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<p>Depends. A 3.0 keeper GPA is probably not too hard for a top scholarship student to maintain at a given school. But a 3.5 keeper GPA means that the student needs to protect his/her GPA like a pre-med or pre-law student, which may create incentives to seek out electives for easy A grades, rather than for being challenging and interesting.</p>
<p>We did consider the requirements for keeping a merit award. A 3.5 GPA is NOT as easy as it may seem for some college majors, including engineering. Also, it’s important to find out whether the GPA is per term or cumulative, as well as whether a B- is calculated as a 2.7 or a 3, and other details so student and family are fully informed before making choices. Our S’s engineering program didn’t have all that many honor grads (you need to have a 3.5 to graduate with honors), so if a 3.5 was required, many would have lost merit awards.</p>