<p>Don't know how many saw this video clip this morning on "The Today Show".</p>
<p>msnbc.com</a> Video Player</p>
<p>It's about the high dropout rate and the need for freshman to cope with the stress faced in college.</p>
<p>One of it's surprising statistics--26% drop out--and most of this is concentrated in the 2nd semester of the freshman year.</p>
<p>I've posted it here on the IU forum as well as the regular parents forum since it specifically discusses one IU freshman and it shows a few clips of the university. It also has a counselor from IU speaking and talks a bit about how IU attempts to help their freshman class cope with the stress.</p>
<p>should be "freshmen" not "freshman"--both in the link and in my message--sorry</p>
<p>P.S. It takes a few seconds to load--and then it randomly picks a 15 second commercial to display before launching the actual video clip from the show--sorry, but I can't prevent this.</p>
<p>The video clip itself is about 6 minutes long.</p>
<p>Thanks Calcruzer. I had no idea the drop out rate was so high.</p>
<p>There were some good tips on spotting depression too. A sense of "connectedness" is so important to how a student feels about their college experience.</p>
<p>Yes, it's a bit of a wake-up call for us parents. It reminds us that we should be "connecting" with our children and determining when they might need our help emotionally--even they may not want to say so.</p>
<p>It also lets us know that going away from home for the students seems like lots of fun the first day or two--but can quickly be an overwhelming situation once the real world needs (taking care of the dorm, figuring out where the next meal is coming from, handling any medical problems, doing the laundry, transportation issues, and oh,yeah--studying) are now the student's responsibility.</p>
<p>My mom saw this clip and told me about it. My reactions were that I had no idea it was THAT high, and that I thought that the the drop-out rate after FIRST semester would have been higher. </p>
<p>When I went back for second semester, I was more focused and knew what to expect. I didn't do as well as I hoped first semester, and wanted to go out and perform well. Then again, a big thing for me is college football, and second semester doesn't feature football :)</p>