<p>Hi guys! I’m currently a Freshman here at ASU, and just finished up my first semester, about to start my second. I have a New American University Scholarship and just had a quick question. They just changed the renewal standards to where you have to have 30 credit hours by the end of the year. My first semester I was taking 14 Credit hours, but took a fairly rigorous schedule for a freshman (since I’m ahead credit wise). I ended up feeling way overloaded and dropped one class. This put me at 11 credit hours, which I am aware isn’t technically full time. However I went to the scholarship office and they said it shouldn’t really effect my scholarship since this was my first semester, and that if it effected my numbers at the end of the year I would simply be put on probation, which you are apparently allowed three semesters of? I was wondering if this was true, because in order to get to 30 hours I would have to take 19 credit hours this semester, which I don’t see happening without my gpa suffering. I hate this situation as I am definitely NOT and never have been a troubled student.</p>
<p>I am highly suspicious of the advice given by the scholarship office - I suspect there was some misunderstanding on the part of the person giving the advice. Earlier on in the year there was an explanation of the new policy given along with an option available to current students only. The new policy calls for 30 credits completed per year, and according to the person I spoke with at the scholarship office, this excludes credits accumulated in Winter and Summer sessions. If the 30 credits are completed, the student is required to maintain only a 3.0 gpa to keep their scholarship. If, for this year only, the student completes 24 credits (the old limit to be considered full time for scholarship purposes) then the higher gpa of the old requirement must be maintained - I don’t recall what that older gpa requirement was, but it was at least a 3.25.</p>
<p>So in my mind the answer to your dilemma relies heavily on your current and projected gpa. With the budget and economy struggling as it is, I wouldn’t want to be in a position of counting on what someone said I could do to maintain a scholarship as opposed to what was published by the university in writing. What was the class that you dropped?</p>
<p>This year is a transitional year for the requirements of the scholarship. You either have to maintain 3.0 @ 30 credits a year or a 3.25 @ 24 credits a year. Because they can’t just change the requirements without some notice, you’re grandfathered in. Keep in mind that this is only for this year, and next year, you will have to keep 30 credits a year.</p>
<p>I don’t know the rules about probation, but I would assume that you should have no trouble maintaining 13 credits for the spring semester. Also, I don’t know about your renewal at all, but technically 11 credits is less than full time. You may want to call the scholarship office again and clarify that you can renew having spent a semester at less than full time.</p>
<p>I already know that my scholarship has been renewed for Spring, as well as can be renewed for next year. </p>
<p>I also recieved the e-mail saying I could meet either expectation, but that was much earlier this year. When I checked renewal criteria just now, it said that the 2010-2011 school year was the transitional year, and that starting 2011-2012 you MUST meet the 30 hour requirement, hence why I had the question about probation.</p>
<p>If I can simply carry 13 hours this semester and be fine, this would not be a problem for me at all.</p>
<p>Were incoming freshman advised of this change before enrolling at ASU? Unless the scholarship letter specified that the scholarship criteria could change, they should not be doing this.</p>
<p>Enrolled freshman were given the option of either the old or new criteria - the change came out in plenty of time for students currently considering ASU. The new criteria is basically designed to encourage students to do everything in the their power to graduate before the run out of scholarship money.</p>