<p>A year ago, I was surprised when my child was given a guaranteed, four-year merit scholarship to a top LAC with no minimum GPA requirement attached. All of her other merit opportunities were conditional: maintain a 3.0 or 3.25 or 3.50 to keep the scholarship. One school increased the minimum GPA each year, starting at 2.75 for Freshman Year, and moving up to 3.00 after that. </p>
<p>I have no problem with a college that wants to impose minimum GPAs, and I don't think 3.00 is a difficult task unless you're partying all the time. Although I realize College A may be vastly more rigorous and competitive than College B, so that 3.00 or 3.25 requirement might be a steeper climb depending the college or university and depending on one's major. </p>
<p>Mainly, I'm amazed to learn that there are colleges and universities that offer merit scholarships without such a requirement, perhaps to avoid creating a dog-eat-dog competitive environment? And I'm talking about a real, genuine MERIT scholarship. I'm not talking about a grant or other FAFSA need-based type "scholarships." </p>
<p>I'm wondering if there are other colleges besides Oberlin that have the philosophy that merit scholarships should not come with a minimum GPA attached (other than the 2.0 needed to get a degree).</p>
<p>Not a parent here, but a student- I have a merit scholarship to the University of Chicago, and our only requirement is to keep above a 1.75 (the minimum to keep off of academic probation). I’ve never really had it explained why this is the case, but I’d assume that it exists to allow people to explore academically and not be constricted by what majors/classes they think will keep them at a 3.5, 3.25, etc at an admittedly very difficult school grading-wise (considering that a 3.25 is the required GPA for Dean’s List/graduating with general honors and not everyone qualifies, I’d say lots of such exploration is happening).</p>
<p>Thanks gracello. Your explanation makes perfect sense. Students will be less likely to take a risk by exploring different types of subjects if they have to fear that one mediocre grade could cost them their scholarship. I had no idea that Chicago had no-minimum GPA merit scholarships. </p>
<p>I wonder what other schools have the same policy?</p>
<p>Mainly, I’m amazed to learn that there are colleges and universities that offer merit scholarships without such a requirement, perhaps to avoid creating a dog-eat-dog competitive environment? And I’m talking about a real, genuine MERIT scholarship.</p>
<p>I don’t think that expecting a student to maintain a 3.0 creates any kind of dog-eat-dog environment…LOL</p>
<p>A 3.0 is very do-able especially if the student mixes his schedule with less demanding classes with his more demanding classes. </p>
<p>Anyway…one reason that scholarships are given to high stats kids is that it’s an investment for the school…part of that investment is that the student will be a success in his career and will likely be a future donor. It’s less likely that such a student who can’t even manage a B average is going to be that successful. </p>
<p>And not requiring at least a B average is a bit of a slap to the non-merit students who are getting As & Bs and are full-payers while the slacker is getting money.</p>
<p>DD had a merit scholarship at Rice which had a requirement of a 2.8 gpa to keep it. (which doesn’t quite meet the OP’s requirement of “no gpa required”, but close given the work ethic of Rice kids.) She graduated magna cum laude, so no prob. Some colleges want a 3.75 gpa to maintain scholarships! DS was offered one at a public Univ that wanted a 3.75 gpa to keep it, and one that wanted a 3.5; that seems unreasonable given the nature of engineering education. :eek: One bad semester and POOF, scholarship gone! He didn’t accept either of those offers, and is happily at Rice on great need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>I totally agree with this. D has not had a grade lower than A- in college so far. Not a dime in merit. If there are students at her school getting merit aid and not pulling at least a B average, I would be happier not knowing. (I have no idea if her school requires a certain GPA to keep the merit aid, they are very vague about it).</p>
<p>Pitt requires a 3.0. I agree with the above posters that a school that expects a 3.75 to maintain a scholarship has unrealistic (and unfair) expectations. I would advise a young person to steer clear of that offer. Slightly off topic, sorry.</p>
<p>Frankly, when our kids applied to college we shopped for some colleges that did NOT have a required GPA to keep a merit award, other than to “make academic progress”, which is about a 2.0. There are plenty of schools that offer merit awards requiring something less than a 3.0, but it takes a LOT OF TIME to find them.</p>
<p>Additionally there are schools that might require something like a 3.5 for a larger scholarship, but they will give you a lower level merit award if you don’t meet the 3.5 rather than pulling the entire scholarship amount. I even came across one that allows you to earn the original award back and will reimburse the family for extra money paid if the scholarship was lost and then earned back (I would not touch a school like that, but YMMV).</p>
<p>Bennington does not give grades at all, so no, there’s no minimum GPA. They just have to remain full time students. (Professors write lengthy individual evaluations for each student for each class, and will provide a grade if requested for graduate schools.)</p>
<p>Our son had $25k/year scholarships(3) when going to RPI and none had a gpa requirement. First, the average gpa at “The Tute” hovered around 3.0, hardly a whiff of grade inflation there. But more importantly the college made a decision to give their students absolute freedom to take as hard a course load as they wished. If there was a min gpa requirement associated with merit scholarships some students would be tempted to take as easy a courseload as possible to maintain their merit aid.</p>
<p>As a result our son was free to take a course overload most semesters so that, coupled with his AP credits, he was able to get a double major(compsci/philosophy) and double minor(psych/game&simulation arts science).</p>
<p>D’s first college had a 2.75 minimum to retain merit scholarships. S’s scholarship requires a 3.5 or higher. We do not consider this to be a problem for him, because he is working toward acceptance to a pharmacy program at his school … the requirements for preferred assurance mean that he must work to keep this gpa, anyway.</p>
<p>I work at a school with a really good scholarship that requires a 3.5 gpa. I have met a number of students who lost their scholarships. They will often get a probationary term to raise their gpa if they appeal, though.</p>
<p>My older Ds U gives merit scholarships at the outset - based on HS gpa and test scores. Further merit dollars are available from participating in a scholarship exam before freshman year. The awards are good for 4 years and require significant academic progress. Since we don’t qualify for any need based aid, including any and all gov’t tax credits, this is a god-send. </p>
<p>She had 1 “easy” class each semester last year, the rest of the 18 credits were in chem, bio, math, and foreign lang. If she’d had to adjust to college as well as maintain a 3.5 or 3.75, her goose would have been cooked. Knowing that she had some leeway in GPA allowed her to take these at once & not spread them out w/a healthy dose of English and History classes to bring up the GPA. I think that it helped her to stick with her chosen major.</p>
<p>This subject came up when we visited Grinnell. I was surprised to hear that they don’t have a minimum GPA for keeping merit scholarships. </p>
<p>The explanation was the same one that was mentioned above. They want students to feel free to explore various areas of study without being concerned that one bad grade will cost them their scholarship.</p>
<p>Smith College. No minimum GPA required to keep merit scholarships. On the other hand, the aforementioned scholarships seem to be handed out as incentives to choose Smith over a more prestigious school and thus be alloted to high performing, ambitious students who will be aiming for a high college GPA .</p>