<p>I'm hearing how hard engineering is and how tough the grading is for enginereing classes. Since schools hold all majors to the same scholarship GPA standard, no matter how hard the major, I'm learning it's harder for engineering students to keep their scholarships.</p>
<p>My S will be a freshman at a school to be determined in the fall as an engineering student. He's applied mostly to UCs, but also to one private school (USC) that throws lots of money at freshman. </p>
<p>I'm nervous about making a college choice based in part on merit money (a regents offered by one UC but not another, or merit money that may make USC initially cost cempetitive to a UC), then having him then struggling to keep a 3/3.5/whatever to keep a scholarship and, if it's USC, to stay at the school.</p>
<p>Any engineering students on merit aid out there care to weight in?</p>
<p>My S is not an engineering student but has taken the engineering math/science courses (2 semesters each of calc. chem, physics) for the first 2 years due to NROTC requirements. His merit scholarship requires a 3.2. He got B's in the math/sci. classes and knew that it was the best he could hope for so concentrated on trying to get some A's in other classes to balance the gpa. Many engineering majors in his NROTC unit have changed majors because they couldn't make the grades to keep the scholarship. </p>
<p>It may help in making a decision to know if the school your S plans to attend uses +'s and -'s in their grading scale (i.e. a B=3.0 but a B+= 3.33) and if the scholarship eligibility is reviewed each semester or at the end of each school year.</p>
<p>That means all B's and and at least an equal number of A's and C's to balance each other out. I know many engineering students there that achieve that, with the continued hard work and discipline that go with the merit they showed to get there in the first place. </p>
<p>I also know of many who lost their rides in easier majors than engineering, who got distracted while freshmen by the many social "opportunities" on campus. You can take some comfort in knowing that engineering, while harder, tends to attract those who are more immune to social distractions (think those that wear t-shirts that say "Enjoys Calculus."</p>