<p>Testing would or could help to define what the problem is if there is one and may help with the appeal and if the parents are willing to risk the money on another “try” but labeling something is only as good as the student is willing to work on the issues. You can label stuff but the onus to succeed at college or not ultimately falls to the student alone and the willingless to put forth the effort or modify entrenched behaviors in response to what testing shows or doesn’t show.</p>
<p>S’s college has a pilot academic success seminar on study skills and time management that meets once a week for 8 weeks. If he attends every class of the seminar, he’ll get priority registration for the fall semester. This will help a lot since he only earned 10 credits last semester and will still be a freshman in the fall. Right now the seminar is limited to freshmen on academic probation; I think it should be mandatory for all first-semester freshmen.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice people! </p>
<p>We’ll try and figure this one out ourselves and hopefully he’ll come out alright.</p>
<p>What is your cousin’s reaction to the suspension? Is he upset? Is he blase? Could this be the “wake-up” call he needs to get some self-motivation?</p>
<p>If he’s upset, if he’s ready to work at college, then he should appeal the suspension. But it should be with the stipulation that Goucher gives him some formalized support, otherwise he seems destined to fail yet again. At this point I think discussions of different majors and different colleges are premature. Identify the root cause of the problem and then build a plan. Maybe it’s one of the list of issues mentioned here. Maybe he just needed someone to say “enough is enough” and now he’ll start working. Good luck.</p>