A picture is worth a thousand words; a GPA, not so much. Your freshman’s GPA may be much lower than you expected. In fact, you may be wondering why your exceptional freshman’s grades are so low.

Your freshman’s GPA may be lower than you (or your freshman) anticipated for many reasons, but this number only gives you a glimpse into your freshman’s college experience.

What does your freshman’s GPA not tell you? Below are three things that you may not realize if you rely on a GPA to indicate how your freshman is doing.

Your freshman is struggling to manage time well.

Your child’s GPA indirectly hints that time management may be the problem. His studying skills may be good. His diligence may be off-the-charts. However, he can’t seem to plan ahead and stick to a schedule. This may be the real struggle that is keeping his GPA from improving.

Time management is often the biggest struggle for incoming college freshman. (If most upperclassmen are honest, this is a big struggle for them too.) Learning to manage all of his time without any help from mom or dad is a new experience.

Your child is used to having reminders or a parent to fall back on. When he forgot to bring a textbook or to pack a lunch, mom or dad was there to help. No longer can your freshman assume the problem is with someone else. He’s the problem, but before college he may have never had to take full ownership and exert the self-discipline discipline needed to fix it.

Read this post entitled “Why Your Freshman's Grades Are Lower in College And What You Can Do About It” to learn how you can help!

Your freshman is struggling to balance a social life, a job, and academics.

Connected with time management, your freshman is struggling to balance adult life. In the past, his social life was likely tied heavily to classmates, extracurriculars, and work. Now his friendships function more independently from school and work. For a freshman, this can be a difficult transition.

With a more demanding academic load and schedule, your freshman likely relishes time spent with friends or alone in his dorm room. He needs to recharge and needs outlets to do so. However, your freshman can easily spend time he should be spending on his classes on other activities that recharge his energy. 

Taking a break from classes and work is important. Your freshman needs to establish work-life balance before his career begins. Unfortunately for him, figuring out this balance will take some trial and error.

Read this post entitled “Let Your Freshman Fight His Own Battles” or this post entitled “Why Hesitating to Respond May Be the Best Thing for Your College Freshman” if you find yourself struggling to know when to step in and when to step back.

Your freshman is learning by making mistakes.

Your child’s GPA often doesn’t show progress. Let me explain. Your freshman may have a bad first semester. His GPA may be so low that you consider encouraging him to take a gap year or semester before returning. The next semester your freshman may improve slightly his grades, but his GPA barely reflects this growth.

Some college freshmen have to fail or struggle repeatedly with the same problem over and over before they take action. Their circumstances must be so uncomfortable that they are forced into action, because no amount of pressure from you will change their actions. They have to chose to take responsibility and change their behavior.

As a parent, you hate to see your child’s future be in possible jeopardy due to your freshman not taking his college classes seriously. However, sometimes failing a class or being put on academic probation can be the exact wake-up call your freshman needs.

Learn more about the lessons your freshman is learning in this post “What Your College Freshman Learns During First Semester” and this post “What Your College Freshman Learns From Returning From a Bad Semester.”

Your freshman’s GPA only shows part of the picture. Your freshman is likely learning more about life than you realize, even if his grades are not reflecting this reality. Your freshman’s story is much bigger than his GPA.