University of Michigan says it has invented a 'way'....to hide first-semester grades on transcripts....for students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Reason? Well....they say a fair number of kids are not doing well in the first semester of college, and this is in some way....creating a mental-health crisis.
I paused over this.
What they hint at....the grades are there and easily seen by the 2nd year and at the end of the degree process....but it can't be seen as you approach the end of the first semester.
About ten years ago....I was reading a piece by a college administrator....who did the 'count' of 1st year students who quit (never come back after the 1st or 2nd semester. For their college....it was something near 40-percent who didn't survive the first year. They didn't get into details....but it made me wonder....financially, did they need the crappy students to attend two semesters....to make the business plan of the college work (at least on paper)?
While working at the Pentagon....I worked with a civilian whose daughter totally crapped out of the first year....roughly $28,000 in total cost (tuition, cost of living, dorm, car, etc). He came into work one day....total crisis....the daughter more-or-less admitting that college was way over her head (this was a B-average high school student). I asked....did the high school just pad the grades and inflate her intellectually? He'd reached the point of believing that. He had to get her into some mental health BS for three months, and then she ended up at local community college....doing physical-rehab study.
The system broke? It makes me wonder about that.
