Keep 3.2 GPA in engineering?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
1

I am trying to make my college decision and a big concern for me is how hard it will be to keep a 3.2 GPA in order to keep my Presidential Scholarship at Maryland. The scholarship is the only thing that makes Maryland affordable for me, but I dont know the probability of being able to keep that GPA. Is anyone willing to share their freshman experience about engineering (the difficulty/average GPA)?

2

It is not easy to keep a 3.2 GPA in Engineering. The courses are tough. But it is certainly possible for a very good student. If you are in Honors, you will take some seminars that are easy A’s and interesting to boot, whcih help a bit with GPA. Also, if your cum drops below 3.2, they give you a probation semester to bring it up, so even if you don’t keep it all 4 years, you can probably keep it for a while. If you lose it and then bring your GPA back up, you can apply for reinstatement.

3

So would you have to forfeit your scholarship if you lose it for say two semesters? And is the 3.2 over the 4 years or each semester? Say Freshman year you have a 3.8 and 3.7 respectively, go into fall of sophomore year and get a 3.0, your cum is still higher that a 3.2 so does that mean you’re on probation now for not being above for that semester?

4

No, it is based on cumulative gpa, not a single semester.
http://financialaid.umd.edu/policies/2014_2015/scholarships/2014-2015_Presidents_Policy.pdf
It is impossible for anyone to predict how hard it will be for you personally to maintain a gpa of 3.2 in engineering. However, if you apply yourself, understand that classes get progressively harder as you advance, and do very well early on, you will build your own safety net for a singular bad semester down the road.

5

Thanks @maryversity for the info!

6

No prob!

7

I was in the same boat. Im EE and have a full scholarship that needs a 3.2. It isn’t too bad, but I expect to an A in every class. A’s mixed with Bs is still stressful but not too much time commitment if you learn easily and have good school habits. It definitely gets harder every year though. I don’t need to study every day, usually I do everything on the weekends apart from small assignments. The most important thing is to plan ahead and make sure you have enough time to study for exams.