<p>Oldfort, there are a lot of longer term academic achievement issues not specifically linked to current or average GPA. The trick is to identify red flag issues before they boil over, because college is a lot like a football game. One or two bad plays and the course is toast. </p>
<p>If a course is toast, and it’s a major course (likely to happen in smaller egoprof courses) this could mean waiting a year to take the course again. So, Billy TextMe could get a D in Elbonian 101, A’s and B’s everywhere else, maintain a comfortable 3.2 or so GPA, yet have to spend a year waiting for Elbonian 101 to be offered again. If Billy is majoring in Elbonian Government or some such, and blows a course in the sequence, he’s toast, 3.2 or not.</p>
<p>There’s a big difference between texting or facebooking in an auditorium of 400, and in a classroom of 40 or 20. Our kids may not realize the difference. This applies to all classroom performance issues, and is not limited to texting…</p>
<p>turbo55 - Not sure why you are directing your remarks to me. We didn’t have any issue with D1 in college other than her texting late at night when she was freshman. She is working now, I am sure she knows better not to use her phone while she working. I think she figured out by not paying attention in class she wasn’t going to get a good grad in school. Not sure, what you are driving at.</p>
<p>noteasy (#12), it really sounds like you need to work on the relationship between you and your son more than his sleep and texting patterns. For that, I suggest you try to have an adult conversation with him. </p>
<p>You may want to do this by acknowledging things that are important in his life (GF and texting and new college) but you don’t want to be heavy-handed about negative consequences (you haven’t seen anything just yet, although you can remind him how important grades are). I have done this by explaining I’m an old timer and I need understand the appeal to text. That way, my kids “get me” by seeing how I perceive things may not be the way see them. I think maintaining a nice, civil relationship will go a long way towards helping your son grow up.</p>
<p>Starting out with a contract, like “XXX number of texts = a certain gpa”, or threats, like “you’ll pay for college if your gpa drops” may be your style, but I do not think that’s a positive way to build a relationship. Instead, I think it’s about allowing him to become the adult and make decisions by beginning with an adult conversation about your worries. College is tough enough and he’ll need you, if you don’t shut the door.</p>
<p>My comments were general in nature (that there’s a lot more to academia than we see)… Plus insight about the care and feeding of Professor egos (did that as a professional grad student for more years than I care to count)…</p>
<p>turbo93 - I am not going to say that D1 NEVER texted in class, but she has told me that she thought it was rude when some kids did it in class. BTW, I do think it is common courtesy not text in class, recital, theater…</p>
<p>And that’s where the link between common courtesy and Ego 101 really is. I mean, Dr. Egoz has a Phd in Elbonian Material Science and could be raking it in working as a consultant at the Elbonian National Mine, but instead he’s teaching at University of Elbonia for a third of the pay. Why? </p>
<p>When feeding egos, courtesy goes a LONG way. I never really thought about how faculty feel about rich kids coming to campus until one of my Profs brought up the issue that one could easily tell which parking lot was the student lot and which was the faculty lot. The one full of beaters, he said, was the faculty lot… I decided to leave my questions on sports sedan instrument panel ergonomics (the semester project I was working on, using my own vehicle as an example) unanswered…</p>
<p>I agree with not allowing texting during class. S2 is a major texter and I am worried about how this might affect him during his freshman year. On the positive side, at least I will know that he is still alive!</p>