<p>Many of the kids who started out in my son’s Honors College (3.5 to stay-in) are no longer in that program, due to the GPA requirement. </p>
<p>I think Ray192 is right-on-point.</p>
<p>Some kids struggle with being away from home, but most of the kids in my son’s honors college who fell out of the honors program were science majors. Many of these kids are no longer engineering, cs, prepharm or premed, due to encountering college subjects that were particularly difficult for them, or in which grading on the curve defeated them. It’s sometimes no longer enough to be really, really smart, when the curve favors that brilliant student whose researcher parent taught him/her organic chem from 1st grade, for example.</p>
<p>The key questions to ask are (1) what are the reasons for the grades; (2) is the student still in the right major; (3) is getting poorer grades than others in that major an indication that the student will fall further behind in more advanced classes; and (4) do the grades impact scholarships or other perquisites of a particular school, which make that school a bad fit now. </p>
<p>This happens all the time. I think it’s harder for the parents when a student struggles for the first time - we’re so used to our smart kids succeeding. One of my kids had a roommate who was failing chemistry and getting poor grades in another science class. The kid is no longer in the honors college. The kid’s parents made him withdraw from the classes to avoid getting poor grades, and then signed him up for summer school to take the classes in a setting where they could monitor and help their son get better grades. The parents just aren’t giving up on the premed dream for their son, even though IMO it’s clear that their son should be thinking about other careers. </p>
<p>My kid thinks that his roommate just didn’t get the same foundation in math and science from his high school’s curriculum that my kid got from our high school, so he has been struggling to catch up. (On the other hand, his roommate did better in physics since his high school had covered some of the material in their calculus based physics class that was not covered by my son’s high school physics class.)</p>