<p>I'm looking for success stories (and some encouragement)--</p>
<p>Anyone have a HS student who as a freshman/sophomore wasn't particularly motivated or organized, had maybe a 2.8 (or lower GPA) after sophomore yr, who then kicked it into gear, maybe grew up a little, and ended HS with a decent GPA and excited to tackle college?</p>
<p>Thanks. Oh, and please tell how it happened!</p>
<p>Make sure he reads. And reads and reads. It can be anything- the almanac, the daily newspaper, Huffington Report, biographies of sports figures, the history of aviation- doesn’t matter. Get him reading on any subject he’s even remotely curious about.</p>
<p>Get the kid’s vision and hearing tested, make sure there’s no underlying LD or physical condition, make sure there isn’t a substance issue.</p>
<p>And then meet the kid wherever he is. Loves rock music? Ask him to plan next summer’s road trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Loves classic cars? Have him research the next auction at Sotheby’s or Christies and the two of you can buy a catalogue and follow the auction online. Loves old movies? Have him pick a selection from the AFA top 100 and you can sponsor a movie night for his friends (you make the popcorn and buy the good and plenty). Is he curious about local politics? He can offer to do a “coffee” in your home for the neighbors to meet the local candidates and hear about the issues.</p>
<p>Get him interested in the world. The academic stuff will follow.</p>
<p>BfloGal, what are his EC’s like? What does he do outside of school?</p>
<p>Ugh, EC’s. Well, let’s see: he plays guitar (he’s a beginner; it’s not a passion), he did some volunteer work over the summer on an organic farm-- hard work, and it was something I set up for him, not something he did of his own volition, although he seemed to enjoy it and brought home some great produce. No interest in sports or clubs. No interest in anything except his iPod and skateboard. Bottom line: no hooks or anything that would grab an adcomm’s attention. :(</p>
<p>I am currently in this position. And I’ve gotten much lower than a 2.8. I’m really trying to get myself into gear. I’ll let you know if it works out.</p>
<p>One of my older daughters did this. She had veered off the academic path temporarily in the 8th grade and continued that through her freshman year…enough to cause her to have to sit out her first semester of cross country in her sophomore year. Then something snapped in her. She decided she wanted to go on to college and from that time on did everything she could to fulfill that desire. She graduated with departmental honors in English and went on to get her BS in Biology. She was on the Dean’s and President’s list all throughout college. She had aspirations of getting her doctorate and teaching at a university. But once she got out in the work world, that never happened. But, I’m very proud of her for taking responsibility and looking at the big picture back in h.s.</p>
<p>I can speak to this a little bit… My freshman year I was very unmotivated and had a 81% UW average. Sophomore year I improved a little bit, but my cumulative GPA by graduation was around an 85%. Out of 8 semesters in high school, I got all As and Bs three semesters (first semester junior year, both semesters senior year). Every other semester had at least one C.</p>
<p>Right now I’m at midterm of my first semester of college at a large OOS flagship U and I have 4 As and a B+/B. It can be done!</p>
<p>I agree that you need at this point to figure out what this kid is, is he capable of getting better grades e.g. is he getting 2.8 unweighted in a tough curriculum or an average curriculum? Where is he in the pecking order at school? e.g., does it relate to his 2.8? How did his PLAN or PSAT scores look? e.g. did his scores correlate with a 2.8 or were they higher? For example my oldest is an lower 80th percentile kid. Everything came in just above 80th percentile, where he stacked in his class in the most rigorous curricululm, where he came out on ACT and PSAT etc. If the answer is yes, he’s a 2.8 kid, then I agree I would have some things tested just to make sure there is not a hidden learning problem and after that I would just keep him reading and focused on school and work with what you have. I don’t put much credence in elementary and middle school. All my boys were straight A students up into high school, it was only then as the curriculum accelerated and the kids started sorting themselves out in classes by degree of difficulty that I had a clear picture of where my boys really fell on a national scope. There are minor differences in personality and work ethic that do make a difference, but the range of GPAs at the end of four years of high school in a very similar curriculum will fall from the lowest at 3.3 unweighted to the highest at about 3.8 unweighted. ACT & PSAT scores for all three will be very, very tight with differences in reading and science, each has their area of relative strength, etc. I think it’s helpful to try to step back and just evaluate what you are “working with” and try to glean some more inate information separate from their drive, interests, personality, etc.</p>
<p>My D really kicked it into gear in her junior year when her classes became a little smaller and, ironically more difficult. That helped us learn that a LAC would be best for her. My S was smart but just too busy socializing to study. He also kicked it up his junior year. Colleges love to see a students grade trending up so really focus on your junior year and the dreaded upcoming standardized tests and there will always be great matches for every student.</p>
<p>Not quite what you’re looking for but I can tell you I had pretty much all Cs and Ds in 6th grade, 5 Fs between the first 2 quarters of 7th grade (rest still mostly Cs and Ds), nearly a 4.0 in 8th grade, a 4.0 in 9th and 10th grade, fell a little bit in 11th and 12th but that’s because I had harder classes, now going to a very good university.</p>
<p>“no hooks or anything that would grab an adcomm’s attention.”</p>
<p>Do you realize how free this makes you? Your kid is not on the fast-track. You won’t be one of the frantic “HYPSM or at least top-tier” families here in two more years. Instead, your kid can calmly look at the other 2900 colleges and universities in this country that will be happy to admit him, and where he can get a decent education.</p>
