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those with the merit bucks are in the top of a given school's applicant pool
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<p>Not necessarily. Schools like USC which award NMF money solely on a two hour test taken Junior year will end up with some B+/A- high school students. As I posted previously, the girl from our HS had an excellent unweighted gpa, but that included college prep course (non-honors). On a weighted basis, she was barely in the top 10% of the class.</p>
<p>^ That is true. There are many schools that do not care if the gpa comes from regular, honors, or AP classes. Many schools just care that one took college prep courses. Schools say that they want the students taking the most challenging courses, but some really treat college prep classes the same as an AP for admission, and/or merit aid. Schools also do not consider the type of hs one attended when distributing merit aid, so this makes some sense, although it is unpopular with some some applicants and their families.</p>
<p>I don't like the idea of having to maintain a very high GPA, such as 3.5, to keep a merit scholarship. I think it inspires students to make unfortunate course choices (much as pre-meds, who also live or die by their GPAs, must do). </p>
<p>The savvy student who has to maintain a very high GPA, for whatever reason, would be well advised to repeat as many AP courses as possible and take watered-down versions of courses (Physics for Poets) rather than more rigorous versions whenever possible. But educationally speaking, these may not be the best choices.</p>
<p>We are starting to prespire slightly at our house. DS is on three merit aid scholarships requiring 3.0/3.0/3.2 at a Southern LAC. He currently has 2Cs and a B. Part of the problem is AP placement. He was placed into intermediate French (against the advice of mom and dad) where he is stuggling. He is definintely in over his head. His reasoning for taking this level of French was that it would mean he would meet all language requirements for graduation and be done with language forever after only one class. He is wishing for a "do-over" now. His other C is in his major, math. Again, all his APs pushed him early into Linear Algebra with a prof who is near 70 years of age. He likes the prof outside of the classroom, but has an extremly difficult time learning anything from him in the classroom. Having said all the above, his real problem (dad's opinion) is time management. He has gotten too involved with too many clubs, sports, new friends, etc and hasn't grasped how much harder college is from HS. We are crossing our fingers that he will eventually "get it" and pull the grades up. This school is on a tri-mester system and hopefully he will pick one or two GPA booster type classes next semester. And I thought all the stressing would end after simply getting into college! Argh!</p>
<p>Lukester, what's the probation situation like? Hopefully it's workable. That French course decision was a doozy , huh? So, the triple whammy - poor guidance on entry courses, ineffective professor, and what I have come to call "the college all-you-can-eat smorgasboard". Couple that with the trimester system, only three classes - well, I feel for ya buddy. </p>
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Around here, and not trying to be insensitive to other religions, this would call for what we call a "Come to Jesus" meeting. I think it's called the same by some folks where you are, too. In this case - Dad and son and a little quality time together. Alone. Don't let it go undone. Check him for recording devices before you start the meeting if he's under 18. ;)</p>
<p>Explain to him that he can stand on his head till the end of the trimester if he had to. What you'll be suggesting isn't half that bad. He's a dang smart kid. He can do this. Just needs to "prioritize". Just needs to want to. ;)</p>
<p>Just curious, what would most of you consider a reasonable GPA requirement for a scholarship? Of course, each situtation is different, but wondering what you would consider a good rule of thumb. I'm a parent of a senior and I'm pretty sure this is going to come up when we make our decision this spring.</p>
<p>I think 3.0 is realistic, anything less is great. But even more important are the grace periods. UMiami had a wonderful set-up where if you hit X you were safe for a year, Y safe for two years etc. Unfortunately, the school she selected and the program she is in had no such protections.</p>
<p>helpingmom, it is a personal decison. If I had a 1400+ (old sat) kid with a 3.5+ gpa (depending upon the type of hs), I would feel comfortable with a 3.0. If I had a kid who dug some holes for him/herself, did the minimum amount of work needed where disinterested, one who could get sidetracked by the party life and new freedom, cared only to some degree about the merit scholarship, well then I would not feel comfortable with a 3.0, unless I could afford the 40,000+ difference over the 4 years. It really is an unknown for both parents and students since one does not know how they will do their freshman year. Also, being placed in classes that they are not ready for, poor instruction in a class or two, foreign accents and inexperienced TAs are other factors to consider. Another question that needs answering would be how the student deals with the pressure of keeping a certain gpa to help their family (and themselves) financially. Perhaps not all students can deal with the pressure.</p>
