<p>My son has been accepted to the undergrad EE program at A&M. I was wondering what percentage of students earn a GPA above 3.5 in EE or the COE since the scholarship he is eying requires him to maintain a GPA above this level. </p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>GPA 3.5 cumulative is doable no worries. In my school (Tulane), the required GPA for advancing to grad school in BME requires GPA 0f 3.4 cumulative at least and lots of my friends have no trouble maintaining such GPA. below of such, you have to do lots of lobbying to get in…LOL</p>
<p>GPA 3.5 cumulative is doable no worries … lots of my friends have no trouble maintaining such GPA. </p>
<p>I should have sent me boy to your school. He is currently a second semester sophomore majoring in Electrical/Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan. His problem is that he came in with a significant number of AP courses that allowed him to opt out of most of the required liberal arts/sociology/psychology/English courses. A 3.5 at UMich is essentially an B+ to A- average – no easy task</p>
<p>PeterW: So, what’s your son average (cumulative) GPA now?..you probably should know that Engineering in general is GPA killer and therefore it is not easy to maintain high GPA. However, still my school policy for BME requires GPA 3.4 average (undergraduate) in order to further their education to grad. school.</p>
<p>Usually, by second year (sophomore), those kids who can not stand the programs for whatever reasons will be weeded out because of the high GPA. But, I know all of my friends in the BME have had no problems maintaining that requirement.</p>
<p>Are you thinking of doing transfer for your son?..it is not too late. But, my school does not have EE, ME, Civil ENG, Computer Eng/Comp. Science, etc…those were eliminated by Katrina. What the school has is that combined programs that is Dual Degree Programs with Vandy and JHU (two bachelor degrees).</p>
<p>Lastly, FYI here is the GPA scale from my school: </p>
<p>GRADE</p>
<p>A 4.000
A- 3.667
B+ 3.333
B 3.000
B- 2.667
C+ 2.333</p>
<p>He has no intention what-so-ever of transferring. UMich is one of the best engineering schools in the US. He has a 3.2 with all his calc classes (I-IV), engineering physics, chemistry, and three prerequiste engineering classes completed. All I’m say is that some kids might not have the ability to inflate their overall GPA with As and B+s in some of the easier liberal arts classes</p>
<p>I’d say 10-15% in engineering. It’s a pretty high-end grade.</p>
<p>I go to UMich also… And approximately 1/4 of students have above a 3.5. Generally this isn’t achieved by taking a bunch of liberal arts courses, but there are definitely some who inflate their grades this way. </p>
<p>I have no idea about Texas A&M though unfortunately, so I can’t really help the TC. I would say that, as a guide, if your son is far above the average student entering A&M thus far, he should probably be able to do it without trouble.</p>
<p>The EE dept or general engineering might have that statistic. I’d be interested in hearing it. It is a valid question since a scholarship is riding on it. JKotinek who is the Associate Director of the University Honors program occasionally posts on the TAMU forum. I wonder if he has this information since students need to maintain a 3.5 to remain in honors.</p>
<p>PeterW: the best engineering school is not being discussed in here. OK, if it is the best then all the students should be the best too, right? and that is they should be able to maintain 3.5 easily…the best school deserves the best students?..</p>
<p>I have checked the TAMU (A&M) and yes the 3.5 is for scholarship. It is their policy and the school probably believes the students can do it based on their HS records. Remember only a handful students can get that kind of scholarship and it is not for everyone.</p>
<p>I am also sophomore and so far my GPA is 3.8 cumulative and I am in Dual Degree Programs now switching from BME into Mechanical Eng (ME)…since Tulane does not have ME, I will do it at Vandy (vanderbilt) not JHU (johns hopkins) as JHU is too expansive. I have been accepted with full ride and one of the reasons is because I have been able to maintain such GPA. If my GPA is only 3.0 or 3.2 then I will not be able to do that Dual Degree Programs…then again, any schools will require high GPA for some programs and the schools think they students can do it based on their past performance.</p>
<p>By the way, I believe the requirement is not just a cumulative gpa of 3.5 but each semester gpa must also be above 3.5. </p>
<p>For those who are saying it is doable, I am not doubting it is doable. My question is how frequently? As a parent I am trying to advise my child on whether to accept A&M or Oklahoma which requires a 3.25 or University of Houston cullen which also offers a 100% full ride for 4 years and has no gpa requirement.The diffference is significant because if he loses the scholarship he may have to get a part-time job and feel squeezed for cash at the very moment he needs more time to study compared to a full ride at cullen, where he lives like a king even if he faulters in some semester.</p>
<p>Perrazziman: “For those who are saying it is doable, I am not doubting it is doable. My question is how frequently?”</p>