<p>What you do have to consider is how you will pay for his education. Run the financial aid calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at the College Board website. Talk with him about how your family will pay for his education. Include all of the options that are viable for him (Would he consider military service? Would he get serious about a part-time job to save money? What loan burden is acceptable to your family?).</p>
<p>You also need to keep an eye and ear open to anything that he might say or do that would indicate a career preference. He might not have anything in mind yet, then again suddenly one day he might ask, “Do people ever do X for a living?”</p>
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<p>Good point. Life isn’t really determined by high school for a lot of people. </p>
<p>True story: my youngest sister was a mediocre high school student, and didn’t start college until she was 21–at my insistence. She graduated from a decent public flagship with a major in an employable field, food science. She is now a vice-president for product development at a major international food and beverage company (yes, you have her stuff in your closet). I’m sure her salary exceeds that of most posters on this site.</p>
<p>Do what you can now, but don’t assume life is over if your child is not competing for slots in the highly selective colleges.</p>
<p>Your son could be my son, right down to the skateboard, i-pod and guitar. Yes, it all “kicked in.” His grades improved junior and senior year, he got into music and played with a number of bands (as a drummer!) and gave up the skateboard for a part-time job. He’s very happy at college. </p>
<p>Here’s what worked:
We bought a drum set so that the musican friends would meet at our house. Loud but we knew where he was.</p>
<p>We sent him to Explo at Yale before his junior year. Expensive but worth every cent because he got to taste a bit of college life and he liked it. He also met a lot of other students who had loftier goals and I think that helped him think more seriously about college and what he needed to do to get there. (Getting into Yale was NEVER the plan. The program was just at the right time, right part of the country.)</p>
<p>He got a job in fast food and learned about people for whom that is the best job they can get.</p>
<p>We did not push. He matured. He chose really good friends. He never really got into ECs except work and music. We loved and supported him and has grown into a fine young man who is doing just fine in college. </p>
<p>And like Happymom pointed out, your child will be welcomed at hundreds and hundreds of colleges, even without fancy ECs and perfect grades.</p>
<p>Midmo, my brother has a similar story. He had a D and a few Cs on his high school transcript. He was brilliant but disengaged in HS. He went on to one of the top engineering schools and is a highly compensated executive these days. I liken the attitudes these days to somewhat of the tortoise and the hare. Now days, it seems like everyone wants hares, but if you’ve got a tortoise all is not lost. Life is a very long race.</p>
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<p>How good is he with skateboard? Good enough for competition?</p>
<p>You may want to reflect on what he does or used to do that you disapproved or discouraged. Certainly, it is our job as parents to disapprove questionable activities, but sometimes we might just go overboard and missed a gem or two. This happened to me.</p>
<p>*Life isn’t really determined by high school for a lot of people. *
Praise the goddess.
;)</p>
<p>A friend’s S was like your S. His parents put him in sports and other ec’s but he never chose to stay in them. His teachers always write the standard “not working up to potential” and mom sometimes had to sit in his class to make him “care” about turning homework, etc. </p>
<p>Well, something happened in his senior year - he made a decision to go to college and he knew he didn’t stand a chance with his HS grades. After 2 yrs in cc, he’s off to a top tier school for pre-med. It can and does happen…</p>
<p>Our son came out of 9th grade with a 3.4, then took a nosedive sophomore year that brought him down to a 3.1. Halfway through junior year, there wasn’t much sign that he would ever come out of the nosedive; we were seeing Cs and Ds on report cards. </p>
<p>After Christmas, something clicked; either he started listening to all the nagging or finally learned to ignore it and do for himself. He finished 11th grade with a 3.45 for the year, which pulled him up a 3.2 overall–small progress, but knowing how close he had come to falling further back, it was cause for celebration. </p>
<p>This year he’s taking 3 APs and (so far, knock wood) seems to have a completely different, more practical and efficient approach to his schoolwork; he’s actually agonizing about it less, but doing it sooner and better. I don’t want to count any chickens before they’re hatched, because we haven’t seen a report card yet. But I really think he has turned it around.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for sharing your stories and for your support. I’m hoping my S will follow a similar path-- that he will decide to take the bull by the horns himself. For now we have a tutor coming to the house twice/wk to help with organization/motivation/study skills. My S seems to think he will learn by osmosis rather than actually putting in study time. This worries me for college!!</p>
<p>Keep talking. Let your S know you are interested in him. Start talking about the future and listen to what his interests are no matter how crazy. My S is now 10th grader. He just brought home his mid-quarter grades. All A’s and B’s. I put his report card on the refridgerator and he said, “oh Mom. It’s only mid-quarter!” It might be just a boy thing. Mine was see how little I can get away with and still pass. Since we started the college search over a year ago for S1, I started telling S3 how important college was and that I know he is a very intelligent young man and that he could do much better! Guess what? He is giving more and we are even getting closer!</p>