<p>My son has multiple scholarships at our state U and one of them requires a 3.5GPA. He is also an honors college student (requiring a 3.2 for that scholarship). HE chose to go this school over a more expensive private. Since we're spending much less than we thought on his college education and he's our only child, we are saving the cumulative money for the 3.5 scholarship to give to him after he graduates. He is a very capable student and is not in a excessively difficult major, so it's likely that he will be able to maintain this GPA... but we'll see. Will he sign up for easy courses just to ensure he gets his money? I hope not. Will it be a disaster if he loses the scholarship? No, he can stay at the school and just have a less money in his bank account when he graduates. But I will say that if his ability to stay at the school depended on a 3.5 - then I think we BOTH would be worried. A 3.0 is much more reasonable standard.</p>
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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
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My DD's merit scholarship at Rice U requires a 2.8 or above. The college of Wooster's merit scholarships has NO minimum gpa requirement as long as student maintains adequate progress /enough hours of passing. Now that's sweet!</p>
<p>anxiousmom, Thank you so much for replying. This is really good information. I might be looking in Ohio for S #2, so now I will need to check out Wooster too.</p>
<p>S's merit scholarship at BU requires a 3.2 minimum GPA. I think this is rather high, especially considering grade deflation ---whether you believe it exists or not.</p>
<p>S's merit scholarship at Hanover requires a 3.0 GPA minimum at the end of each school year. So far, so good.</p>
<p>D's merit scholarship required a 3.25. With a rigorous first semester schedule, 18 1/2 credits (she had no say in that schedule - it was set up and mailed to her), and roommate issues (D ended up changing rooms in Nov. of first semester), she ended up with about a 3.1. Fortunately, they have a probationary period and she was able to rise over the 3.25 by the end of the next semester. She also ended up changing majors since the 2 classes that brought her down were from her original major and she said she knew they weren't going to get any easier. She worked extremely diligently even getting a tutor after the first class of the one course. That first semester and all the adjustment factors is tough!!</p>
<p>This is a great thread. D is considering Barrett Honors College at ASU, and the required minimum GPA to keep the scholarship is 3.25. I'm told that there is a one-year probationary period, though, and I will have D double-check on that. One bad grade can put a big dent in a GPA, I guess. Before this thread, I hadn't given the issue a second thought!</p>
<p>Lurk, remember (as has been stated before) that it is more than appropriate to directly ask the question at each school - What % of kids lose their scholarship for failure to maintain their grades? At ASU they may also have stats on those who are placed on probation.</p>
<p>ASU is one of the schools I've read about where a LOT of the students lost their merit awards (it used to require a 3.5 & I believe still requires that to remain in the honor's program). My S was concerned that you have to take quite a lot of classes outside the honor's college because the honor's college didn't seem to offer all that many courses. In any case, he ultimately chose to look elsewhere.
Hope it works for you--the ASU free-ride was admittedly very attractive to hubby & me. Still, we're happy with USC, which only requires a 3.0 & gives a 1 year probationary period if needed. Kids I know who went there all kept their merit awards.</p>
<p>D was one of those at ASU that had to keep the 3.5 for her NMF scholarship. Its since been changed to a 3.25,to be more in line with the req at other colleges..She managed to keep it despite the school not (at that time) having + and - grades.that said, she was a music/womens studies major so maybe her coursework was less rigorous than say a pre med or engineering students would have been. She had many friends who wound up on probation due to grades but good news...noone actually lost their scholarships.
S's scholarships at U South Carolina (MCNair,NMF,departmental)all carry a 3.0 req but it seems there is no petition/probation recourse.</p>
<p>My older s got the UF NMF finalist scholarships a couple of years ago (back when they were pretty much full ride) he has to maintain a 3.0 which he has been able to do (and keep a pretty good cushion). I like it because I don't have to be the one to ride him about grades and taking care of business. He knows that he faces a big payoff when he gets done with 4 years. We are not touching his college fund and he can either use it for grad school or to buy a boat and sail around the world (I'm hoping for the former, but it is his to do with as he pleases). ;)</p>