Monitoring College Freshman Assignments/Grades

[Anonymous]

Does anyone do this? My son is quite absent-minded and needs reminders in high school. Not sure that anything will magically change in August. He got a scholarship that will require a good GPA to keep. Without the scholarship, we can not afford the tuition. Suggestions appreciated.

[Anonymous]

You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you also going to manage deadlines like this when he gets his first job?

[Anonymous]

This is why my child will likely start at community college. If they can’t manage their own assignments by freshman year in college, I don’t think they are ready to be on their own

[Anonymous]

You can require him to waive FERPA on the condition of you paying your portion of tuition.

[Anonymous]

My kid would have to leave their school if they lost their scholarship. Make sure your kid knows that if that’s your circumstance.

[Anonymous]

Same kid here. ADHD. I do some monitoring but I hired a tutor to help organize and monitor. I agree that it shouldn’t be this way but for some kids it is.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not. If they’re not responsible enough to manage their deadlines then they’re not responsible enough to go away to college.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Some outside college counselors are now offering this service — essentially helping students navigate their freshman year (e.g., course selection, staying on top of assignments and extracurriculars, managing courseload, & help finding Internships or paid work). There’s definitely a market for it.

I get that this is over the top for many, but I know could have used the help years ago!

[Anonymous]

Ignore the trolls. You asked sincere for suggestions and some people can't even be civil.

Have him look into all student support services, join study groups, or take any class or program that might be called something like "student success." Most universities have a very vested interest ($$$) in keeping freshman, so they have programs in place to help them. You do need to seek them out and your kid will have to be motivated to go.

The good thing about college is most assignment dates are set and do not change, unlike high school when teachers do things on the fly. My son goes through every syllabus after the first day of class and puts in every single assignment, test, quiz, etc. into his phone with an alarm set to go off the day before it's due or happening. This takes an entire day, but the he gets reminders all semester long. He learned this system the hard way, but it really works for him.

As far as your role, I'd suggest twice a week casual calls where you ask him how school is going, if he has any big exams or projects, etc. You aren't trying to track things for him, just pulling them up in mind so he remembers them.

Your son can do this. I have faith.

[Anonymous]

Yikes! First of all ... are you sure you can't rethink the financial importance of this scholarship? It would be much better if this scholarship wasn't a crucial part of your financial planning for his continuing enrollment at this college. A GPA-dependent scholarship is nice but remember: the univeristy knows -historically- know the the grade distribution. You don't. They have data on everything. GPA distributions by subject, by major, by class. You don't. They know the likely outcome of this. You don't. Your son may not be entirely to blame if he doesn't keep this scholarship. The college probably knows, plans, for a certain percent of students to fall short.

[Anonymous]

If your child is willing to share their login and password, you can monitor. Otherwise, you are SOL.

Colleges do have lots of supports these days, from free tutoring, to writer's centers that will review and help edit papers, to disability offices. Your child can contact the disability office this Spring, and talk to them about what supports they need and are eligible for, and go from there. They will help, and, your young adult has to reach out and advocate for themselves - you cannot make the call. As far as I can tell, the only access a parent has in the college system is to pay bills, from tuition to dining dollars to laundry and other fees.

[Anonymous]

My kid has significant ADHD and letting go of Gradebook was hard. We do sit down each year and make a list of expectations. We pay tuition and you— maintain a certain GPA, work summers AP p en hours a week and pay for books and entertainment, etc. Freshman year, we require him to have for executive functioning help during the transition. We talked to disability services and there were several options. He took 1 credit EF for freshmen class and then could check in with the teacher if needed second semester.

Besides that, I see midterm grades, which are P/F only amd final grades.

I do think that it’s one thing to help your child access and to pay for if needed) EF services for a learning disability like ADHD— especially while they transition. It’s whole different thing to track grades and deadlines. That’s not good for you or your kid.

[Anonymous]

Land the helicopter.

[Anonymous]

My absent-minded ADHD son stopped getting reminder and monitoring in 7th grade. He mostly learned to monitor his assignments and grades in high school, but had a few growing pains freshman year of college. He learned from his mistakes (which were pretty bone-headed from what little I know about them) and made the Dean's list in sophomore and junior year.

I expected this and encouraged him to go to the instate public rather than to the OOS public that we could just barely afford with the scholarship he earned. He needed to maintain a 3.5 and I don't think he managed that freshman year so it was a good call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Land the helicopter.

Be less biatchy.