<p>I dont have the numbers to give you but if you are so insistent/curious then why dont you call the school. I am sure they should be able to help you. However, I can only tell you from my angle and that is BME major in my school requires GPA of 3.4 (not too far behind from 3.5) if anyone wants to go to grad. school. Therefore, lots of my friends have to maintain such GPA in consistent basis and so far, they have not had any problems at all. More importantly, I am now in Dual Degree Program and have to maintain high GPA (above 3.4) otherwise, they will drop me.</p>
<p>Personally, I believe that if you want it so badly then you will get it but you have to work hard for it, like there is no tomorrow?</p>
<p>The ball is in your court. If your son feels that he can not do it then dont push him; it will drive him nuts.</p>
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<p>Is that a problem? Actually, writing about English literature is sometimes difficult for engineering students who write well about technical topics but are not all that great at analyzing English literature or writing about humanities topics. Pre-fulfillment of any requirements simply allows for more free electives, which can be additional humanities or social studies courses, or additional technical courses.</p>
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<p>That is actually a fairly risky requirement to keep the scholarship, if the scholarship is necessary to be able to afford to attend the school. An analogy is that of a sports team – it is one thing to always have a winning record (maintaining a minimum cumulative GPA), but another thing to win every single game (getting at least that GPA every semester) over an entire season (first seven semesters).</p>
<p>Granted, if he got the scholarship, he is what the school thinks is a top student. But predicting college performance for an individual student based on high school records only goes so far, so some with top high school records perform worse than predicted in college, while others do better in college than predicted based on their high school records.</p>
<p>Average GPAs from [National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com%5DNational”>http://www.gradeinflation.com) :
[Texas</a> A&M](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/Texasaandm.html]Texas”>Texas A&M)
[University</a> of Oklahoma](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/oklahoma.html]University”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/oklahoma.html)
[University</a> of Houston](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/Houston.html]University”>University of Houston)</p>
<p>Perazziman: I think you have been misinformed. It is 3.5 cumulative and here is the necessary info for you: “To continue receiving scholarship payments through the Director’s Excellence Award, students must maintain a 3.5 cumulative GPR at the end of each semester and have been enrolled in at least 12 credit hours in each of the Fall and Spring semesters.” (taken from TAMU website).</p>
<p>Anyhow, personally, GPA (GPR) 3.5 is doable but I dont know about your son capacity (track records). Only you can answer that question.</p>
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<p>He thinks he can do it and wants to go. However, I am just wondering why take such a risk? Is it going to be harder to get into a graduate program with a 3.5 from University of Houston than say A&M? In the end it is his decision, you are right.</p>
<p>My concern is that he is in the 700s on SAT Math/ SAT Math II and probably a 5 on AP Calc BC type, but not the 800 Math or AMC winning type of kid. Otherwise, he is obviously a hard working, motivated student who is a National Merit semifinalist, graduating with 12 AP courses, with probably one 4 & 5s on the rest.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for commenting. Yes he will call A&M, I thought it might be common knowledge here. He has only been accepted a few days.</p>
<p>Perazziman: The undergrad. GPA of 3.5 is accepted by most if not all of grad. schools. Grad school admission is holistic in nature. They are looking at not only the GPA but also other factors too. Here is an excerpt taken from MIT: “While high academic achievement does not guarantee admission, MIT expects such achievement or other persuasive evidence of professional promise.” </p>
<p>If I were you, I would not worry for now about the grad school admission. Just maintain high GPA then the future would take care for itself. Hard work will payoff in the end.</p>
<p>I don’t know specifically at A&M. </p>
<p>At most engineering schools, 3.5 is a very high threshold for maintaining a scholarship. It certainly can be done, but it would put you well above the average GPA. I wouldn’t be surprised if a large fraction of scholars eventually lose that scholarship. It may be why the school is so generous - after all it is a merit scholarship designed to reward those who are way above average. </p>
<p>Forget about what kind of scores he gets, the question you need to ask is how well does he work under pressure. If he needs that scholarship to enable him to attend, then I’m not sure it’s a great idea.</p>
<p>As someone who could very well maintain such a scholarship (my own GPA is much higher), here are my thoughts, given what you provided:
For a good 80% of students, it’s not even worth trying. They may or may not be able to do it, but it is not worth the risk.
