Students’ final grades are visible in WIN today. This can be a really sensitive, touchy subject – particularly for our ’25s who are still learning the expectations of college academics and adjusting to all the associated transitions of living in a new place, being totally independent, etc. No matter what year your Deac is, it might be a good time to revisit my annual fall column, Grade Expectations, to help frame thinking about grades.
Your Deac may not show this to you directly, but over the years, many a student has told me how worried they are at their family’s reaction to their final grades. Their fears fall in one of many directions: fear of potential anger their grades aren’t higher. Fear of disappointing you. Fear that you will think they have wasted your tuition money. Fear that you will impose a strict GPA limit next semester that they won’t be able to meet. Fear that you love their [real or imagined] more successful sibling more. Fear that you expect them to be perfect [even if you never said that!] And on and on.
What I encourage my students to do is think reflectively on their grades, asking rhetorical questions like: did I do my best work? Did I devote enough time to studying? Did I study/do homework in a place conducive to focus and concentration? Did I balance work and play appropriately? Did I get free tutoring if I needed it? Did I go to my faculty member’s office hours? Did I procrastinate? etc. And if they did their best, let it rest. If there are places they can improve next semester, do it – but don’t beat yourself up about your grades. Learn from them and apply that learning going forward next semester.
In campus life news, this message was sent on 12/11 to Potential New Members (i.e., women signed up for sorority recruitment) with updates with Panhellenic Recruitment.
One more thing to share today. We have some wonderful news to announce today: the Kern Family Foundation has awarded Wake Forest an $8.6 million grant to develop programs that put character at the center of preparing students for work in the professions:
“The new funding will enable the University to build character-based leadership development into professional and pre-professional programs in groundbreaking ways. Plans include the creation of a Center for Personal and Professional Development at the School of Medicine and a program to prepare law students for work with judges after graduation. The grant will also support professional advising for pre-law and pre-med undergraduate students that integrates larger questions of character, purpose and professional identity. Funding from the Foundation will help expand character-based initiatives already underway in the Department of Engineering and foster interdisciplinary learning opportunities for professional school students and faculty that extend beyond the classroom.”
You can read the full storyhere. We look forward to seeing all the ways this grant will positively impact our campus!
