<p>If lucky enough to win regents, how difficult will it be to keep the 3.5 gpa in Engineering required to keep the scholarship? Major is Mechanical Engineering. </p>
<p>Seems like it would be really tough after reading the average gpa for eng is around 2something!</p>
<p>Oh, I must have pulled up some older information because I see now that the required gpa is 3.0. Is that possible to maintain in Engineering? Thanks again!</p>
<p>Frosh engineering GPA is probably something like 2.9. Frosh GPAs tend to be lower, due to adjustment issues (including too much social activities), incorrect course placement relative to high school preparation (including time management skills), and taking required but not necessarily primary interest courses as prerequisites to one’s major courses. GPAs tend to rise as students move up in class standing, due to taking more of their major interest courses, and the worst students flunking out.</p>
<p>But a Regents’ scholar is typically a far above average student, so maintaining a 3.0 GPA should not be excessively difficult. (3.5 GPA is a different story; students with scholarships that require that need to pay as much attention to GPA management as pre-meds.)</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, ucbalumnus! </p>
<p>My DS can’t go to Cal unless he wins the Regents because we simply can’t afford it. If he were to lose the scholarship, he would be out of luck. I worry it would be too much pressure on a new freshman to not only adjust to college but to have to maintain the 3.0 just to stay in school. I guess IF he wins it, I have to find out more details about what exactly happens if the gpa does fall below, if there is a probation or grace period. </p>
<p>I think it was you that already pointed me to the links for taking the math tests, etc. on the Cal website. That is a great chance to see exactly where one stands and how prepared a student might be. DS had AP Calc AB last year and this year, his school didn’t offer the BC so I imagine he would be “rusty” compared to some of the other students who are even past BC and are into higher level maths already. He got a 5 on the AP test but I might have to encourage him to NOT take the credit if he really isn’t ready. I think you are SO smart to remind me that a lot of how a kid does as a freshman depends on prep! I don’t know that the regents kids are really FAR above the average student, though, especially considering how competitive it is to even get accepted into engineering at Cal.</p>
<p>Thanks again for your help!</p>
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<p>You can try running the net price calculator to see what the financial aid estimate would be in the absence of the Regents’ scholarship, if you have not done that already.</p>
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<p>Actually, it is advantageous in terms of schedule flexibility to start in a more advanced course if the student has good knowledge of the course that is skipped. Doing so can shorten prerequisite sequences and allow for extra free electives. Retaking AP credit may not necessarily result in an “easy A”, due to overconfidence and a lot of GPA-conscious pre-meds doing the same thing.</p>
<p>The <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1305840-freshman-math-faq.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1305840-freshman-math-faq.html</a> contains links to advising resources and old final exams for math courses that students may skip with AP credit. In general, reviewing the old final exams of courses that he is allowed to skip with AP credit can be helpful in determining whether it is a good idea to skip the courses if they are important prerequisites to other courses.</p>