<p>It's that time of year. Students are "discovering" that their GPAs are going to fall below the required minimum to renew their merit scholarships. Every year my husband has freshmen who come to him asking (well, begging is more like it) for a higher grade in his course than they know they're going to receive. They're hoping he'll help them keep the merit scholarship that probably made their parents say yes to the expensive tuition. </p>
<p>Merit money does come with strings attached, and in some schools the bar is high for students who are just getting used to the fact that college is not high school. If you don't like the requirement and don't think you can hack it, don't take the scholarship. If you do decide to accept it, remember that the time to think about maintaining the minimum GPA is not after you've taken the spring semester final. It is not your professor's job to make sure you don't lose your scholarship. It's your job. Go to class, participate in the discussion, ask questions, do the assigned work, study for tests, and make appointments during office hours. (In case you're wondering, the "let's make a deal" students" often are not the most diligent in the class.)</p>
<p>My H is one of those teachers who is very generous when it comes to some individual circumstances: learning disabilities, illness, death in the family. He'll even review a grade under some conditions. (This is science, by the way--pretty much an objective, easily quantifiable assessment.) But "I need a GPA of X.X. Can you help me?" is just shocking.</p>
<p>geezermom, it is shocking. I know someone who teaches community college and a lot of dual enrollment students are involved. They wait until they have failed the class which they need to graduate and then go to the Professor asking for dispensation. Even better, sometimes their mothers call.<br>
Geeze. How about showing up during the semester, doing the homework, asking for help during the class…</p>
<p>This is what I find shocking: “He’ll even review a grade under some conditions”</p>
<p>Sciences are quantitative (as you state); grade lines are quantitative; there is no wiggle room for grades (nor should there be).</p>
<p>It’s ok if a grade line is adjusted and all students are considered for the increased grade that may arise because of it. It is unethical to adjust the grade for a “squeeky wheel” without the same consideration for ALL students in the class.</p>
<p>I’d add that the time to think about the scholarship GPA requirement is before you place out of or take AP credit for potentially easy intro courses or register for a heavy load of tough classes.</p>
<p>Dad o2–^ ^ that is why – although son took a number of AP classes – he only took a few AP tests. A student tour guide at a very competititve/academic school said: if you test of an intro class in your major, you might miss college-level instruction in an essential class. If you test out of a non-major class which is not in your area of strength and enter a sophmore level course-- say, in literature, for an engineering major – you are just making it harder on yourself freshman year, when you are busy w/adjusting to the rigors of college life.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if every school does this, but at D’s school, if a student’s GPA falls before the required minimum to maintain the scholarship, they have one semester to “remedy” the situation. It happened to her first semester freshman year (rough transition combined with some difficult classes), and she received a “warning” letter that her GPA must be at the minimum by the end of the 2nd semester. Thankfully, it did, and she continues to do very well this year (Dean’s List 1st semester and hopefully this semester, too).</p>
<p>It was nervewracking, and she did do a transfer application to our state university “just-in-case” as without that scholarship, we cannot afford to keep her there. I’m also not sure if this is just something that they do for 1st year students, or for all.</p>
<p>MSmom&dad: Please don’t turn my post around to make a negative comment about the teacher. I wasn’t saying that he changes grades willy-nilly just because someone has come to him and complained. From what he has told me, he will review a student’s situation if there have been special circumstances such as illness or death and give them opportunities to make up work, take an incomplete, etc. And especially, please don’t use the word “unethical.” That is an extremely strong term to throw around. This is a teacher who dedicates huge, huge amounts of time to his teaching and is probably the most ethical person I have ever known. He could take shortcuts or use TAs for grading but he does not (prefers not to give multiple-choice tests and prefers to grade students himself so he sees that they are “getting it”). My post was about entitled students who think they can get away with anything. That is what’s shocking. Really, I don’t know why I am explaining myself here. This started out as an innocent post about merit scholarship renewals, and now I’m irritated.</p>
<p>People often don’t read the fine print. My daughter was offered a merit scholarship, but GPA requirement was only 3.0. A friend of hers was offered a scholarship to BU with minimum GPA requirement of 3.5. I think a 3.0 requirement may even be difficult for some engineering students the first year. Many of our kids are used to getting As if they just studied, but in college it is definitely different.</p>
<p>There are a couple schools that require GPAs substantially above 3.0 to maintain merit awards – and that is regardless of major (Case and Arizona State are the ones that pop into my head at the moment). If you are an engineering major, this is a VERY tough GPA to maintain.</p>
<p>We heard a couple of these stories on CC while S1 was applying to colleges, so the minimum GPA to maintain merit status was something that was on our radar. I also reead about a few students who went back to their colleges and negotiated a lower scholarship amount, but with a more reasonable GPA needed to maintain it.</p>
<p>S2 and I have talked about how his AP math classes will give him a good foundation for starting in math courses at college, but that he might not want to use them to skip out and then find himself up a creek later in the semester when the difficulty and workload have increased. Ditto foreign languages – repeating a semester may be a good refresher course and help the GPA as one transitions into college.</p>
<p>I’m amazed, but not surprised, at folks begging for grades after the fact.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter whether it’s science, math or humanities courses, there are always some grey areas. Even in math, with proofs a professor could take more points off or give you few extra points. It’s never cut and dry. I think students that show extra effort during the semester would have an easier conversation with a professor if they are borderline. My daughter has certainly benefited a few times (from B+ to A-), but I think it’s rediculous to ask a professor for a grade that’s necessary to keep one’s scholarship - a little bit too late.</p>
