<p>This topic comes up often wrt merit aid and is an important one. It is being discussed at the moment in the ASU/NMF thread, but it is just one small part of that discussion.</p>
<p>I think it merits a separate thread, as I think many folks would like to know how often merit $$ is imperiled by failure to keep the required GPA.</p>
<p>It would be great if folks would share their experiences and thoughts, so I will start.</p>
<p>My S had a substantial merit award at Tulane. He is an Engineering major. Tulane has a very reasonable minimum GPA for that situation (2.7) and my S far exceeded it (both at Tulane and Bates, his Katrina school, supposedly known for grade non-inflation). His was a science/math heavy schedule and he carried a 3.5+ at both places.</p>
<p>Now, he is at JHU. No formal grades yet. But he reports that he has "around a B" in all his courses except an easy elective which is an A. If he were to have his GPA calculated right now, then, he would be at a 3.2. Frightening to think that might not cut it, if he had scholarship money to protect (he doesn't :().</p>
<p>I have to admit that I do not think he has his nose to the grindstone 24/7. But then again, I wouldn't want him to. Without morphing into a party animal, I would like to see him enjoy all aspects of his college experience. </p>
<p>Hence, 3.5 just seems unfair to me as a minimum, and maybe even 3.25. Maybe it works at "grade inflation" schools. But who knows going in whether the kid is heading to one?</p>
<p>So, what have people's experiences been with maintaining the minimum? Being granted probationary status if it's in trouble first term or freshman year? Or is everyone sailing through and the worry is unwarranted?</p>
<p>jmmom, Very good post. The very fear of losing a merit award, played a role in my son's choice to go to an oos public school. He really did not want to have that kind of pressure on his shoulders, and he had no intention of goofing off and slacking in college. Only one of 5 colleges gave a one semester grace period. It is nice to offer that, but it did not make much of a difference to my son as he was deciding where he would like to go to college. One school offered a generous award, but the gpa climbed each semester until he would need a 3.2 (began with a 3.0 for his first semester). Two colleges offered him a merit scholarship with a gpa minimum of either 2.7 or 2.8 (don't recall).
That gpa, I would think would be easily attainable for a student doing his/her work.</p>
<p>the worry is definitely warranted, particularly at a school like The Hop which doesn't believe in grade inflation, and engineering is an competitive as premed. </p>
<p>A friend's D is at USC, on one of their NMF discounts, and is struggling mightily. Unfortunately, this girl took a "light" (couple AP lites, some honors, most college prep) academic schedule in HS, bcos parents didn't want to "stress her out". But, now, she's taking a couple of classes in which many kids already took the AP version in HS; those kids are cruising for a relatively easy A (to pad thier grad school resume), while friend's D is working extremely hard for her B. (I beleive a 3.5 is required to maintain the merit award.)</p>
<p>I do think, bluebayou, that one of the benefits of taking the "most challenging" hs program is that it does put you with others who are focused on academic achievement, gives you a reasonable grounding in having to do the work to get the grade (even if the courses don't actually track with college-level courses) and prepares you well for college work. At least, that's what I've concluded has enabled my S to thrive in some top quality schools.</p>
<p>I totally agree jmmom, but I was the lone voice in many discussions with local parental units. Unfortunately, all the hoopla and pro-con discussions about AP tend to ignore that, for a promising premed, for example, repeating Chem, Bio, Physics and/or Calc in college after taking the AP courses HS, is likely to result in a much easier A. And, since med schools care first and foremost about grades.....</p>
<p>My S is also at USC & the minimum he has to maintain for his merit award is 3.0. They are forcing him to repeat a lot of the courses he took in AP format (including calculus AB & Physics B & C) at his HS (often using the same texts that his HS covered from cover to cover), so he's finding USC very comfortable, as are his peers from his HS.
USC also allows students to have up to 1 year probation to bring up their grades to keep their merit aid. This is the lowest GPA & most generous probation for merit aid of any my S was offered.
Of course, he hasn't gotten his final grades for the semester yet, but his HS reports that the kids from his HS generally do extremely well at USC & have no problems keeping their merit aid. (The HS prepares them very well for college.)</p>
<p>It may be hard for a high-achieving hs student with a merit aid offer from an excellent school to realize how much more competitive college can be. Perhaps the student has never really had to exert him/herself to earn top grades, or maybe the student is already working at full potential and can't imagine putting in any more effort. ("I've never had less than a 4.0 - how can it be hard to get a 3.2?") As a parent, I'd only be comfortable with a merit aid offer if the student seems to understand the importance of maintaining that minimum GPA, and realizes that college academics are indeed more demanding than even an all-AP schedule.</p>
<p>At Vanderbilt, the minimum GPA to continue academic scholarships is a comfortable 3.0 (I believe this is cumulative). My daughter asked a dean whether many students found it difficult to retain their merit aid, and his answer was that, while merit recipients had to work harder than they did in hs to earn lower GPAs than they were accustomed to, it was very rare to see a student actually lose a scholarship.</p>
<p>I think it's important for merit recipients to schedule their classes carefully, so that they can drop one class if need be and still retain fulltime student status.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree that it's helpful to talk with the Us & find out what their experience has been with regard to merit scholars retaining vs. losing their awards due to grades.<br>
Most schools know & can tell you if you press them. One of the schools we had been considering for S admitted that if S missed 4-6 days in a quarter (even if due to medical reasons), he could be asked by school to withdraw, losing ALL his merit awards & they have had students who lost their awards in this manner, even if student had chronic medical issues that the U was aware of when student matriculated.
