Our last post continued to explore Robert’s story and his parents’ skepticism towards the classes Robert was supposedly taking. However, the story did not end there, and his parents took the next step in the diagnostic process. Their initial symptoms needed further investigation before jumping to the conclusion.

All of the symptoms of the problem pointed to Robert not being serious about going to college.  Here are the symptoms that got Robert’s parents concerned.

1.      He was registered for 4 credit hours according to the University’s tuition statement.

2.      Robert could not recall the titles of the three 3 credit hour courses he was taking.

3.      He claimed that he had classes Monday through Friday.

Based on these symptoms, Robert’s parents concluded that he was not telling them the whole story and decided to check what was going on. Because they had paid the tuition, they were able to meet with an advisor at the university to find out how many courses Robert was truly taking. The advisor informed them that Robert was registered for three 3 credit hour courses that he was required to take as part of his major. He was also taking three 1 hour “activity” courses, considered general physical education courses ranging from weight training to bowling.

The advisor informed his parents that Robert had registered incorrectly for classes. After deducting grants, the university sent a revised statement that showed only four credit hours instead of the 15 hours he was actually taking

Symptoms of a problem can be misleading. While the symptoms pointed to Robert not taking his education seriously, his parents discovered that there was more to the story. Be careful to not jump to a conclusion before you check it out.