<p>Times have changed since I was a college student, when grades were mailed to my parents' home at the end of each quarter. My son just finished his first semester and we have yet to see any grades! We have stood over his shoulder while he logs on to the student portal for his school, watched him navigate the site, and neither he nor my husband nor I can locate the grades! Today he visited the records office and was advised to request a transcript! Are you kidding? We have certain financial and living arrangements with our son which are dependent on his maintaining a certain GPA. Is this normal or is the wool being pulled over our eyes?</p>
<p>Sounds like your being conned. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure schools cannot release grade information to the parents; it’s technically the student’s privacy. But there should definitely be a place online where your son can find his grades to show you. If he honestly cannot find it anywhere, he might be on the wrong student portal or grades might not be out yet (you say he “just finished” his first semester, does that mean last week or last month?)</p>
<p>Not sure if the difference was in the schools or timing (my kids are 4 yrs apart). D1s school regularly send me hard copy grades each sem, while D2s school says that a student must request that a grade report be sent to parents each sem.</p>
<p>Either way, your son should be able to access his grades via his school’s portal.</p>
<p>Have had two kids go to college. Different schools, one public, one private. Both had the grades available on their web page within a few days of the end of the semester/quarter. Private school also sent a hard copy addressed to the parents. I believe that the private school had my daughter sign a form allowing them to release the grades to us.</p>
<p>I never saw a single grade my daughter ever received in college. I think that is typical. Colleges certainly don’t send the grades to the parents. I never asked and rarely heard about any. I don’t know what her gpa was and couldn’t care less. Now it is even more meaningless–it could have been 2.0 or 4.0 and she is still graduated either way.</p>
<p>This would raise some suspicion with me. Posting grades is pretty standard fare for colleges…I can understand if the grade from one class was missing (an issue with the professor or that particular class), but ALL grades doesn’t sound right. I know some colleges will not post grades until the class surveys are completed, although most will just hold them an extra week and once a certain date passes, they will be available. Finally, is his tuition paid in full? Some colleges will withhold them is there is an outstanding balance.</p>
<p>Both of my kids gave me their log-in information so I could check myself. I rarely, if ever have because they usually tell me their grades as they come in. This year, first semester grades arrived a few days after Christmas from both schools.</p>
<p>the only way I knew courses and grades was that I WOULD ASK SON FOR A COPY TO FORWARD FOR AUTO INSURANCE. (sorry for caps) I think we got a 5% or 10% discount for good grades.</p>
<p>I also have access to my kid’s online acct. Their school has Blackboard where professors would post grades for tests and papers. I used to check up on them more when they were freshmen to make sure they were on track, but now not so much. </p>
<p>The reason some colleges do send grades to parents (like Colgate) is because FERPA actually says if parents are claiming the student as a dependent on their tax return and they are paying for the student’s tuitions then they have the right to see the student’s grades.</p>
<p>If I were OP, I would tell my kid to get a copy of of his semester grades or I would call the school directly.</p>
<p>DD1’s school uses an SAP based portal that is slightly more user friendly than Obamacare v1.0 but still we can find ‘unofficial transcript’ request where it shows a transcript. It may not be easy to locate but it’s there. Access to Blackboard-based ongoing grades is far more difficult because not all classes use it, and not all prof’s believe in posting interim grades (in Architecture at least). But the grades generally are there.Call the school’s IT help desk.</p>
<p>At Tufts there are no intermim grades posted anywhere that I know of, but we have access to something that shows what our kid took each semester and the grades he received. He had to give us access, it was something they encouraged the kids to do during freshman orientation when they gave the kids access.</p>
<p>You say that you watch your son log on, then neither you nor your husband can find the grades yourselves, so I don’t know how he could be pulling the wool over your eyes. I don’t have a very good imagination, but how would that work? Would he have hacked the school’s computer, or yours? </p>
<p>If you suspect that he’s trying to hide the grades, what would happen if you said, “I’m concerned that you might be trying to hide your grades from us. Are you?” and see where the conversation goes? Do you have reason to suspect that he didn’t do well?</p>
<p>We never asked to see our kids’ grades, though they willingly shared them with us (except one kid one semester, and she apparently worked things out well). I think it’s completely legitimate to require sharing grades and making continued support dependent on a certain level of progress, however. I’m aware of some CC parents who first learned that their child was having serious mental health or substance abuse problems once they saw a transcript. Hope this turns out just to be a bureaucratic goof.</p>
<p>I don’t know that times have changed for everyone. When I was in college 20 years ago, grades went to the student… they weren’t sent home. Considering that most college students are “adults” it seems odd to me to expect them to be sent to mommy and daddy. My parents needed me to send them a copy once a year for health insurance purposes (to prove I was enrolled) and auto insurance for the discount. My high school student does duel enrollment at a community college and her grades are all online within a week of finishing a class and no the college won’t release a transcript to anyone but the student. </p>
<p>There are a handful of schools like Reed that don’t notify students of grades (they get personal evaluations and are notified if they drop below a “C” but otherwise, they have to request a transcript to see what their letter grades are.) I would think if your son was in this sort of school you’d know. </p>
