Dear Parents,
As you may already know, students’ stress levels rise as the semester midterms arrive. Students are becoming accustomed to new academic standards of college professors and should know where they stand in all their classes. Your students are able to calculate their course averages based on the grade outline that professors place in their course syllabi. Students are also now receiving academic warnings and mid-term grades from professors (see attachment); parents will not receive copies of these warnings. Now is a good time talk to your student about his or her academic progress. Be forewarned that grades may not be as high as you might expect. Please take into account the factors discussed in the following paragraphs before you immediately suspect your student of not doing the work he or she should.
At the high school level, grades were probably not really a concern for your students. They often breezed through classes, not worrying about the paper due in two days, since they could probably hammer it out in about two hours and pass successfully. Now your students might find themselves presented with a different situation. Classes are more difficult and students find that managing their studies, friends, and extracurricular activities can become quite the struggle. Students who did not need to study much in the past find themselves cramming for the exam that looms on the horizon. They also find themselves starting papers weeks in advance. While they work hard to stay afloat, there is a difference in the grades between high school and college. Good students continue to do well. However, they must work much harder and often find keeping up with studies a bit overwhelming.
Of all the adjustments students undergo during the first semester of college, becoming accustomed to new academic standards is surely one of the most difficult. Last year, more than 85% of UP’s freshman class had a high school grade point average (GPA) between 3.3 and 4.0. After one semester, just over 60% fall into that range. Over 50% had a high school GPA between 3.7 and 4.0 and in the first semester, 29% fall into that range.
Students and their parents may be surprised that fall semester grades are lower than they are used to seeing on high school report cards. Be aware that a decline in GPA is common. A national study of individual student’s grades found that almost half of students earned lower grades in college than in high school, one in three earned the same grades, and only one in five students earned higher grades.
One of the reasons for this decline is in part due to greater demands in college, and the competition is more stiff. Students used to being at the top of their classes now find themselves in a group of equally capable, hard-working and serious peers. The very qualities that may have made a student a standout in high school are now considered "average."
Another factor to consider in the difference between high school and college grades is the pervasive problem of grade inflation. The tendency to assign higher grades for lower performance may give many high school students an unrealistic idea of what is required to do well in college. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, college freshmen in 1966 who had a high school GPA of C or below outnumbered those with A averages 2 to 1. In 1998, just the opposite was true; twice as many college freshmen reported high school GPAs of A- or higher as those with C’s. Before we say that freshmen today simply took their high school years more seriously than did previous generations, consider the fact that in 1966, college freshmen reported studying an average of 3 hours a week during high school. For freshmen in 1998, the number dropped to 2.8 hours each week doing homework.
The problem of grade inflation is not limited to high schools, of course, and professors at UP face the same pressures as their colleagues at other schools to assign B’s and even A’s for mediocre work. Most UP faculty, however, are committed to setting high standards for their students and grading them realistically on their performance, seeking to prepare them for life, rather than just boosting GPAs.
The one caution we give you is to remind your student they will be graded on mastery of material, not how hard they work, as might have been the case in high school. If they are having problems mastering the material, they should immediately make an appointment to discuss the material with their professor or visit them during office hours. Also, remind them that unlike high school teachers, professors will rarely give out extra credit projects to raise grades. They have to pace themselves throughout the semester and seek help as the need arises.
Academic resources and support abound at UP, so if your student needs help, please have them see their professor, or come see us at the Shepard Academic Resource Center in Buckley Center Room #101, or by email:
sarc@up.edu. Please see additional resources available for parents and families on our website to assist you in parenting your first year student.