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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’

#291

Post by hirvi74 »

cm2187 wrote: post #190
cogman10 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty different environment going from high school to college. There's a dynamic change that's pretty sudden where your parents are no long really in the picture for support. What they are trying to do is keep the kids that would otherwise do well but might freak out in the first semester. Seems pretty fine to me especially since those are grades that if we are being honest really don't matter anyways.

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

A lot of money helped then, and it sure helps now too.

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

#292

Post by SubmarineClub »

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…

Ok?

I did the whole APs, sports, volunteering thing too, and managed to do just fine in college.

Kids today are just so fucking soft.

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

#293

Post by apocalyptic0n3 »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #210
mrngld wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get all this existential talk about college acceptance. Yes, elite schools should expect elite applicants. Meanwhile, the state school down the road is a fraction the cost, teaches a lot of the same content, and will accept anyone with a pulse. In my state, at least. State universities are somewhat competitive to get into, but state colleges... wide open. All of which is very real-world. Certain top firms rec…

> I don't get all this existential talk about college acceptance. Yes, elite schools should expect elite applicants. As a non-US person who's worked for a bunch of US companies, my belief is that the Ivy League et al act as a class system, rather than a symbol of educational attainment.

I strongly disagree. I knew a number of people who were accepted into those elite schools (two at MIT, two at Harvard, one at Brown). All but one of them were lower-to-lower middle class and only able to attend due to the grants given by the school itself. The thing they all had in common was they were incredibly intelligent and hard working. The elitism definitely exists, but it's not the way you describe in my experience

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

#294

Post by firesteelrain »

bakies wrote: post #258
firesteelrain wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How old are you? Wife has been stay at home mom since 2006. And that was when I made $40k/yr.

30

Everyone’s situation is different. It can be done.

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

#295

Post by zamadatix »

odyssey7 wrote: post #273
mrngld wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's simply pay to win then the value of a degree from an institution falls to absolutely zero. If the product a student is buying is a credential that's supposed to say "I know and can do things, pay me money please" then in order for that credential to fulfill its objective then low performing and mediocre students ("weeds") need to be filtered out. Otherwise, employers and the wider world will quickly realize t…

Paying a teacher to teach ≠ buying a credential. Failing to teach a student ≠> the student is mediocre. The student is mediocre ≠ the student is irredeemable and didn’t deserve an education in the first place. Honestly, it’s wild to me how reluctant people are to accept that teachers have a responsibility to teach their students. They will charge you $2000 a credit hour to have a teacher teach you — as if the teacher…

How is saying some students get weeded out the same thing as saying the teacher has zero responsibility to teach any of their students? Whether or not you pay or get paid to be at an educational institution, you should be weeded out (early, preferably) if you aren't going to put in your part.

A portion of the educator's role is weeding out students who are not wanting/able to engage with the material before they spend a massive amount of time and money towards stepping stone classes to something they won't try/be able to complete. A portion of the student's role is weeding out the teachers and institutions which are more interested in maximizing the money out of the student instead of teaching them well. The two weeding processes actually reinforce the right outcome together - students getting educated instead of wasting their resources.

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

#296

Post by t3hTao »

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?

As someone who lives in this area... Sorry for saying this.. Ready for it:

Nepo babies and affirmative action babies. (Dont @ me about Gratz, lets not pretend its no longer happening)

The students that come out of there are just normal. There is nothing special in the UoM sauce. They have more ego as their state school grad who makes the same money as them.

Sure there is a floor, they didn't let the alcoholic nepo baby in. But the people that made it to entry level Fortune 20 companies were the same tier, or maybe they were worse. Best engineers were people from random schools around the country that just wanted to work there.

Note: This didn't apply to people that had been there for 2 or 3 years. After that, even the UoM grads had their ego destroyed and they were normal people again.

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

#297

Post by fucktheMs »

Millennial parents have fucked up multiple generations with their corruption of “gentle parenting”

Weird that trying to appease children, giving them no boundaries, and acting like entitled assholes isn’t a good way to raise a human.

Not that beating them into submission is good either, but the pendulum swung wildly wrong.

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

#298

Post by t3hTao »

SubmarineClub wrote: post #287
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?

[flagged]

I hope 'economic' backgrounds also mean nepo babies.

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

#299

Post by hirvi74 »

alephnerd wrote: post #185
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?

Do you know what it takes to get admitted into Mich tier programs in 2026? Kids will take multiple APs (taking 10+ isn't unheard of, and in a lot of high schools is expected), do multiple extracurriculars (debate, MUN, DECA sports, academic olympiads, theatre), volunteering (NHS, CSF, etc), and even take college classes in high school. On top of that while tests are optional, most students still submit their SAT and…

That's a lot of effort to go through just to end up writing some shitty JS for some Mega corp.

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

#300

Post by cogman10 »

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #284
cogman10 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty different environment going from high school to college. There's a dynamic change that's pretty sudden where your parents are no long really in the picture for support. What they are trying to do is keep the kids that would otherwise do well but might freak out in the first semester. Seems pretty fine to me especially since those are grades that if we are being honest really don't matter anyways.

Yes.. and that friction, too, served a purpose. There it a reason it tends to be referred to as a filter, because by first year you find out whether you have what it takes to survive that environment or not. The good news for everyone is that now we get to find out in 2nd year, where our sunk cost is much greater. Hurray for winning.

First semester, not first year. And I suspect that the filter will still be in play for students because they'll still have coursework to complete. They simply don't get the grade feedback reducing the stress of perfecting that semester while they are still learning the ropes.
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