Your Collegian Came Home With Much Less Than a Freshman "15" GPA

Unfortunately your holiday season entailed more than trimming trees and watching Dick Clark ring in the New Year. This was also the end of your kid's first semester in college. Upon his return and you getting past initially being happy to see him, keeping you up late partying to the wee... hours of the night hitting your door at three A.M. as he did down at L.M.M.U. (Lose My Mind University). It is now time to get to the business of a successful spring semester. You explain how important it is to take this opportunity seriously, how you only get one chance to be a freshman, the seriousness of a stellar GPA and its correlation to being hired for a successful career when you graduate and not a position as manager at the mall shoe store. As words calmly flow from your mouth and you begin to calculate that his current GPA is literally half of what it was when he graduated high school, something happens, you are no longer the voice of reason, fury sets in as you begin to realize the depth of his irresponsibility. "Do you realize that it cost $40,000 a year for you to go to college of which $25,000 comes directly out of my pocket". Now you threaten to make him stay home and go to the Junior College and work full time to pay rent to sleep in the room with his baby brother, you go on to explain that the 15k in scholarship money will no longer be there because you have to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 and "yours is not quite there." As you continue your tirade and discuss with your freshman what is necessary to free himself from academic probation you share with him your new friend "Academic Retention." Your son's school not only wants him to be successful but they have people in place normally upperclassman to help your student find his place at the University, find organizations that might intrigue your child, assist with finding friends, tutors, jobs, transportation, meals but most of all parents this is your avenue into your child"s new world. Yes! "Academic Retention" will help you to bridge the gap while your child is away. After all a higher success rate mean higher GPA which translates into happy parents and a continuously flourishing University.