UMass Honors Housing is “oversold” and they accept far more Honors students than can be accommodated in the Honors Dorms. To thin the herd, only students who maintain a 3.4 in the first freshman term are eligible for the sophomore housing lottery and the rest go to the end of the housing line which means, usually, housing in Southwest. Second semester grades wont count. UMass doesn’t mention this unfair rule during the application or acceptance process but kids are forced to sign a sneaky acknowledgement at orientation.
There’s a way around though! Make sure your kid takes easy classes in the first semester to boost their GPA and ensure a place in the lottery for sophomore year. Dozens and dozens of kids who challenge themselves with tough classes (which are NOT weighted for housing GPA) and miss the 3.4 wind up losing out to kids taking easy classes and get shut out of the preferred housing. It’s no way to treat good kids but it’s a good lesson in dealing with a large, unresponsive, state bureaucracy.
Your point is well taken - but would hold water better in an environment where kids are set up for passing - not to miss the mark and get so soundly punished for a wrinkle in their first college semester ever. CMC needs a certain number of kids to wash out of housing so they can keep rooms open for newbies. The petulant thing is that they kick kids out of the lottery after only the first semester (with a 3.38, mind you) sending them into the general population for their sophomore year. CHC’s main attraction is the housing (the education is adequate but, lets face it, not exactly NESCAC quality) and the price. A lot of parents would have sucked it up and paid for better treatment of their kids elsewhere if they’d known and a lot of CHC student got pretty good merit offers at very good schools but picked CHC for the better price and the chance to live with the other achievers… If the school had been candid with families there wouldn’t be so much annoyance among what I hear is 20-25% of CHC freshman. My point is that, like any Massachusetts government bureaucracy, the system can be beaten. Don’t go to the Registry of Motor Vehicles at lunchtime on the last day of the month and take easy classes your first semester. Path of least resistance.
I completely understand where you’re coming from, but there may be a few other things to consider. I can only speak to my son’s experience in the CompSci program. There is a progression of classes that needs to followed. Some classes are only offered every other semester and prerequisites also need to be considered so there may be little choice as to when they are taken. Yes, it would be nice if all classes were offered every semester and there were no registration caps, however we can leave that discussion for another thread. Many of these classes are not easy.
Second, while many students have an idea of their passion for a major when they enroll, it seems that many decide to make changes for a variety of reasons. Instead of taking gen eds first semester to pad their GPA, it might be as wise to jump into challenging classes in their major to make sure its still what they enjoy and want to continue to pursue. If not, it might be best to learn this as soon as possible so if a change in major is warranted, it can be done as soon as possible to make sure the progression of classes in the new major will allow for graduation in four years, as well as provide an opportunity for study abroad if so desired.
I will say that living in CHC housing with other like minded students helped my son and they all seemed to help each other. Yes, there are ‘weed out’ courses but, hey, these are Honors students, right? My son lived in honors housing freshman and sophomore, RA in southwest first semester junior year, study abroad second semester, and off campus senior year. Graduating in a few months (yay!).
They actually changed the rule that you need a 3.4 to be eligible for honors housing, and now any Honors student who has above a 2.5 is eligible just the same as a student with a 4.0
I would have to disagree with you on the CHC policy. For a CHC student to be below 3.4, yes they are placed in CHC academic suspension, if you want to call it that. Yes they are not eligible to select housings like other chc students who are eligible for priority selection, BUT i would have to say courses at UMASS are very laid back.
I took challenging courses in high school and i still do at UMass, after 1 semester, including Computer Science courses and Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra. Was it hard? Yes. Did i pass? Yes. Did i pass with ease? No!
Students in CHC are expected to be discipline enough that when they are struggling academically, they find people who can help them. There are many resources UMASS provides including CHC dedicated academic advisor, and professors all hold office hours.
While i am not trying to blame any student for being academically ineligible, all i will say is that CHC students need to find help whenever they face extreme difficulty cause if they can’t hold on to the grades of their courses, how are they going to be successful in completing the Thesis?
Many of these classes are not easy.