My son is a freshman Bio major at a top school. First semester was a little rocky, but he pulled out of it with a 3.4. This semester he's gotten 2 Fs in his first 2 tests in 2 different classes (Bio and Gen Chem II). That's after the tests were scaled. He tells us that he has ended up studying for one class for a week for a test, falling behind in others, then repeating this with his other classes.
We've been telling his that he needs to get some help with the classes (private tutor) and spend more time doing problems, etc. The only way he could get more time is to give up his sport (running). He's at a D3 school, no scholarship, and he's in the middle of the pack in terms of running ability. He enjoys running for the team and the social aspect of it (team is very close) so pulling himself off the team would be a major embarrassment. He also tends to look on the bright side of things and thinks he can pull the grades up by just doing things a little differently.
Having been in the sciences and engineering and knowing how difficult things are, how can I get across to him that he needs to make major changes or he's going to seriously damage his gpa? He's one of these kids who has never realy struggled with anything and now he thinks he can fix it with small changes and doing everything on his own.
Regarding his school: The classes are difficult and Chem there has a reputation as being super difficult. I was a Chem major for 3 years before switching to engineering. I sat in on his Chem I class during Parents' Weekend and they were teaching them quantum mechanical stuff that we didn't see until P-Chem in Junior year. They have several internet memes about the difficulty of the Chem program there.
If he wanted to do anything else other than go to med school, I wold just let him do what he wants and if he failed then he would learn from the experience. Knowing how med schools review transcripts, I feel I have to give him some guidance so he doesn't have a blown semester on his transcript.
Any advice would be appreciated...
We've been telling his that he needs to get some help with the classes (private tutor) and spend more time doing problems, etc. The only way he could get more time is to give up his sport (running). He's at a D3 school, no scholarship, and he's in the middle of the pack in terms of running ability. He enjoys running for the team and the social aspect of it (team is very close) so pulling himself off the team would be a major embarrassment. He also tends to look on the bright side of things and thinks he can pull the grades up by just doing things a little differently.
Having been in the sciences and engineering and knowing how difficult things are, how can I get across to him that he needs to make major changes or he's going to seriously damage his gpa? He's one of these kids who has never realy struggled with anything and now he thinks he can fix it with small changes and doing everything on his own.
Regarding his school: The classes are difficult and Chem there has a reputation as being super difficult. I was a Chem major for 3 years before switching to engineering. I sat in on his Chem I class during Parents' Weekend and they were teaching them quantum mechanical stuff that we didn't see until P-Chem in Junior year. They have several internet memes about the difficulty of the Chem program there.
If he wanted to do anything else other than go to med school, I wold just let him do what he wants and if he failed then he would learn from the experience. Knowing how med schools review transcripts, I feel I have to give him some guidance so he doesn't have a blown semester on his transcript.
Any advice would be appreciated...