<p>Have him request a transcript this time but I bet they are posted on that student portal somewhere (or will be… it can take a bit.)</p>
<p>“I don’t know what her gpa was and couldn’t care less. Now it is even more meaningless–it could have been 2.0 or 4.0 and she is still graduated either way”</p>
<p>I care because D has two scholarships that require a certain GPA to renew. Without these, she cannot attend her chosen school so I’d like to know before she actually loses the scholarships.</p>
<p>“I care because D has two scholarships that require a certain GPA to renew. Without these, she cannot attend her chosen school so I’d like to know before she actually loses the scholarships.”</p>
<p>Then again, if she’s 18, then she is old enough to understand and pay the consequences which might be losing her chosen school. There is a point when we all have to start pulling back. It can be hard to do. I’ve not mastered it yet myself though mine are still minors and not at the university. If your D got two scholarships, I assume she was doing pretty good in high school. Maybe time to let her handle it herself. </p>
<p>When my kids went off to college in 1990’s, grades were only sent to the parents if the student authorized it. I made sure that we were authorized to receive a copy when the kids first enrolled/registered. It was one of the very few oversight rules that we had. We were paying 100% of costs, and we expected this minimum amount of information on progress.</p>
<p>The student portal will definitely have grades. Tell him that you need to see his grades before you send a check for next semesters. Also try to indicate that grades are indicators of where you are…if they are not as good as you would like that that is an indication that we need to get your more help.</p>
<p>My philosophy was “Trust, but Verify”. Throughout the semester I would ask “How is it going” and I would get a “Good” and it turns out it was good, but I still checked. Also I could give “woots!” for As.</p>
<p>I know a couple of my friends kids who deteriorated and the parents didn’t know until after the semester or the students were asked not to come back the next semester.</p>
<p>Unless the student gives the parents the password or does a FERPA waiver, parent’s can’t get the grades.</p>
<p>For the OP’s situation, I would act like I believe him at this point, but say “why don’t you ask one of your classmates where they found the grades, in the mean time, request a transcript just in case. Wow, it sure is hard to get grades, isn’t it!” </p>
<p>I would think that your DS’s college would have something similar to what the college I sometimes take classes at and also the college my DS goes to has. They aren’t called the same thing but at my college it’s called wolf watch. It’s not the transcript but it lists all the requirements for the degree you are working on and which requirements you have completed including the grades you received and your GPA. In DS’s cases there are a number of check marks for AP classes. I would look for something like that. </p>
<p>My son can access his grades on line anytime. He can also have them forwarded to us on line. Car insurance requires grades, he’s applied to jobs, internships,opportunities that have required grades But then he’s pacing around at home every semester end waiting to see his grades and have shared them with us. I don’t know if he even gets an official “report card”, come to think of it. He can access the grades as he gets them and then look at them in some portal, get an official or unofficial transcript, but he doesn’t get anything mailed hard copy or even emailed to him, I don’t think. </p>
<p>My high schooler does not get a report card any more. Parents are given a website and code and can look at the grades that way. You don’t take that effort, you don’t see the grades. It’s not like they get mailed or you get notice these days, except in the announcements that get emailed regularly. You don’t get a special notice that the report card is ready for viewing. It’s in the weekly or whatever report that gets emailed as a line item just like the bake sales and the sports results and whatever else is happening at the school. Very much down played. </p>
<p>I didn’t even want to see my older kids’ reports after a while. As long as they were on course for graduation in 4 years, I was fine, and my one made it by the skin of his teeth. I didn’t 100% believe he graduated even as he waled to get his “diploma”. Until the transcript office sent the official diploma some weeks later, I did not believe it as he had very checkered college years.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe, OP, that your son cannot access his grade. You can have him request an official transcript for your records from the school or ask for a form that allows you to do so. There are such permission forms that colleges have, and your son has to sign to give you access to his business which can include the bill you are paying. I think that it’s advisable for parents to get the bills, get the transcripts. I do know folks who were conned. A kid can live pretty well on a tuition refund after parent pay the bill. There are kids who have done that. If you want to know what you are paying for, it’s wise to make sure you check. Sometimes kids get into trouble and hide it. Or make decisions that they do not want to share with the parents but still want to get the money they are paying for college.</p>
<p>“Then again, if she’s 18, then she is old enough to understand and pay the consequences which might be losing her chosen school. There is a point when we all have to start pulling back. It can be hard to do. I’ve not mastered it yet myself though mine are still minors and not at the university. If your D got two scholarships, I assume she was doing pretty good in high school. Maybe time to let her handle it herself”</p>
<p>She’s 17 (and will be through first semester). She will handle it herself, I’d just like a heads up as it will impact my finances even if it is just that she’ll be moving home and needing groceries.</p>
<p>We all make financial choices when sending our kids to college, and a big part of the choice for us was the merit scholarship, which is conditioned on her maintaining a certain gpa. I explain the finances to her when she selected the school (she was 16 then) but I don’t think a 16 year old who has always had a 3.8 or higher really gets it that college is harder, that getting a 3.0 in engineering will be hard, and that if she loses the scholarship she’ll have to transfer. </p>