<p>My S has a free tuition/fees at state school but must maintain a 3.3. In this case, it is not a terriby rigorous/demanding program so I am thrilled that there is this requirement to provide motivation to keep the grades up. I think 3.5 at a very selective school is too high and doesn’t allow for that transition year. It would make far more sense to have a 3.0 for freshman YEAR, with 3.5 thereafter. I liked the advice of the poster to get D to visit the other schools which are offering aid, albeit less, on more flexible terms. Also, do you know other kids from her highschool that have attended the college you are discussing? Sometimes you don’t know how well your high school has “prepped” your kid for a particular academic environment and this can be helpful background for assessing your daughter’s challenges (independent of her smarts and work attitude) to meeting that 3.5 gpa.</p>
<p>Very careful advising/class choice can have a substantial impact on GPA and protection of the scholarship.</p>
<p>Exactly…</p>
<p>Being pro-active can really help… like balancing course load, including some breaks during the day, avoiding 8 am classes unless you’re a natural early riser.</p>
<p>A couple of times my kids have signed up for 18 credits, and then quickly dropped (or changed) a class that they didn’t think they’d do well in. </p>
<p>As for “distribution requirements” - I’m guessing that those are Core Requirements or General Ed requirements (schools use different lingos…LOL)… If the school is large enough, usually there are a fair number of choices that a student can take to fulfill requirements and usually a school will offer some that are rather easy courses that will fulfill those req’ts.</p>
<p>Also…if the school is generous with AP credits and your D will come in with some (or IB), then that can also help ensure a strong GPA.</p>
<p>**Lastly, feel free to appeal for a lower GPA requirement (be reasonable…LOL). It would SURE help if during the appeal, you faxed the school a copy of the other scholarships your D has received that require a lower GPA. </p>
<p>I imagine that they must want your D’s stats since they are offering her a free ride. 
**</p>
<p>Hey guys, thank yyou all so much for the great feedback and comments. You’ve provided some terrific suggestions on aspects for us to examine more carefully. We will definitely look at the add/drop and pass/fail policies and try to get a fix on current success rates to help estimate the odds. </p>
<p>D has visited most, but not all of the schools and we have been running through a number scenarios in an effort to navigate the labyrinth. It’s become an interesting game. In fact, I think we might have a prototype for a CC board game :). Apart from any emotional distress, the worst case scenario right now seems to be that if she loses the scholarship she will transfer into State U where I believe she is able to retain her full resident scholarship priviliges for up to 3 years after H.S. We need to reverify that, but if true, then I think we’d have a reasonable plan B. </p>
<p>As far as her ability to handle college level rigor at a 3.5 GPA grade level for what she wants to study, this is a wildcard. Her H.S. is relatively new and I’m pretty sure she’d be the first to attend this school. Also, the overwhelming majority of students remain in state at public universities and her school does not have a track record of sending many students to selective schools - maybe three or four each year. However, D2 came out of the same system and attends W&L, which is pretty rigorous, and is doing quite well, but does not achieve a 3.5 every semester. Interestingly, I asked her about this and she says she thinks she could stay at a 3.5 GPA if she had to do it, but felt it would not be worth the tradeoff of possibly having to curb some of her non academic pursuits or over thinking every course selection. </p>
<p>And yes, the stress factor is definitely a consideration. D is optimistic, but I don’t think she has the life experience or frame of reference to fully contemplate the potential impact of having the added pressure, or how much it can influence the overall experience. Fortunately, she’s not the fragile type, but still…</p>
<p>FLV- although it is true that by choosing classes carefully and maintaining close control over one’s schedule it is possible to keep the 3.5… I know kids who have only been able to do that by graduating in 9 semesters, or 8 semesters plus two summers. Sometimes you’ve just got no choice but to take a hard, required class when it’s offered… and if there’s nothing else that fits with the time commitments you’ve made, a kid has to drop another class and extend their time in college. In certain majors sequencing is also a problem- so your D may be forced to take a class with a tough professor or at a time of day when she’s not at her best, just because it’s the only way to fit in all of her required classes.</p>
<p>For the parents of the kids who end up on the 5 year plan, or four years plus summers, the financial implications are tough- kids kept the scholarship but the out of pocket increased. </p>
<p>See if this college will allow credit for classes taken elsewhere during the summer (so she can find a college with cheap tuition, commute from home, etc.) if she ends up having to drop a class to maintain her GPA.</p>
<p>Also- explore the policy on the dreaded “W”. This is huge. At some colleges, you can withdraw from a class up until two weeks before the final, you get a W which gets washed away when the kid takes the course and passes with a C or better. At others, the W is permanently on the transcript and is factored into the GPA somehow (it’s not an F but it gives a “haircut” to the grade eventually earned in the class.)</p>
<p>Your D sounds mature and with good work habits. But stuff happens- all my kids had at least one semester which involved a course dropped. None of it was for frivolous reasons- suicidal roommate, a bad case of the flu and then a sinus infection, etc. You don’t want your kid going nuts because she can’t drop a course without risking the dreaded W. Agree that it’s great to have a positive incentive for her to be diligent and to do her work, go to class, etc. but sometimes stuff happens beyond a kid’s control which impacts the GPA.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind…if there is a class or two that your D thinks might bring her GPA down, if possible, save that class for senior year.</p>
