My son’s first semester was his worst, mostly because he thought he could get by with the same tactics he used in high school. Once he realized he had to apply himself he did much better. He made a point to sit near the front of the classroom where he could hear better, have a better opportunity to ask questions and have less distractions. Now three years after graduation he is working on projects that are making a difference for our country.
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picks up a faint whiff of ice cream
This is an important point. I think some of the tippy top students from high school (which are often the variety who go into engineering programs) often have a harder time adjusting initially to college courses. Using myself as an example, I cruised through high school and never had to develop any meaningful study habits. Not everyone adjusts in time. In some ways, I think the students who had like a 3.8 in high school are better positioned (initially) for these programs than those with a 4.0.
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My son developed a matrix to explain to me who gets what grades in HS. There are those with high horsepower that don’t work hard, those with less horsepower that do work hard, those with high horsepower that also work hard and finally, those with less horsepower that don’t work hard.
In high school the first three groups all get good grades and the last group doesn’t.
In college though it’s common for the first group to struggle too until they figure out how to be efficient and productive.
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That’s really accurate. I guess the workload must be insane in college.
Workload is not necessarily “insane in college”, but it depends on more student self-management. High school has longer in-class hours and more “supervision” (e.g. more frequent or daily small assignments), while college has shorter in-class hours but more expectation of the student spending time out-of-class on school work (for many classes, there is an expectation of two hours of out-of-class work for every hour in-class) and managing time for fewer larger assignments on their own without as much “supervision”.
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Wow, that’s a huge change. So the major grade determining factors in general would be projects and midterms/finals?
Yes, tests and projects will be a larger share of grades in college. Small weekly assignments tend to be a small share of grades in college, in contrast to a larger share for daily homework in high school.
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In my experience (including for classes I teach), homework typically counts for anywhere between 0% and 15% of your grade. Maybe a few times you see it reach up to 20% here and there. Cheating is just too rampant to put a lot of weight on homework assignments in most cases.
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My D’s experience is also that homework is 0- 10% of the grade. The point is more for the students to have more opportunity to work on the concepts reviewed in class. Some of her profs have used homework for “extra credit” to bump students on the grading cusp after finals.
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Is it ok if I ask you a few Purdue specific questions?
Of course!!
As suggested to me for my son by @eyemgh, I believe. Get this book and apply it now. It’s a fast read but with great tips on organization for studying.
How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less - Google Search
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Ok, thank you!
I was looking at the Common Data Set for 2019/2020 and it said that a “general college-preparatory program for degree-seeking students,” was required for applications. Do you know what this is and what your son/daughter did for it?
Also, another requirement was 4 semesters/2 years of a foreign language in high school, but I did my foreign language classes in 7th and 8th grade. Do you think they would still accept it?
No high school level language not middle school. In the CDS it will describe the types of classes like 4 years of math, science etc. The key is to be a strong candidate. Usually a high unweighted GPA and rigor of the classes are the key to acceptance. Taking classes that are a step above shows you are challenging yourself. So many would have at least calc1 by senior year. Many have Calc 2 or 3 if offered by their schools. Many have physics bc instead of just physics 1 and so on.
Also if a school shows a minimum… Going beyond that minimum also shows rigor. Schools are looking for students that challenge themselves but still get good grades… Make sense?
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This is what Purdue says is the minimum they want to see on the HS transcript: High School Course Requirements - Undergraduate Admissions - Purdue University
Yes you need FL in HS. If there is some kind of extenuating circumstance why you didn’t continue, I’d reach out to admissions to see what they say.
Engineering admission will look more closely at math and science rigor and grades.
In HS my D took:
4 years of English - Honors and AP Lang
4 years + of math including AP stats and AP calc
3 years of history - AP Euro, APUSH, 1 semester DE gov and 1 semester Econ
4 years +of science H bio, chem, physics, AP chem, AP Physics C. 1 semester - CS, H organic chem, and engineering I, II, III
2 years of FL, highest level reached DE Spanish III (also started FL in middle school)
2 years of orchestra
4 years of theology (mandatory)
She would have continued with Spanish and orchestra but had a scheduling conflict with math and chem junior year so had to drop. That did open her schedule for all the science electives which ended up being a boost for her at STEM focused colleges. If she wanted a program with more liberal arts requirements, she would have not been a good match.
Yeah, I understand. I go beyond all of the other requirements especially for math & science (doing Calc AB and AP Stats this year, and 2 classes of chemistry where 1 is AP), it was just the foreign language one I was worried about. I did 3 years of french (beginning french, french 1, and french 2) in middle school because my counselor said that it would free up my high school schedule, and I would still have the minimum requirements. I didn’t do French 3 in high school because I didn’t really like it.
Yeah, I didn’t have any extenuating circumstances, just poor course planning. I’ll contact admissions soon and ask them if they would accept my french 2 credit from 8th grade, and hope it’s not too far of a stretch for them.
Oh, so college preparatory programs include AP classes. Thank you for the clarification!
Yes, college prep programs include AP courses for sure.
Definitely reach out to admission about the foreign language issue. Unfortunately it sounds like you got some poor advice from your guidance counselor. If that is standard practice at your HS, you may also want to ask your GC to write something to that effect in their LOR.
Yeah, my middle school counselor suggested finishing the foreign language graduation requirement, and I moved to a new middle school later and they continued the practice. I’m not sure if my current GC can help me now, but I’ll email Purdue soon and see if they will accept the credits anyway. Hopefully because I’m going into engineering they’ll be more lenient.
Some students take HS level language and math in middle school. My son for example started HS Mandarin in 8th. It’s not when you take it, but how it’s classified.