o get a student’s perspective, GoodCall spoke with Joyia Williams, who just finished her freshman year on the President’s List at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Williams, who was the valedictorian of her high school senior class and is attending college on a full scholarship, is accustomed to being an A student, and says she has the discipline and study skills needed to stay on her current trajectory.
However, she has college friends and classmates who are not returning to school for their sophomore year. “They weren’t doing well in school. They were more focused on fun than academics, and their grades suffered,” says Williams. She explains that these students did not manage their time well. “They slept late, stayed out late, didn’t study, and their parents decided that it was too expensive to keep them in school if they were not going to maintain good grades.”
Gina DeLapa, a licensed professional counselor who spent over 10 years working as a career counselor at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, has seen many students who fit this profile. “First, over the last several decades, college tuition has risen not just incrementally but exponentially, and families expect to see some sort of return on that investment.” If they don’t – for example, the student is earning poor grades – DeLapa says families question why they’re sacrificing so much for so little.
She recommends connecting students to services on campus before they get into trouble academically. “For example, how many students go talk to their professors? How many use tutoring services or take a seminar on how to sharpen their study skills?”