<p>This is where you have the benefit of dual-enrollment courses over AP courses. Dual-enrollment courses may be less impressive for admissions but they can be helpful in giving the student a look at the real thing.</p>
<p>This does not surprise me at all. I also think that the OP’s DH sounds like an understanding human being. I would rather have my kids have someone who can understand an extenuating circumstance than have a professor who is completely inflexible, no matter what the issue is.</p>
<p>I know plenty of kids who have earned some Fs and made up classes (more than one F btw), but did not have to leave the college that they attend bc mom and dad were able to pay full freight at a school with lousy financial aid. It is a shame that if a student is making academic progress (above a 2.0), but not a high enough gpa to keep a scholarship (ie: 3.0+), that financial aid is often not enough to meet the need of the lower income/ middle class students, and could easily result in the student needing to transfer to an instate public or CC.</p>
<p>I have a relative who just lost a scholarship because his grades dropped below the required GPA. There were some extenuating circumstances (sick at the end of the term), but I think it’s important to understand that if your grades are at the borderline, some extenuating circumstances might appear to push you over the line. Not all schools will cut you slack.</p>
<p>I know someone also who lost her merit award and it cost their family dearly. In fact they won’t send their younger child to a private college bc they don’t want this to happen a second time. It is their second child suffering the consequences bc the older one was allowed to stay at the private where mom and dad sweated it out and paid the full freight. They won’t repeat this, so the younger child will only be allowed to apply to instate public Us and less expensive out of state public Us. If the older student’s parents earned slightly less income, the older child would not have had the same opportunity to remain at that private college.</p>
<p>"I know someone who teaches community college and a lot of dual enrollment students are involved. They wait until they have failed the class which they need to graduate and then go to the Professor asking for dispensation. Even better, sometimes their mothers call. "</p>
<p>It doesn’t shock me that students will ask that grades be changed because they want to maintain merit scholarships or their enrollment at a university. The students do such things because they’ve either been raised by parents who change rules when the kids whine or the students have had success by telling sob stories to other professors.</p>
<p>All the professors have to do is just say no. If the student was ill, etc., that should have been brought up at the time of the problem, not at the end of the semester. </p>
<p>If the professors cut students breaks for things that should have been handled earlier, all that does is leaves the students vulnerable to losing jobs and other major opportunities later in their life when what is at risk are more important things – like paying one’s mortgage – not just losing a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>I was a professor for 6 years, and my husband has been a professor for about 20 years. We both graded fairly – based on a rubric that students got in their syllabus at the beginning of the semester. What ticked both of us off, however, was the professors who would cave in when students gave them sob stories. That’s far more infuriating than students asking for breaks on grades. Professors should know better than to do that.</p>
<p>I remember in grad school when a professor told me apologetically that he could in all honestly only give me a B for his class. I had a little more perspective than your average undergrad because I was 30 years old and had a full time career. I looked him squarely in the eye and said “Don’t apologize to me, it’s your job!” I respected him all the more because he gave me the B. </p>
<p>I want to believe that I’m getting my money’s worth sending my kids to college, which means they are mastering the concepts taught in the class. If they don’t do that, then they don’t deserve a good grade and I don’t want their professors to give them grades they don’t deserve. The onus is on them as students to earn their grades, not on the professors to “give” it to them.</p>
<p>I once had a parent call me to yell at me b/c their DS earned a “C” in my class. "He’s premed, blah, blah, blah . . . " I’ve had athletic coaches, an administrator, and a chair of a department call, too. The parents and coaches are awful - expecting me to change a grade b/c they want me to change the grade. The coaches seemed to think the louder they yelled the more I would change the grade! The administrator and department chair were much more reasonable. Once I explained that my tests are objective - either you know the answer or not (and you don’t even have to spell it, for heaven’s sake!), they backed off. Not so much with the parent and coaches. I’ve only had two students come to me begging for a grade change. Both were told, “Nope.” </p>
<p>I always explain my grading system and write it out in the syllabus. Students seems to get it while parents and coaches don’t. Go figure.</p>
<p>NSM, It’s equally infuriating to the other students who worked hard from the beginning, knowing the rules. Changing the rules at the end does noone a service.</p>
<p>It’s probably unnecessary to say this, but I’ll just note that there are certainly times when it’s reasonable for a student to go in after the fact and ask for a grade change, such as when the student thinks the professor has made a mistake in grading, or when he thinks the grading was unfair in some way.</p>
<p>I worked for my professor and saw people coming in all of the time at the end of the semester because they were doing poorly. But they never got extra help, or a tutor, or anything. She didn’t even know who they were.</p>
<p>I consider myself a decent student. I do my work, talk to my professors, participate in discussion (trying to do so more, I’m still a little shy), and study. I have awful test anxiety. And the bigger the test, the more nervous I get, and the more I shut down. So I just work especially hard doing every thing else, because I know tests bring me down. </p>
<p>I’m glad to keep my scholarship I just need a 3.0. I’d be nervous to maintain a 3.5. I have a 3.5 right now, but one semester with too many Bs could be detrimental. It would make my test anxiety worse. </p>
<p>I don’t think I would ask my professor to bump up my grade, though. I might ask for an extra credit assignment (have never needed to), but I feel like I would put the professor in an awkward position if I was like hey, higher my grade. And thats basically what people did with the professor I worked with about 2 days before classes ended.</p>