>