<p>Their GPA in high school is important, but how much more important is the child's college GPA if they are looking to professional, graduate, and business school? Will you still be checking their GPA? Do you leave it alone and make them learn from their mistake?<br>
How do you as a parent feel about this?</p>
<p>My son is still in HS, but we recently discussed this. </p>
<p>He won’t see a dime from me in college unless I see mid-term and semester end grades. </p>
<p>Our discussion was sparked by the fact that a schoolmate from the HS class of 2010 just failed out of college. She was a top student. Parents never suspected anything. Apparently, she partied all the time - and she was at a school low on the party list. Evidently, she visited a school down the road often.</p>
<p>Yes, her mistake, her consequences, but in my house, my money has to stretch over 3 kids. I won’t waste it on one who is failing (whether due to partying or simply due to being over his head academically).</p>
<p>No. We discussed before she went to college. D is on a full ride and she quite rightly stated that the info belong to her. However, she does openly share her grades with us and tells us about how she is doing on exams/ papers etc. Her certificate for President’s/Deans list just arrived. Not that I doubted her, but confirmed her 4.0 semester.</p>
<p>I would feel differently if I was funding her. My money = access to grades.</p>
<p>GPA gets me a car insurance discount so yep yep yep I keep an eye on grades. Thankfully its not much of an issue with #1 and I try to couch my prying in terms of the insurance to avoid the appearance of hovering.</p>
<p>We have told the kids the same thing, if they want us to help them pay for college, we get access to their grades. I am not so worried about them not trying but more wanting to keep on top of things and offering suport if they find that things are difficult. Probably not much of a concern after freshman year though.</p>
<p>My S (now graduated-2011) attended on over 65% merit money. I never asked for access to grades (or his student account, medical etc.), nor did I condition my financial contribution to his education on grade point. S was clearly told that any lost Merit money had to be made up by him. </p>
<p>Dean’s list all four years. Graduated cum laude and with honors.</p>
<p>I regularly looked at high school grades and assignment completion online during high school. While he has given us access to his college grades, I haven’t checked yet although my husband has checked. He knows what our expectations are and I realize he’s got to do this on his own without me looking over his shoulder. One semester down and he did pretty good. I’m going to continue to have faith in him unless he proves it’s not warranted.</p>
<p>We know exactly what my son’s GPA is (.01 less than what he would like 
). He had a struggle with Arabic and it had a big impact. I know he’s doing the best he can, and he knows exactly what the consequences of it are -he’s applying to internships and junior year abroad programs right now. He’s more concerned about it than I am.</p>
<p>He did give me access to the website where grades are posted, however they are never posted until well after courses are over, so there’s not much you can do proactively.</p>
<p>mikasauntie–check with your insurance company but in our state if your college student is far enough away, they can just be listed on the policy and not be rated on one of your vehicles and that saves you a LOT more than a good student discount. Not every state has this option but if you do, it’s worth it. They would need to be re-rated if they are home for a long break, summer vacation but during the school year they would not be.</p>
<p>How we handled HS vs College…In high school, grades were mailed home. Daughter knew her grades before we did-as she stayed on top of her work/points/tests. In college-we told her that now was the time she was making decisions that may affect her first job, even eventual career. She would have to own her decisions.
We would pay for school-take out loans-however IF she failed/dropped out…she would have to reimburse us for any and all monies spent up to that point of her college experience.
We never saw her grades until her final transcript. During her college years, we would get the letter from the Dean, advising she made the Dean’s List. Graduated Summa Cum Laude Dec 2010-2 majors & minor.
Because she finished in a little over 3 years, we offered to cover her costs of rent/food we had budgeted for college…till she secured a paying position. Initially she worked as an intern in DC-and was later offered a position. She has had 2 job promotions, and has recently offered to help pay for the loans taken out for her education.
~APOL-a Mum</p>
<p>So far, all that’s happened is that they shared with us “hey, mom, I got an A in this, a B in that …” and we said, “Hey, great job, keep up the good work” and that’s about the end of the discussion. I know they put enough pressure on themselves; I don’t need to do it for them.</p>
<p>We had access to the kids’ grades when they were in high school but never looked. However, the kids kept close track of that information and if memory serves me they did catch mistakes. #3 who is still in high school makes a point of checking at least once a week. We did not have access to the kids’ college grades and did not request it. We do have access to the financial aid portion which can be credentialed separately from the grade and the rest of the kids’ on-line access.</p>
<p>To answer the question “do we leave it alone and let them learn from their mistake” we leave it alone because they have already proven (through high school) to be responsible for their own grades so did not feel the need. Certainly we had concerns…all parents do sending kids off to college but we simply hoped/prayed they would display the same qualities they did in high school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My view as well, although I did not express it directly to S.</p>
<p>We look at high school grades all the time, not because we need to keep on top of them but because usually scores end up in the online gradebooks before they get handed back in class and the kids ask us to sign into the account to check them. We have been on there a lot for DD this grading period though because she missed the first 3 weeks of school and is still trying to get caught up so we check to see what is done and what isn’t. It’s been a LOT of work for her this winter so far.</p>
<p>My wife and I pay in full for our kids (no debt upon graduation). The only requirement that we had was that they sign the needed forms so we had full access to their grades. My daughter has since graduated with honors and is employed, never checked her grades. My son is a college sophmore, who likes to have a good time and do the least amount of work to get by. We check his grades mid and at the end of the semester to make sure he knows we are on top of him (different maturity levels). So it depends on your kids, some need to be monitored and some do not.</p>
<p>^^^ I think that’s right.</p>
<p>I always shared my college grades without being asked. If I were the one paying tuition, yes, I would expect to get a copy every term, even with a very mature student who didn’t seem to need check-ups along the way.</p>
<p>My DD actually calls me about a million times (OK exaggeration), if she is out, didya check my grades mom,</p>
<p>I don’t recall ever having a conversation with our daughter on this subject. It’s in her nature to share things like this with us, good news or not so good. I can’t say I know her precise GPA but I know it’s more than 3.6 and less than 3.8.</p>
<p>hudsonvalley…my son is coasting with a 2.46, he is capable of easily obtaining a 3.2-3.5 GPA. It is very frustrating to me to have to stay on him and keep him focused on what he is actualy at college for, otherwise he is a great kid. I wish his brain would fuse and mature, girls just seem so much further ahead of boys at that age.</p>
<p>Both my kids always told me their grades (and I agonized with them when they were waiting for a grade to appear online – especially the time when my son, the computer science major, took the chemistry course intended for pre-meds by mistake). </p>
<p>I think my husband used to ask our son about his grades. But I don’t think he ever asked our daughter, and I don’t think she volunteered the information. He accidentally ran across a copy of her transcript once and did a double-take. I don’t think he had any idea that her GPA was that high.</p>