<p>My daughter is a sophomore at a large state university. She must have a 3.2 at the end of spring quarter in order to keep her scholarship. After fall quarter she has a 3.1. I don't know if she will make it.</p>
<p>I was reading the thread about why engineering is so hard, so I started to think that maybe other engineering majors have lost scholarships. I guess not.</p>
<p>I'm glad my daughter likes what she is studying, but I wish she weren't in this position.</p>
<p>sportsmama, S also lost his merit scholarship after freshman yr. He was always a solid B+ (not straight A) student in hs and had a very rough time adjusting to college life during his first year. He also has mild Asperger's so I suspect that his difficulties adjusting socially and to a new environment very different from his hs environement may have played a large part in his academic performance more than we expected (fortunately, his school adjusted his grant aid - a very nice surprise! - just enough so that he has been able to stay at his school and did not have to transfer to our cheaper state school; S is also contributing a larger portion of his earnings to help pay for the now higher annual costs). </p>
<p>I once read somewhere that one of the top reasons many engineering students switch majors after their first year (the rate is quite high at many schools) is in order to keep their scholarships, which is such a shame for kids (like ours) who really like this area of study but also need financial assistance.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply, scansmom. Even though it doesn't change things, it's comforting to know that others have traveled this path. My daughter works about 15-20 hours per week during the school year and studies hard. Her grades have risen just a bit every quarter, as she has learned how to study in college, but she may not have enough time to get her gpa to where it needs to be. Frustrating . . .</p>
<p>Last year, when my son was a senior in hs , he received a scholarship from a college with a 3.5 gpa minimun requirement for subsequent terms in engineering. I thought that was way to high and therefore, we did not factor that into the financial equation. In the end, he did not go to that particular school anyway. </p>
<p>The point, however, is that I think these gpa requirements are not realistic for a freshman who are taking mainly science/math courses. A 3.0 would be better and a lot less pressure.</p>
<p>Bonmar, I wonder if this is the same school my daughter attends. She is currently a sophomore with a 3.3, but a 3.5 was required to keep her initial scholarship, so she lost it. (Going into freshman year, we didn't think this would be a problem, since she had a 4.3 at a competitive h.s.) What makes this even worse is that her school changed their policy for the current freshman class; the scholarship is MUCH larger, and they only need to have a 3.0 to keep it. This makes much more sense, but it sure leaves a bad feeling for those of us stuck under the old rules.
Sportsmama, you might want to check with the College of Engineering at your school. At my daughter's school, they awarded some significant scholarships directly through her department.</p>
<p>It'll vary with the college but at the top UCs, which are already very selective in admissions to their schools of engineering (only top HS students are admitted), the average GPA in CS and some other engineering majors is somewhere around 2.6-2.8 which means that over half of these very bright students are below that 3.2 cutoff. I think the colleges know this when they offer some of these scholarships - i.e. that the payout will only be some percentage of the offers. Unfortunately many students and parents don't realize that there's a good chance their 4.0+ HS students could easily end up with less than a 3.0 when enrolled in an engineering program at a selective school that might be filled with engineering weeder classes and they can get too dependent on these scholarships that'll prove difficult to achieve and maintain. </p>
<p>I think when it comes to these scholarships that are dependent on maintaining a high GPA where more than half of a selective group of students will not be able to maintain that GPA, the approach should be one of - if you get the scholarship then great but if not, it won't be a deal-breaker or stress-inducer.</p>
<p>SportsMama - I'm sure plenty of engineering students who had these high GPA conditions have lost their scholarship offers due to a GPA not as high as specified. Aside from this artificial scholarship GPA number, I think your D is doing well to maintain above a 3.0 in engineering. I don't know about her school but that could well be in the top half of a selective class and she'll do fine when it comes to the job search time.</p>