<p>It might be too facile to say he "just grew up" but in part he did. He saw the consequences of frittering away his talents, and realized he had pursued subject areas in which he was competent, but in which he was not interested. Also, not "micromanaging" him from afar let him fall down by himself, and then pick himself up. I have great hopes for his future, but he will have to deal with his mistakes. By the way, he was at UT, started as National Merit Scholar and Plan II and lost all that. He didn't really "stay in school" as you can tell from the five years it took him to get to his junior year. He burned away those scholarship advantages and was in and out and on probation. He always managed to be just ahead of total expulsion. </p>
<p>By contrast, his sister entered UT three years later but graduated with him. She is the least relatively academically talented of my kids but took college seriously. She graduated with honors.</p>
<p>Corharcol's story isn't really that uncommon. You just don't hear it very often on this board. Our DS1 breezed through high school with mostly A's. When he got to college he expected the same. When it didn't happen he stopped trying altogether. He left school after 1 1/2 semesters with barely a 3.0. Not bad, but not what he wanted. He called home one day & said he'd just signed up for the Marines. (I'm not suggesting that path) He now admits that he was partying too much & not going to class. He has been enlisted for a year & was just home on leave. We were talking & he intends to take classes at the community college near his base. He says after what he's been through now, he can't believe how easy college should have been. He realizes now what his priorities should have been in school - the classic case of not knowing what you have until it's gone. He has 4 more years as a Marine. Because of his high asvab score he is in a fairly safe technical job & shouldn't be in harm's way. He's really looking forward to going back to college. I do think that it was a matter of maturity, & also knowing what he wants to study. Now that he has those 2 things in place I think he'll do well. BUT, he had to figure it out on his own. I don't think he would have come to this same place in his life with us advising him. A friend of mine's son took 8 years to graduate from Penn State. Same old story. Smart kid. Loved to party. He was asked to leave. Parents stopped the financial support, so that he had to get a job as a waiter to survive. After about a year of that, he took 2 classes & got A's. The parents started helping financially again. He didn't get anything but A's after that experience, & is in training with a good company now for a great job that he's excited about. I realize that your son's problems were not created by partying, but his introverted personality. However, the result seems to be the same. He might just need to grow up, like these 2 young men. And a I'd agree with you that a different type of environment should help.</p>