Your child's HS may also have a sense as to how hard/easy a time students from their HS have maintaining their merit awards at various Us, which can be helpful in planning. It would very tough when you're planning on a set amount out-of-pocket only to have it mushroom because a merit award is lost unexpectedly.</p>
<p>DS is on merit award at Northeastern. Has to keep a 3.0 for merit and a 3.4 for honors. It should not be a problem for him. I expect him to maintain a 3.0 anyway even without merit consideration. To obtain a merit award, the student is generally at the top of the applicant pool and in my mind should be able to maintain the minimum. Northeastern gives kids a semester of probation before pulling the money, which is a nice cushion...</p>
<p>Son is at a LAC. The gpa requirement is at the end of the soph year. The original letter stated that they wanted the students to explore and something like failure is a part or exploring and stretching. The academic part required a 3.0 overall, the music scholarship required a 2.7. The grades are all numerical ie: 3.8, 3.2 not letter. I felt good with that requirement, it allowed son to take classes he was interested in without worrying about keeping the scholarship. Ended up he was >3.5, the number I worried about if he had gone to ASU.</p>
<p>For D's scholarship at Rhodes the requirement is a 3.25 from the start and I have seen nothing suggesting probation. (For lower $ scholarships I believe it is lower.) </p>
<p>I know that CC fashion is to feign disinterest in grades or grad/professional school but D's current life goals require excellent UG grades. D didn't really consider the GPA requirement for her scholarship much because she is also pre-med (and possibly pre-MD/Phd.) and anything at that 3.25 range or below would require a transfer anyway.</p>
<p>Dad worries about it some (especially this first semester) but D is a pretty confident cuss.</p>
<p>
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Dad worries about it some (especially this first semester)
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I think we all do need those first term grades to know how deep the water is in our kid's pool. Or whether they got so busy with other stuff that they forgot they actually need to do the strokes to stay afloat. :)</p>
<p>jmmom, I am a little confused about your original premise. You wrote about being concerned about maintaining a 3.5 gpa and yet it appears that your S does not have scholarships to maintain. I doubt any scholarships at JHU require a 3.5 gpa. </p>
<p>As to your concerns about how deep the water is. I can tell you it is plenty deep. Grades and standards at JHU are demanding. I have a kid who is swimming very hard and as of last week is looking at the distinct possibility of two C grades. She would be real happy to see a 3.2 and overjoyed with a 3.5 gpa. Don't plan on see the same grades as at Tulane and Bates. I am sure your son did not forget how to swim. The pool just got bigger and deeper.</p>
<p>it's not the depth of the water, but the depth of the competitors. A good friend, was one of the top swimmers in Ohio (took second in breastroke), but, for practical purposes, it meant nothing, since OSU recruited kids from Fla, Tx, and Calif.</p>
<p>At USC, they have top talent from all over the world, especially in engineering (talk about a deep & wide pool). So far, haven't heard that S or his friends have had any problems but we're grateful that their HS does a good job preparing the kids, especially in math & science. Will see how the final grades come out in December.</p>
<p>My S's 3 scholarships at our large public u. all require different gpa's to keep the money. One requires a 2.5, one a 3.0 and another a 3.2. There is no probationary period. If the cum. gpa drops below the requirement, the money is gone.
An advisor in the dept. of the one requiring 3.2 told me that many kids lose that one in the first 2 years but if they can survive that then they usually keep it the rest of the way. S went in thinking it would be no problem but quickly found out that he was gonna have to work hard to stay over 3.2. He is a soph. so if he can get through this year with schoalrships intact, it should get easier.</p>
<p>edad - I didn't start this thread re my S. He doesn't have any merit $ to protect, as I mentioned in the post. I started it for general discussion of the issue and simply provided the info re Tulane (his previous school where he did have merit $).</p>
<p>My "worry" about a 3.5 minimum is not "my" worry. I just think it's a tough standard and perhaps too tough. Although as another poster pointed out, those with the merit bucks are in the top of a given school's applicant pool and ought to be able to meet the standard, absent missteps in first-term adjustment.</p>
<p>This issue was a factor in our son's final college choice. He had whittled his acceptances down to Case and RPI and Case had a minimum gpa to maintain his $17,000/yr merit scholarship while RPI had NO minimum gpa for any of his three merit scholarships totalling $25,000. Although he maintained a 3.5 gpa through is frosh year, both colleges have a reputation for having little or no grade inflation and one can never be certain how things will work out on the grade "front", particulaly durimng freshman year.</p>
<p>A friend's daughter did find herself in the unenviable position of loosing a merit award due to gpa issues. Fortunately she was able to raise her gpa the next semester and get her ms reinstated.</p>
<p>As an aside RPI does not require any minimum gpa because it does not want its scholarship students to avoid challenging themselves academically out of concern for maintaining scholarship money. I think this philosophy is laudible and wish more colleges would do this.</p>
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My "worry" about a 3.5 minimum is not "my" worry. I just think it's a tough standard and perhaps too tough.
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</p>
<p>I definitely think that it is too tough. I would not view this as a scholarship, but a lure to bring in certain freshmen. I think this is a very tough standard, whether at a school like JHU, or a lower tier school. A student with a 3.2-3.6 in high school is going to have a tough time reaching a 3.5 in college (even a second, maybe third tier). JMO. I know someone, BTW, who had such a scholarship. The parents are very middle class, living in a high cost area (my neck of the woods). The loss of this scholarship would really mean leaving that school. It was close, but their D pulled it off in her first semester. The entire family was sweating it, and IMO, that is not worth it. The college that she attends is an average, nice school, but I would not have run there with these parameters around the scholarship.</p>
<p>That is really nice about RPI. I wonder who else does this? I do think that a 2.7-2.8 is a reasonable gpa to ask a freshman to maintain. When one goes below that, there are probably some serious problems-illness, adjustment issues, horrible teaching/advising/wrong placement, and/or student slacking (one too many parties)- just to name some possiblities.</p>