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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’

#221

Post by general1465 »

yrjrjjrjjtjjr wrote: post #169
watwut wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Time spent in sports is fun, not work. It is fun when it is fun, when you can skip it or do it purely because you want to. If you go to sports club because you have to, it is work and not fun. If you go volunteer or have to join the club for college application, they become work. They are not fun stuff. > Time spent in gym class and lunch is not work Gym class is work. Kids are not there voluntarily.

If your job required you to sleep 8h a night would that make it less restorative?

Absolutely. I can barely sleep when I feel pressure of what I am have to do next day, especially if it is something stressful. When somebody would be measuring performance of my sleep the idea of sleep would be stressing me out.

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

#222

Post by andsoitis »

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

Is it possible that the kids who have to study very very long hours to get a GPA decent enough to get into college are just not that sharp?

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

#223

Post by giantg2 »

ungreased0675 wrote: post #175

The University of Michigan has around a 15% acceptance rate. How is it possible that they’re letting in kids who aren’t ready to do college level work? What are they selecting for?

15% seems extremely low for a non-ivy.

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

#224

Post by Uncle_Brumpus »

naasking wrote: post #202
wolttam wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Live in an overall less uncertain environment?

What's less certain about modern environments compared to past ones?

I definitely didn't have to wonder if my career choice would be invalidated by AI by the time I graduate.

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

#225

Post by tetromino_ »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #129
bradfa wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment specifically compared it to the normal adult, my point is the normal adult who is a parent is very likely doing even more than your example of your kid. Even for adults who aren't in the elite high earner category, heck people who make less money are likely working even more hours per day just to make ends meet.

How, exactly, are they working more? How many low-paying jobs offer overtime, if they are full time at all? Any clue how many jobs won't let you work a part-time job or won't work around another job? Can't exactly work for Uber if you can't afford a decent enough car. And this is assuming you have older children that don't need childcare. The fact is that they aren't working extra, not for a job anyway. The extra wor…

> not for a job anyway

That is exactly OP's point: for OP, if a child's "working hours" includes university prep and resume-padding sports activities, then an adult's "working hours" includes housework, grocery shopping, dealing with insurance and taxes, and commute/family chauffeur time.

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

#226

Post by alephnerd »

giantg2 wrote: post #223
ungreased0675 wrote: post #175

The University of Michigan has around a 15% acceptance rate. How is it possible that they’re letting in kids who aren’t ready to do college level work? What are they selecting for?

15% seems extremely low for a non-ivy.

Because in America, Ivy versus non-Ivy isn't the distinction.

What matters is your major and whether it is a well respected program.

A CS@Texas student will have the ability to open the exact same doors professionally and prestige wise as a CS@Brown student.

You have Ivies, Ivy Tier Privates (Stanford, Chicago, Duke, USC, Caltech, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Georgetown, CMU), and Public Ivies (Cal, UCLA, UCSD, Mich, UIUC, UW, UT, GT, Purdue, UNC Chapel Hill, UVA) that all recruit the same kind of applicant and place in the same careers and employers.

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

#227

Post by anself »

wolttam wrote: post #196
cm2187 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how kids have managed to deal with that for two centuries…

Live in an overall less uncertain environment?

It’s not actually less certain now than it was then. It’s just the media has gotten louder. Cuban missilie crisis, civil rights, world wars, nuclear weapons, it has all been happening for a while.

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

#228

Post by danilafe »

firesteelrain wrote: post #164
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…

This must be a State thing. > 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 until 5:00. In other States, high school starts later like 8:45/9am. You can take classes online and start school later if you want or do dual enrollment and skip later periods. > Gotta have that activity on your college application, not counting other voluntee…

7:30 is consistent with my experience in Oregon. Work does not count in lieu of volunteer time if you're writing an essay about your involvement with the community. I don't think schools NEED both ACT or SAT but you only have so many shots and may have an affinity for one or the other, so people like to take both.

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

#229

Post by giantg2 »

hbn wrote: post #213
ungreased0675 wrote: post #175

The University of Michigan has around a 15% acceptance rate. How is it possible that they’re letting in kids who aren’t ready to do college level work? What are they selecting for?

The University I went to has like an 80% acceptance rate so it's not comparable, but I was surprised when I got into 400-level CS classes and there were people who didn't know how to program at all. Our professor assigned us to write a fast fourier transform, and when we had class next week apparently everyone claimed that it was too difficult so he changed the assignment to "find an implementation online and write a…

I went to a state school. The quality varied wildly depending on the department. It was very eye opening in the general English/writing classes when encountering people who couldn't read or write above a 4th grade level. The difference between they're, their, and there was like a riddle to some of them. Of course many didn't make it more than a semester or two.

That's the big thing - the college might be dropping the first semester grades so they can squeeze a second semester of tuition out of kids.

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

#230

Post by giantg2 »

alephnerd wrote: post #226
giantg2 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15% seems extremely low for a non-ivy.

Because in America, Ivy versus non-Ivy isn't the distinction. What matters is your major and whether it is a well respected program. A CS@Texas student will have the ability to open the exact same doors professionally and prestige wise as a CS@Brown student. You have Ivies, Ivy Tier Privates (Stanford, Chicago, Duke, USC, Caltech, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Georgetown, CMU), and Public Ivies (Cal, UCLA, UCSD, Mich, UIUC…

Some of that prestige is more regional. Perspectives change based on location and experience. The ivies tend to be more national.
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