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U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

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Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#411

Post by ratelimitsteve »

peterlk wrote: post #373
Aurornis wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you force high school kids to work days that are significantly longer than a normal adult to achieve a good GPA and get into a good college, My neighborhood and social circle have a number of high school age children, some aiming for high ranking universities. None of them have these grueling 15 hour day schedules you’re describing. I don’t even know of a high school around me that starts at 7:30AM. What unive…

It’s been a while, but when I was in high school, I was up at 6:30 so that I could run through the shower, get to 7AM jazz band late, be at school until 4ish, then off to my minimum-ish wage job until it was time to go to evening jazz/symphony/other bands. Home at 8 or 9; bullshit some homework for a passable grade; and then do it again (I was often doing homework during band practices). Weekends were music events. I…

this closely matches my experience graduating with a C average and getting accepted to a branch campus of a public university. I then crashed hard out of that school because, as you said, suddenly I actually had a lot more agency and a lot less responsibility.

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#412

Post by bakies »

_zoltan_ wrote: post #359
bakies wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30

my wife was stay at home when I was 30. doesn't change a thing. I earned much less then, and we had a different lifestyle (and less kids :-))

Sounds like a lot was different and those things cause change

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#413

Post by bakies »

vel0city wrote: post #347
bakies wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30

I've known many families around that age (+/- 5 years) with a stay at home spouse taking care of multiple kids. It really shapes their lifestyle in a lot of ways (smaller/older house, rarely eat out, rarely big family vacations, clothes/toys often from secondhand consignment stores, fewer/cheaper vehicles, etc.), but that's what's important to them so that's how they've set their priorities. Most didn't come from ext…

That's mostly speaking personal anecdote and live in a wealthy area. So that drives the point

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#414

Post by codedokode »

Joker_vD wrote: post #161
joezydeco wrote: post #15

When you force high school kids to work days that are significantly longer than a normal adult to achieve a good GPA and get into a good college, you can expect that they are going to throttle back once they're away from home with way more free time than is normal. From my kid's experience: she was up at 6:30am, in AP classes by 7:30am (three more to go during the day). Classes were done by 3:00, then sports practice…

> sports practice until 5:00. Gotta have that activity on your college application, not counting other volunteering and clubs in the open spaces. Still baffles me why is that even a thing that's considered at the colleges. I thought it was just a relic of Soviet past but no, apparently it exists in the US and other first world countries as well for some strange reason.

Indeed it doesn't make sense to require sports achievements from someone wanting to study math.

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#415

Post by rtkwe »

chasd00 wrote: post #312
rtkwe wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College is a pretty large step up for most people even if they're good at high school and go to a relatively decent one. It's a sudden promotion to full adult in charge of yourself and your success in a way that's hard to prepare for living at home.

> College is a pretty large step up for most people but it's always been this way since forever. Why would it need to change now and not a hundred years ago? What circumstances are different?

Places are more concerned about mental health now for starters.

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#416

Post by ux266478 »

wredcoll wrote: post #381
randusername wrote: post #372

This is a bewildering article and discussion. Grades and academic performance are outcomes. They're indirect stressors at best; why would one generation suddenly be unable to cope? The real story is what has changed to increase the stakes of grades. I suspect freshmen are taking out historic debt to contend with food, housing, and tuition costs meanwhile the entry-level job market is extraordinarily competitive. Ther…

Famously places like china/india/japan/etc have extremely traumatic final exams. There was just an article about suicides from some kind of (indian?) final exam screw up. It doesn't take much of a logical leap to associate it with the pressure put on the children taking the tests. Presumably that kind of pressure ia coming to america.

American culture incorporates a sense of institutional nihilism that India and China do not have (at a large scale). As globalism winds down and population contraction starts to take hold, it seems far more likely to me that the resulting labor dynamics will end up killing the post-war approach to higher education, particularly as white collar jobs end up constituting less of the economy.

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#417

Post by nobodyandproud »

7402 wrote: post #410
wredcoll wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Famously places like china/india/japan/etc have extremely traumatic final exams. There was just an article about suicides from some kind of (indian?) final exam screw up. It doesn't take much of a logical leap to associate it with the pressure put on the children taking the tests. Presumably that kind of pressure ia coming to america.

children? Showing my age here, I guess. Fifty years ago, 18-year-olds in college were referred to as "men" and "women."

You must've heard the viral claims that the brain doesn't fully develop until 26?

Nevermind that actual findings like https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260218031606.h... and https://scitechdaily.com/your-brain-doesnt-magically-finish-... say something completely different.

Though auto-insurance claims do show some truth to late teens and early twenties drivers being...not mentally ready.

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#418

Post by GPerson »

Aurornis wrote: post #187
joezydeco wrote: post #15

When you force high school kids to work days that are significantly longer than a normal adult to achieve a good GPA and get into a good college, you can expect that they are going to throttle back once they're away from home with way more free time than is normal. From my kid's experience: she was up at 6:30am, in AP classes by 7:30am (three more to go during the day). Classes were done by 3:00, then sports practice…

> When you force high school kids to work days that are significantly longer than a normal adult to achieve a good GPA and get into a good college, My neighborhood and social circle have a number of high school age children, some aiming for high ranking universities. None of them have these grueling 15 hour day schedules you’re describing. I don’t even know of a high school around me that starts at 7:30AM. What unive…

The OP is describing my experience. (Result: deferred from MIT, so it was somewhat for nought.)

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#419

Post by alephnerd »

smcg wrote: post #345
alephnerd wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They ain't. A non-trivial amount of people have not heard of Brown or Dartmouth, and confuse UPenn with Penn State. Hell, I didn't hear about Brown until high school and I ended up attending an Ivy lol. And employers and us alums of these programs know the difference is marginal.

Every employer in the northeast knows who Brown and Dartmouth are.

The Northeast isn't the rest of America, the same way someone in Maine isn't necessarily going to think about CMC or Harvey Mudd similarly Brown or Dartmouth doesn't come up much or at all.

Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’

#420

Post by halls-940 »

mitchdoogle wrote: post #338
halls-940 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you look at real wages vs cost of living and the trend line is down and showing no signs of ever going back up, the question will I be able to afford the resources to survive and have a family, will my kids be able to afford a home, that's the growing uncertainty.

What are you looking at? Economic data shows real wages have trended up over the last 40 years, at least in the United States. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Household income is not wages. If people work more hours income goes up while wages are flat. That series only includes full-time workers. High earners are doing better, that's the k-shaped economy. The upside of going to college is being carved out by changes in the labor market. A more representative measure would be average wage for non supervisory roles which is flat since the 1970s. Lower earners face higher inflation than the CPI because more of their paycheck goes to necessities. CPI shelter is what I'm interested in.
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