I was very excited to make it to Finalist in the National Merit program, especially because Baylor is one of my top choices. However, I did see that for the Regents’ Gold (which is for NMF), there is a minimum GPA requirement of 3.5. My older brother just graduated from Baylor in CS, and advised me against taking the risk - apparently it is nearly impossible to maintain a 3.5? I am looking at either biology or neuroscience, which I know would be among the more rigorous majors. I had a 4.0 all through high school, but I know college is a different story - does anybody have any advice for how possible keeping a 3.5 might be?
On somewhat of a tangent, any advice as well for choosing one of those majors over the other?
Did your brother graduate from your same HS? Did he have similar grades/prep as you?
Bio will require more chem than Neuro. The degree plan maps are here https://www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences/casa/index.php?id=942235 to get an idea of the classes for each major. Possibly you can review each to get an idea of the required courses.
For the Regent’s Gold, after your freshman year, if your gpa is below 3.5 you are on probation for the second year but keep the scholarship. If after sophomore year you are below 3.5, you lose the scholarship. So you will have it for 2yrs minimum. I don’t know if the Regent’s gold award increases each year to cover the rise in tuition costs.
Maintaining 3.5 is not difficult at all for NMF. My daughter graduated with GPA 3.8 . If you are planning to go to medschool, then you should target the GPA of 3.75 or more.
My daughter is a freshman University Scholar at Baylor, with one of her concentrations in Neuroscience. My observation is that neuro is harder than bio. I realize that she is only one year in, but I don’t anticipate maintaining a 3.5 will be difficult for her. I don’t mean that Baylor courses are easy (we’ve been pleasantly surprised that the honors courses can be quite challenging), just that a bright, disciplined student can get As in over half of them. You can probably call admissions and see if they will give you stats on Regents Gold scholars that finish with the scholarship — I am sure that most do.
As @ccsouth suggested, you probably know how you compare in study skills and academic achievement with your brother. So you can make up your own mind, but most Regents Gold scholars will be just fine.
He graduated from a different high school; we’ve moved since then. He had actually been a NMF as well - just in Arkansas vs in Michigan where I made it. Thank you for all your advice; I will definitely be taking it into consideration as I near the final college choice deadline.