<p>Mom2- my point (badly stated) was that sometimes those “bring down GPA” courses are required in a sequence for a major. So if you’re majoring in econ you can’t wait until Senior year to take one of the early required courses in the sequence- and a few of them, particularly the quant based ones, can be killers. Ditto for Org chem, etc. A psych major may need a statistics course early on and since those will be loaded up with lots of people who need the class for any social science or science major, some of them will have had AP Stats in HS or just be naturally oriented towards the subject.</p>
<p>So you can’t defer some of the very tough grading classes until senior year- without adding on the extra year that I mentioned. So since Year 5 will be 100% out of pocket, you have to do the math to see if that’s even an affordable option. </p>
<p>I know SO MANY KIDS who had to scramble for Year 5. merit awards are gone. parents are tapped out. Kid wants to preserve the ability to borrow for grad school- not for Year 5 of undergrad. So in addition to maintaining what seems to be a stiff GPA, this kid has to make sure she can get out in 8 semesters.</p>
<p>FLVADAD, what’s your daughter’s intended major?</p>
<p>As the parent of one kid who dropped out of his first college with a weak GPA, and another kid who is attending a far more rigorous college and whose per-semester GPA has never gone below 3.6 – I have to say that the difference was entirely one of attitude and internal discipline. The biggest problem I encountered with my d. was her absolute panic at receiving a C on her first college midterm – she took that as a huge wakeup call, buckled down, and as far as I know, that was the last “C” she ever got on an exam. I think my son had a much more laid back attitude, and took C’s and D’s and incompletes in stride, unfortunately. He did get on track and become an A student at another college a few years down the line, after an intervening period in the work force – again, attitude is very important.</p>
<p>My d. is proactive. She keeps up on reading assignments. She attends office hours with profs when needed and scheduled course recitations with the TA’s. She forms and joins study groups for any sort of class that gives her difficulty. </p>
<p>I did worry about whether she would be able to keep up and – fortunately - she doesn’t have a scholarship riding on her GPA. On the other hand, the need-based financial aid system is difficult for me to navigate or predict as a self-employed, single parent with a marginally cooperative, noncontributing ex-spouse – and every year we have been faced with the possibility that the numbers won’t work out for the following year. So this is just a risk we decided to live with – admittedly I was breathing a great big sigh of relief when the award for senior year was manageable. </p>
<p>As much as I worried about whether my daughter would be able to keep up in a highly competitive environment – I think I would have done her a great disservice if I had not allowed her the chance to try, when that is what she wanted. As we are near graduation, I can see the benefits --she will have an honors-level degree from a very prestigious college and already I can see some very concrete benefits related to her future career plans. </p>
<p>It’s smart to be careful and to consider all possible outcomes, but at the same time sometimes you have to take a risk in order to reap a greater benefit. So I do think that if your daughter makes this choice with her eyes wide open, you should support and encourage her. I think down the line sometimes “I tried X but didn’t succeed” is a better outcome than “I had the opportunity to do X but was afraid to try.” My son the once college dropout expressed a similar feeling to me during the hiatus period – yes, he messed up at the first college, but he knew the risks going in. His long term outcome was fine, too - in hindsight he was better off for his mistakes as well, even if it took longer than planned for him to earn a degree.</p>
<p>Perhaps this is a minority parent viewpoint, but I believe that if a high-school senior is capable and strong enough to merit a full ride at a university, the decision to attend or not should be the student’s. I would take the good advice everyone has put forth here and lay it out for my daughter and let her decide.</p>
<p>Blossom…I agree with your point. That’s why I said, “if possible.” Obviously, if a course is part of a sequence, that’s not possible (unless it’s the last class of the sequence).</p>
<p>I still think that the OP needs to fax the school copies of the other scholarships that the D has received to show that other schools are offering her scholarships with lower GPA req’ts to see if they’ll match (lower) the requirement. :)</p>
<p>I have read all the post, but haven’t seen this scenario presented, so here goes.</p>
<p>OP says it’s 3.5 per semester, but if not met in a given semester will have one more semester to get it back to 3.5. Would that be cum? In other words, say she get 3.3 in a semester. Does she then only have to get 3.5 in the next, or does she need 3.7 to balance the 3.3?</p>
<p>3.5 to keep a scholarship is scary.</p>
<p>My D was awarded nice money to 9 schools, and all had 3.0 except one that had 3.25.</p>
<p>Normally the requirement is to keep the cumulative GPA above a certain value. So a student with a 3.3 freshman year first semester would need a 3.7 the second semester, over the same number or more units, to be out of the ditch.</p>
<p>Would it be possible to contact the other schools she is considering and see if they would “hold” the scholarship for a year. It’s probably unlikely, but worth a try. Or you could ask the chances of receiving a transfer scholarship. The problem with that would be if you didn’t have a 3.5 freshman year, it would be difficult to get a transfer scholly. My D also has a full tuition scholly which requires a 3.0. She also got an additional one with a 3.5 requirement. I also think that is high.
