<p>My wonderfully bright, smart, funny, head in the clouds son is probably going to lose his scholarship because he didn't maintain his GPA. Was it preventable? Yes. Is he worried? Yes (finally).</p>
<p>He has the opportunity to go before a committee to appeal the decision about the scholarship. I'm sure he will need to write something about why they should give him another chance.</p>
<p>DS has finally started getting his act together, his last Honors Physics test he scored 94. Not sure what is other grades are. I talked to him last night and he FINALLY realizes that with work, he can get good grades. I'm just afraid that it may be a little too late.</p>
<p>I would hate for him to come home and go to Comm Coll.- not that it's a bad place, but I think he finally gets "it", the light bulb is on and I don't want him to slide back into the take it easy mode. </p>
<p>Can we afford for him to go without the scholarship? I did the math, he could go the first semester but the second semester would cost us about $6K. We had planned on covering about 4K, but with the economy and gas prices, the last 2K is almost impossible unless I get really creative with my friends Peter and Paul. Plus, I'm not sure I want to put us in a bind because he wouldn't listen.</p>
<p>I'm afraid the only thing he might be able to offer the committee is the reason- I never had to study before, and the things I tried didn't start working until the last month of hte semester. This sounds implausible even to my own ears.</p>
<p>I'm looking for advice, words of wisdom from anyone who has ever had to do this.</p>
<p>Could he earn the 2K needed to do the second semester over the summer? In other words, could you find or borrow the extra 2K, and have him work and repay you with his summer earnings? Good luck- I hope the committee gives him another chance, and they may do so if he can show them next semester that he can pull up his grades.</p>
<p>I hope his lower GPA is somewhat close to the cut off. If he can demonstrate that his current terms grades will meet the cut off (even though it sounds like his overall won’t) he’ll have a better chance of getting the aid reinstated. The question to ask…if he proves himself next year, will the scholarship be reinstated? Or if he loses it…is it gone forever?</p>
<p>Can he go over the summer and take some classes to bring up his GPA? Ask to defer the decision until after summer term. That worked for one of my S’s.</p>
<p>Any extenuating circumstances with friends/roommate situation?
Or a particular area of study with poor grades?</p>
<p>My DD had 2 scholarship appeals.
After 1st year, GPA was low d/t a really poor grade, in area not required for major, in first semester 3000 miles from home, at 8am. Drop that grade and is in the range.
Had to appeal again because scholarship evaluation was in January and the fall dean’s list semester brought her up to .02 below required GPA.
Both appeals were successful.</p>
<p><<moonchild>> When I did the math- I figured him earning 5K and that to be applied to the first semester. He might be able to work during XMas break, but not enough to make up for the 2K.</moonchild></p>
<p><<thumper>> I don’t know his GPA and the online grades are not complete. His GPA first semester was a little above a C average (2.2?). He needed a 3.8 second semester to get the magic 3.0 to keep his scholarship.</thumper></p>
<p>I think he might be able to pull out a GPA that may be at least 3.3-3.5 but it won’t be a 3.8. That still won’t get him the averaged 3.0 for the first year.</p>
<p>He did talk to his honors advisor in January and she did say he would have a chance to meet the committee if he couldn’t make the 3.8 required to bring his GPA up.</p>
<p>And as much as I would love to help him out, I’m not sure I want to. We talked before he went back about how he needed to really apply himself and I got the usual umm hmm but it’s only recently that he realized that “wow, I have to study and Wow! IF I study, I can get good grades”. So I think in part it was the freshman year of being away from nagging mom and two, not really knowing how to study because he never had to do it before.</p>
<p>But then, playing devils advocate, he never used the tools available to him at the school- tutoring, profs office hours, etc. So I’m on the fence on how to handle this.</p>
<p>If this light bulb of his is truly on, I would hate for it to dim but if this is one of those short fuzed things, then I would hate to put myself into debt to get him through one more year.</p>
<p>If he really wants to stay, have him go plead his case.
