<p>My son is going into sophomore year at Hofstra, engineering major, commuter.</p>
<p>Just found out that Hofstra did NOT renew his academic scholarship for this year. The GPA requirement is 3.0, and he finished with a 2.85. </p>
<p>This means we cannot afford to send him back to Hofstra and pay full price of 41,000 per year.</p>
<p>It was a hard freshman year Calc 1 and 2, Physics 1 and 2, Bio 1 and 2. for a freshman, quite a challenge. He is an AP kid, 1300 SAT's, 31 ACT, so he is capable, just adjusting to college takes some time.</p>
<p>Also, Hofstra had a lack of classes for Fall 2013, and had him take BIO 2, prior to BIO 1, which did not work out well for him, and all the students that did this.</p>
<p>Moral of the story.......be careful what the GPA requirements for that scholarship are, and be aware that there is no leeway in that GPA requirement.</p>
<p>ddotjon, have you tried appealing to the university, especially pointing out that he was made to take Bio 2 before Bio 1 and that was likely to have impacted his GPA? I think it’s worth sending a few emails and making a few phone calls, if you haven’t already done so.</p>
<p>Still no word on the scholarship appeal email which we sent 6/11/2013. Spoke to his advisor, and also the admissions counselor who enrolled him freshman year. No word yet on the appeal, and no timeframe when we can expect to hear.</p>
<p>At this point we are getting ready to apply as a transfer elsewhere.</p>
<p>We cannot keep waiting to hear if he will get the scholarship back. If he doesn’t, then we cannot afford Hofstra. </p>
<p>We need time to apply as a transfer somewhere else.</p>
<p>Ugh indeed. Sorry to hear that the scholarship appeal committee has not responded yet. Even if they do rule in your favor, it sounds as if you need to cover all bases by also applying elsewhere as a transfer. Good luck! I’m guess the appeal may work, but until you know for sure you need to proceed with other avenues, as you are doing.</p>
<p>Just found out the scholarship was renewed. But there is a catch. Only renewed for Fall and for Spring, “pending review of Fall grades” </p>
<p>So we are happy certainly, that it was renewed. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but that is a lot of pressure to perform under.</p>
<p>I wish it was renewed for the whole year. I do expect his grades to improve, but you never know. Each class can be a crapshoot, depending on your professor. And, this semester is Calc 3, Chemistry, Chem lab, two engineering classes and a lit class.</p>
<p>I am wondering what the pending review could mean? Upward trend? 3.0 for the semester? or overall?</p>
<p>I have always stressed to just learn the material, do your work, and don’t focus so much on your grades. Guess when you have a scholarship, grades are the only thing that count! Too bad, it makes me very nervous to have him continue at Hofstra with this “performance review” looming after every semester.</p>
<p>Bookmouse… I see you post in the GMU forum. My older son went to JMU, graduated, lives in Fairfax, and is working. He is considering GMU for his masters degree, maybe in the next year or two.</p>
<p>Hi ddotjon, Yes my son is in the GMU Honors College and is planning to do an accelerated Masters in CompSci. We love GMU! We’re in state so it’s very affordable. My son turned down scholarships to two out-of-state schools in part because of the GPA required to keep the scholarships each semester… one of the scholarships would have required that he keep at least a 3.5 GPA, which is not easy in an Engineering field. He didn’t want to have that hanging over his head. Turns out he has a perfect GPA anyway, but we didn’t know that would be the case at the time and didn’t want to take the chance of having the price tag change on us midstream. Too bad they can’t give the Engineering students a little more leeway due to the difficulty of the curriculum.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m going into my sophomore year at Hofstra University as well and I had come across the thread you had posted about your son not having his scholarship renewed and I’m actually under very similar circumstances. The advisers at orientation had placed me in Bio 2 before Bio 1 as well and I took some challenging courses my first year as well (i.e. Calc 1). In addition to that, I had some personal issues going on as well. Not getting my scholarship renewed is extremely stressful as it must have been for you and your son, being that Hofstra is ridiculously expensive! I’ve been working on my appeal letter and plan to send it out either today or tomorrow. After seeing your thread, it really gave me hope! I was just hoping if you had any possible tips or details that I should add into my letter that might have really helped your son get his scholarship back. Also, this may not be as important as I think but how long was the appeal letter your son had sent? Mine’s actually a bit over a page so far so I’m hoping that doesn’t turn the committee off (I’m just trying to add in any detail that can be beneficial to getting my scholarship reinstated). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please respond as soon as possible. Thank you for your time! </p>
<p>(P.S. I’m not sure which is the best way to contact you via this site. So I’ll send you the same message through the “via email” and through the website option. I hope you don’t mind. Thanks!).</p>
<p>Ssjacob94, I know you are probably hoping to hear from Ddotjon, , but since no one has responded yet I just thought I’d throw my two cents in… I’d definitely mention having to take Bio 2 before Bio 1 because they have some responsibility for that (really, shouldn’t they make it possible for students to take Bio 1 before Bio 2?) and also I would mention your personal issues especially to the extent that they have been or can be overcome, to show that your GPA is likey to improve in the future. I don’t think over one page is excessive. Good luck!</p>
<p>A friend of mine is pre-med at Hofstra. He was an honors student in high school. He barely passed freshman year with a 3.1 gpa and kept his scholarship for now. For some reason Hofstra is an extremely hard school.</p>
<p>My child is considering Hofstra for next year. Definitely counting on scholarship $. He is looking at the engineering program. Is is typically hard to get classes in the correct order or do you think this was a fluke? This thread is worrisome.</p>
<p>Well, for my son, he had planned on going elsewhere, changed his mind last minute, and registered at Hofstra one week before classes began in Fall 2012. So, it was not the typical registration period for classes.</p>
<p>And as far as taking Bio 2 prior to Bio 1, it was an experiment Hofstra tried, was a complete failure, and they said it will not be done again.</p>
<p>Spring 2014 Hofstra tuition bill is due. Son’s scholarship has not posted to his account yet. I cannot afford Hofstra without the scholarship, so I cannot pay my portion of his bill, without him having the scholarship. </p>
<p>Now I am getting late fee notices.</p>
<p>This is really not right, since we would pay the bill on time, if we had the scholarship posted, or even knew definitively he was getting the scholarship back for Spring.</p>
<p>This can happen at any number of colleges. I know a bunch of students who lost scholarships at UArizona, for example. Case Western, lowered their threshhold to keep an award when the stats came out with dismal numbers of those retaining the merit awards. There is a post on the boards here where a student lost his NYU scholarship due to GPA and has to transfer because the family can no longer afford to keep him there.</p>
<p>Also, on a personal note, my son lost his merit award for the same reason at a state school. Yes, it is a risk one takes with merit awards with gpa or other requirements.</p>
<p>Hi Hofstrarep…yes we called. The answer was commit to the semester payment plan for the full amount for the semester, 19000.00, and if he gets the scholarship ask for a refund. I explained I don’t have 19000.00 to pay the semester bill.</p>
<p>I hope it works out, but this last minute stuff is not for me. I would like him to be buying his books, and getting ready for this semester, but he can’t until we find out what will happen with Hofstra.</p>