Another option would be to take some “easy” classes freshman year and take a light as load as possible to hopefully build up a cushion above 3.5. If she even had to go an extra semester, you’d be money ahead.</p>
<p>I would not let my kid take the scholarship with the 3.5 - not with other good options on the table…</p>
<p>A 3.5 is a difficult GPA to maintain especially in engineering. I think schools offer scholarships such as the one you have mentioned to get the tippy top kids to attend. To expect an 18 year old who is just stepping foot on a campus to maintain a 3.5 is what I would refer to as an empty offer…too many kids lose these scholarships and the pressure is just too great on the engineering students. All too often, parents are still in the frame of mind that their super star academic kid is leaps and bounds ahead of their peers, only to realize later, that college is a different thing. Depending on the school a kid is considering, I would most likely discourage the acceptance of such an offer that places that amount of pressure on an 18 year old. In other words if your daughter currently has a very high GPA, board scores and a very full EC life than there is a possibility that maintaining this GPA in a lower ranked school is possible. I just don’t like seeing kids have this type of burden on them…especially if another school is showing the love without such a huge demand.</p>
<p>I double-checked & have confirmed that neither of my kids consistently maintained a 3.5 through their college careers to date. I did as an undergrad (which was pretty unusual), but I did not expect it of my kids. A U that offered my S a full-ride (requiring a 3.5) admitted that MANY of their students lose the scholarship in their 1st year. On a CC thread, I read about many of them. I’m glad my S accepted the 1/2 tuition merit award at a U he loved that only required a 3.0. He has never been in danger of losing his funding and has been able to take some academic risks and enjoy his courses.</p>
<p>Milesage varies considerably among all our kids, and if you & your D are happy with having her accept this scholarship with your plan B of transferring to in-state public if she loses her award, I’m sure it will be a good choice for your D. It does sound like she has many good optoins, even if the choices you and your D are making are different from those some of us might encourage or make in similar circumstances.</p>
<p>momma-three, FLVADAD made it clear that his daughter is NOT planning to major in engineering or any science (post #6). I agree with you that its tough to maintain a strong GPA in engineering. I don’t think its all that tough in humanities & social sciences, though that may depend on the school. But I think that demonstrated effort gets rewarded more outside of math & sciences, especially for a student who can write well. </p>
<p>The real question is whether this student wants to take on the responsibility.</p>
<p>My d. very much wanted to get into a particular graduate program – she was not accepted – but once she decided she was aiming for that, I think that she put plenty of pressure on herself to get strong grades. I’m sure students who are pre-med or pre-law are also putting the same sort of pressure on themselves. A below 3.5 cumulative GPA isn’t going to be competitive for the top law schools. Its also a lot harder to bring up a lower GPA than to start off strong. </p>
<p>My point is that this kid may very well be going into college with the aim of maintaining a 3.5+ in any case because of her future educational or career aspirations. That doesn’t mean she will necessarily succeed – but I think that it is a reasonable goal.</p>
<p>Also, the potential loss of a full ride scholarship does not necessarily mean that all funding will be lost. My son totally messed up his first couple of years of college, quit school, transferred into a public U. with no financial aid whatsoever – and applied for scholarships during his junior year that in combination gave him a free ride for his senior year. So I do think that its important for the parent to have a frank discussion with the daughter about finances — but I also think that this student deserves credit for her accomplishments and hard work thus far. </p>
<p>She should wait until all results are in before making her final decision – there’s time to think things over and she might still change her mind. But it seems to me that there are a lot of people posting here who have very little faith in a student who has demonstrated that she is quite capable.</p>
<p>calmon…thats what I get for not reading…The part that caught my eye was that 3.5 to keep the scholarship.</p>
<p>Doesn’t anyone else think that they should contact the school and fax copies to show that she has other offers that require a lower GPA to see if they’ll match that (or at least lower to a more reasonable number)?</p>
<p>My son kept kept a GPA of 3.5 or higher all 4 years of school, but he was in Psych/Econ and not a drinker (which he thinks helped freshman year) My D got a scholarship that would need a 3.5 GPA and is seriously considering not taking it. She wants to do Biology and not have that over her head, 3.3, 3.0, but 3.5 every semester is hard.
I would also ask the length of a grace period.
I don’t think lower GPA offers would matter, but it can’t hurt. I don’t think I would like that one student got the same scholarship as my daughter but a lower GPA requirement.
I know at Drew, with the Baldwins Scholarship (3.5)everyone has to to keep it, which helps them study together and hopefully stay on course. It isn’t an easy decision.</p>
<p>FLVADAD, short and sweet…Too much pressure for her to keep too high of GPA. As someone else replied…college isn’t high school. Let her enjoy her undergrad years a bit.</p>