<p>I do understand. My D just turned 17 and so will be so until into the second semester of her first year of college. I am nervous about it too but she handles all her own schooling stuff now and I trust that she’ll continue to do so. She’s gotten some scholarships so far with a gpa requirement but really, since she’s done so well keeping things together now, I hate to start micro-managing her when she’s given me no reason to distrust her. Has your daughter given you reason to think she’ll pancake her first year? Is she someone who historically hides information from you? If not, I’d at least give her the chance to give you that info on her own.</p>
<p>I’m not a micro manager, but the original statement was that Brownparent didn’t care what his D’s gpa was and that it didn’t matter, and I said it does matter because of the tie between merit scholarships and gpa. Just ignoring a gpa or saying it doesn’t matter isn’t possible in our case because there is more riding on it than just an ‘honors’ on the diploma or grad school admittance.</p>
<p>I have another daughter who doesn’t care about grades at all. She’s just as happy with a B as a C, as long as she enjoyed the class, project, teammates. It is really a wonderful attitude to have, except when it costs money or opportunity. This daughter doesn’t have to worry about keeping merit scholarships because she doesn’t have them! (She also didn’t have the ability to choose a school that costs twice as much like her sister did.)</p>
<p>And yes, I think any child can ‘pancake’ the first year. My daughter works hard, but it takes her f-o-r-e-v-e-r to do her homework. I’m very worried about the volumn of work she’ll be required to do, as well as her commitment to sports (also a scholarship, also can be ‘not renewed’). It’s just a lot and if I can foresee a problem and help, I’d like to try.</p>
<p>I believe there is a form the student can fill out waiving their FERPA rights so the school can send grades home.</p>
<p>Correct, Erin’s Dad. That form came to our kids at home in the mail, along with other forms for them to complete during summer before fall orientation and registration.</p>
<p>At D2s school during fr move-in, a parent asked specifically about grade reports being sent home and the Dean of Students stated that the student would have to submit a request to the college each sem to release their grades. So it appears that different colleges use the FERPA waiver in different ways.</p>
<p>I work part-time at a community college, am enrolled part-time in a distance ed graduate program, have a kid studying another university, and on occasion have reason to log into the website of my alma mater. None of these places have websites that are intuitive. The are a step up from the Maryland Health Exchange website, but that one is/was so awful that it doesn’t take much to be better.</p>
<p>I find it completely believable that this kid and his parents couldn’t find the grades. If the people at his university can’t show him how to get to the grades so that he can tell his parents how to find them, he should just get a copy of the transcript and mail it to Mom and Dad.</p>
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<p>This. I know the system my university used was anything but intuitive. It’s pretty believable that people who haven’t done it before would have trouble finding grades. </p>
<p>That said, the kid should have some idea about what his grades should be, +/- a third of a letter grade. Unless you don’t trust him, you could just ask him what he thinks his grades are. Though he should definitely figure out how to look up his grades at some point. </p>
<p>I don’t find it especially believable. Students at the university where I teach know exactly when the grades are going to be posted – no later than 5 PM on the Tuesday after finals week. Many of them need to know their grades before they can complete enrollment for the next semester (did they meet the prereq, for example). I can’t imagine more than a handful of students don’t know how to find their grade reports at this university. Well, maybe some other colleges don’t makes this as accessible or intuitive. But I would guess that these are rare, since students generally demand to have this information as soon as possible. And any students who want to see their grades just have to ask another student or their academic adviser for help.</p>
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<p>My school also has a rule that grades are to be posted within 3 business days of the final. This may as well not be a rule because in practice it’s never followed. Sometimes grades are posted in that time frame, but there’s no guarantee. I had one class where we didn’t get our grade for a little over 2 months. </p>
<p>Wow. That is one lax place! At my university we would be severely reprimanded (at least) for missing the deadline. In fact, it’s a PITA to file even an hour late.</p>
<p>We needed grades for auto insurance, and our kids gave us access to their online profiles. In his senior year, S1 decided to lock us out, which ended up being a bad idea, as he made a bad choice about a class that ended up with him having to take another course post-walking-in-graduation (and it could have been avoided had I seen it). Turns out “History of Rock Music” didn’t count as a history class! </p>
<p>But even with knowing multiple grade programs, none of which are beautifully organized, I don’t understand how an unofficial transcript is eluding OP’s family.</p>