Most committees are receptive if he can identify his problem(s) and proffer his solutions.</p>
<p>It may be helpful if he can show results of application of solutions, and by that I mean if he can show recent grade trends are an improvement both last semester and this semester midterm.</p>
<p>The worst that can happen will in fact come true if he doesn’t appeal to the committee.</p>
<p>Let him do his appeal for the aid and see what happens. </p>
<p>Our kids both had merit scholarships to their schools which were pricey places. Our “deal” with them was that we would pay our share as long as they didn’t lose these awards. They knew from the get go…mom and dad were NOT going to pick up the difference if they lost the awards. Their choice would be to earn the money themselves…or come to a less expensive in state public university.</p>
<p>I hope it doesn’t come to that for your son. A lot will depend on how he presents the information…and how well he is actually doing this term. If he’s really making good strides, hopefully they will give him a chance.</p>
<p>The issue is…he knew the criteria for maintaining the scholarship and he didn’t meet it. It’s hard to predict how the college will handle this. Most schools do NOT want to lose promising students. I hope this all works out.</p>
<p>He can’t stay over the summer- we don’t have the money to pay for room/board or the money it would take for the class itself. Plus he needs to work to pay for the fall semester.</p>
<p><<mominva>> the only extenuating circumstances are…he’s a 19 year old boy. :)</mominva></p>
<p>Did your daughter have to write a letter or stand before the board. If she wrote a letter, what did she put in it?</p>
<p>I have googled and found some examples but want my son to write this covering the real reason why he didn’t do too well. I know he can do better, and I think he’s finally realizing he can too. Does the committee allow recommendations from other people?</p>
<p>The first time, she just laid out all the stuff from above.
It was Math, at 0800, my worst subject, my worst time, first semester, adjusting to being far from home, etc. </p>
<p>Second time she said, you can see my progress, I made Dean’s list.
Can you reevaluate after spring? I’m sure to get that .02 by then.</p>
<p>I for one, can’t imagine a scholarship committee turning away a child that went from a 2.2 to 3.4 or 3.5? Certainly he struggled Freshman 1st semester and I suspect, the committee expects some adjustment period. We are not talking about a kid that went from a 2.2 to a 2.3. I bet they offer him probation for next Fall and then cut him off if he does not perform.</p>
<p>*Can we afford for him to go without the scholarship? I did the math, he could go the first semester but the second semester would cost us about $6K. *</p>
<p>Can you clarify? I don’t understand this. What will pay for fall semester and what will pay for all but $6k of his second semester? </p>
<p>How much did you have to pay out this last year (2 semesters) and how much will you have to pay out for next fall and spring?</p>
<p>How much does this school cost? Is he getting need-based aid as well, but is only losing the merit scholarship? </p>
<p>If I were on the committee, I would vote that he keep his scholarship if he had an above 3.0 the second semester AND he give me a reason to disregard the first semester. A humble assessment that college turned out to harder than he thought it would be, that time management issues really took its toll, and that he didn’t put his studies as high as a priority as he should have–AND what he did the second semester to turn it around–would be good.</p>
<p>Also the idea of taking summer school to up the GPA would sound good to me.</p>
<p>When DS was in the same predicament, he took a Summer course. The cost of Summer tuition, room and board was peanuts compared to the value of the Scholarship that he was able to keep. Borrowing these funds might be a good investment.</p>
<p>This is exactly what I was thinking. What he’s shown is he had a rough first semester (as so many do) and he learned a ton from his mistakes of first semester…and wow, he really did his best to get back up to where he needed to be! I honestly don’t think these committees are eager to pull funds, and he clearly seems like the kind of kid who will maintain the necessary grades going forward. </p>
<p>Maybe you can’t handle the extra cost but I hope you aren’t too hard on him if you do find a way to cover it. Obviously he learned a good lesson in first term and really turned it around with effort the second term. Just because he didn’t pull off a 3.8 or what you personally think he’s capable of doesn’t mean he didn’t really try (most parents are not in a position to know what grades ‘should be’ since it was a long time ago they were in college, and colleges, majors and professors vary dramatically in difficulty…much can be beyond a kids’ control). So if your son is in honors in an engineering program- I think he is?- pulling off a 3.8 might not have been realistic, despite his best efforts. Obviously he has been trying and changing his ways, given the tremendous improvement he made. It isn’t easy to learn from our mistakes, or to be able to give something 100% continuously even if one knows the right method (no one is perfect). </p>
<p>So you might not have the money to do this of course, but if you do, his effort and improvement should be rewarded not punished because it ‘still isn’t good enough’. Now if he had two terms like the first one, I would be singing a totally different song.</p>
<p>^ And this is why kids don’t make these decisions. He didn’t necessarily lack any work ethic nor does he seem ungrateful as far as I can tell from what the OP has written. </p>
<p>He underestimated what it would take to succeed (honors engineering is not like highschool!) and he took a term to get his college legs and figure out how to study (since he didn’t have to before).</p>
<p>It is not like the school has not seen this circumstance before.</p>
<p>But the lesson for the lad is that he is NOT unique and special. There is someone just as good or even better wanting his slot. And there will be all his life.</p>