I’ve had friends tell me that their kids academic woes came as a total surprise. I tell them that one of my kids was at a college where the first email from a professor is referred to as “A Fail Mail”, i.e. if you get one, it means you are likely to be circling the drain come December.
Friends have told me that it’s just not possible. No way. What professor can possibly tell after a few weeks that a kid is going to have trouble passing a course. Well- a professor who has been teaching freshman for a decade or two is going to know pretty quickly who is doing the problem-sets or the reading; who is asleep during class or isn’t showing up at all; who shows up and spends the entire class surfing the web; who never raises his/her hand with a question, who never stays afterwards to ask for clarification; who never shows up for office hours even when the professor says “if you got less than a B on this week’s quiz come and see me so we can figure out where you need to catch up”. The professor knows who shows up with a three course lunch and spends the class eating, not taking notes, and the professor knows who looks confused when he or she references the syllabus.
And yet- total surprise in December? I don’t think so. Colleges work hard to make sure that kids know where they stand. I do think it comes as a surprise to many students that financial aid is linked to their academic performance- they think they can glide by with financing in place even if their grades are circling the drain. But a kid who doesn’t know that academic performance is a problem is a kid who is ignoring the professor’s plea “come see me”, is NOT going to review sessions, is NOT asking after class, “I didn’t understand half of what you said- what can I do to catch up” and is likely NOT reading the emails (the Fail Mails) saying “We need to turn this around”.