Scores are a weak but still significant indicator of success, and so is high school GPA. Being able to get a high GPA in high school and a high score on SAT/AP is a proof of competency. The difference between 700 and 800 on math is how many mistakes you make. But I know how much Texas emphasizes standardized grades, so I’ll add that this achievement is especially irrelevant because there will be many, many others just like your son at the universities in terms of exam scores.
There are really a few indicators of university success that matter here:
The first is how solid his grasp of the fundamentals are. Does he really understand the math and physics, or are those just subjects he learned for the exam and then forgot afterward?
The second is how well he studies alone. Professors aren’t really all that dependable; they may be busy, they may be unhelpful, and they may be bad at teaching. Regardless of circumstance, you have to learn the material. He should be able to learn entirely from the textbook and use the lecture as an opportunity to learn a bit on top of that. If his exam success is school-bred, as it is in 90% of circumstances, then it’s not worth it to try. It’s only worth it if it’s not.
The third is how well he works under pressure, as previously stated. Sometimes, things go wrong, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The real test here is how well he can recover from a setback? Will his grades start to drop if he nears depression, for example? Something will ALWAYS happen, and no one is immune from it.</p>
<p>But the real question here isn’t whether or not it is doable, but whether or not it is a safe bet. If you think he will easily reach the 3.8 range, then go for it. Don’t if not.</p>
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<p>That seems to be the consensus, 3.5 is not easy to maintain. I am not sure he needs the scholarship. However, I am sure I could find other uses for the money if he did not need it. Which is why I think I am now trying to figure out what is the advantage of attending A&M over OU or UofH? In other words, professionally and academically, is there a real need to attend A&M?</p>
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<p>It may be, or it may not be. However, it is not knowable for an individual student until after a semester or few of college. Some possibilities in the first year:</p>
<p>a. The student may get a 4.0 GPA or close to it the first semester or few, indicating that he is adapting very well to college, as well as building up a “buffer” if cumulative GPA (not every semester GPA) is what matters.</p>
<p>b. The student barely hangs onto the scholarship with a GPA of 3.5 or slightly above it, and may feel the need to choose courses conservatively in order to protect his GPA (much the way that pre-med and pre-law students sometimes avoid interesting, but potentially difficult, courses in order to maintain high GPAs to get into medical or a top-14 law school).</p>
<p>c. The student falls below a 3.5 GPA and loses the scholarship.</p>
<p>Now, if the GPA threshold were 3.0 cumulative, then a scholarship student probably would not have too much trouble staying comfortably above that, although the first semester is still a higher risk (some students find the initial adjustment to college to be rough, even though they do better in later semesters). But 3.5 is a pretty high threshold that predicting where an incoming freshman will fall relative to it is nowhere near certain.</p>
<p>What also matters is whether the scholarship greatly eases the ability to pay for the school (or enables attending the school at all), versus simply being a nice unexpected bonus at a school that was well in the affordability range to begin with. Consider the cost of 8 (or 9 if budgeting conservatively) semesters of school, with anywhere from 1 to 8 semesters of scholarship (1 semester if lost after the first semester, 8 if necessary GPA is kept up at least through the seventh semester) to determine if there is an affordability threshold in terms of number of semesters of scholarship must be kept.</p>