Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 21:10     Subject: Re:How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:Our DC has substantial merit. During decision time, we explained that keeping a 3.0 was necessary to stay at that school and advised all available resources be used if a class started to go downhill. Most universities have free tutoring and all profs have office hours. Our DC took advantage EARLY in the semester of all resources in physics and chem. It really paid off! Sometimes these merit aid kids coming out of MCPS, FCPS, APS, LCPS have never needed to be tutored and it can be a shock. There is no shame in tutoring and our DC had only positive experiences utilizing a professor's office hours and free campus tutoring. Best of luck to you!


Your kid learned an important lesson early - no one does STEM alone.

Congrats to you and your child.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 21:02     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Parents of mediocre kids never shut up about how their kid’s 3.0 college gpa is reallyyyyyy impressive because...nobody gets A’s! I guess all the engineers I went to college with that graduated with highest honors don’t exist.

Nobody wants to admit their kid isn’t that impressive...is sort of lazy...lacks drive and discipline.


Was it you who did that?
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 21:01     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Most don’t get A’s in the beginning. They are literally trying to get rid of a good 50% of the class. If you aren’t going to work your arse off nonstop they don’t want you. The grading the first two years is crazy harsh. We’re talking failing half a class, lots of D’s and a few C’s, 4 B’s and an A- out of a class of 100+. It’s terrorizing. Some of the kids who get B’s and C’s drop out too because they just aren’t used to that.

I got mostly A’s my junior and senior years, but the most generous those classes ever were was 1/4 A’s in the class. Often just a few were given out each semester.

It’s nothing like being a humanities major. Nothing
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 19:58     Subject: Re:How common is it to lose merit aid?
Our DC has substantial merit. During decision time, we explained that keeping a 3.0 was necessary to stay at that school and advised all available resources be used if a class started to go downhill. Most universities have free tutoring and all profs have office hours. Our DC took advantage EARLY in the semester of all resources in physics and chem. It really paid off! Sometimes these merit aid kids coming out of MCPS, FCPS, APS, LCPS have never needed to be tutored and it can be a shock. There is no shame in tutoring and our DC had only positive experiences utilizing a professor's office hours and free campus tutoring. Best of luck to you!
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 11:27     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
+1

And to the poster who lack any shred of humility, watch karma
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 08:13     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Parents of mediocre kids never shut up about how their kid’s 3.0 college gpa is reallyyyyyy impressive because...nobody gets A’s! I guess all the engineers I went to college with that graduated with highest honors don’t exist.

Nobody wants to admit their kid isn’t that impressive...is sort of lazy...lacks drive and discipline.


Hi. We are being nice in this thread. Pease, no judgment.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 01:23     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Parents of mediocre kids never shut up about how their kid’s 3.0 college gpa is reallyyyyyy impressive because...nobody gets A’s! I guess all the engineers I went to college with that graduated with highest honors don’t exist.

Nobody wants to admit their kid isn’t that impressive...is sort of lazy...lacks drive and discipline.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2019 00:28     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Well most high schools inflate grades, take away final exams. And give easy A’s.

Ironically so does Ivy’s and other top schools. There was a whole article on easy A’s in Harvard. Brown has pas fail courses.

But math/science classes at big schools are hard and many kids don’t realize you actually have to work for and earn your A’s. So yes, harder to get A’s, but not impossible. That said, getting all B’skeeps any 3.0 scholarship. And you can always find easy classes for A’s to help keep the GPA up. Most schools have yoga for 1 credit. Movie and culture classes with no homework besides some reading for 3 credits. As long as your aware of your GPA, it is usually doable to maintain. Partying and praying to get a great final grade to bump things up, never happens.



At my son's engineering school, the only classes that count toward getting into the specific engineering major are the technical ones. He could get an A in graduate level political theory and it wouldn't help the GPA any more than basket weaving.


This thread is about merit aid and your GPA towards all your classes indeed counts. I have never seen a merit package say that specific classes only count.


Yes, but the thread moved on to discuss direct admit/major requirements more generally for engineering students, making this very relevant. Plus, the technical gpa concept is very common among engineering schools.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2019 22:19     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Well most high schools inflate grades, take away final exams. And give easy A’s.

Ironically so does Ivy’s and other top schools. There was a whole article on easy A’s in Harvard. Brown has pas fail courses.

But math/science classes at big schools are hard and many kids don’t realize you actually have to work for and earn your A’s. So yes, harder to get A’s, but not impossible. That said, getting all B’skeeps any 3.0 scholarship. And you can always find easy classes for A’s to help keep the GPA up. Most schools have yoga for 1 credit. Movie and culture classes with no homework besides some reading for 3 credits. As long as your aware of your GPA, it is usually doable to maintain. Partying and praying to get a great final grade to bump things up, never happens.



At my son's engineering school, the only classes that count toward getting into the specific engineering major are the technical ones. He could get an A in graduate level political theory and it wouldn't help the GPA any more than basket weaving.


This thread is about merit aid and your GPA towards all your classes indeed counts. I have never seen a merit package say that specific classes only count.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2019 12:08     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Well most high schools inflate grades, take away final exams. And give easy A’s.

Ironically so does Ivy’s and other top schools. There was a whole article on easy A’s in Harvard. Brown has pas fail courses.

But math/science classes at big schools are hard and many kids don’t realize you actually have to work for and earn your A’s. So yes, harder to get A’s, but not impossible. That said, getting all B’skeeps any 3.0 scholarship. And you can always find easy classes for A’s to help keep the GPA up. Most schools have yoga for 1 credit. Movie and culture classes with no homework besides some reading for 3 credits. As long as your aware of your GPA, it is usually doable to maintain. Partying and praying to get a great final grade to bump things up, never happens.



At my son's engineering school, the only classes that count toward getting into the specific engineering major are the technical ones. He could get an A in graduate level political theory and it wouldn't help the GPA any more than basket weaving.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2019 11:38     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Well most high schools inflate grades, take away final exams. And give easy A’s.

Ironically so does Ivy’s and other top schools. There was a whole article on easy A’s in Harvard. Brown has pas fail courses.

But math/science classes at big schools are hard and many kids don’t realize you actually have to work for and earn your A’s. So yes, harder to get A’s, but not impossible. That said, getting all B’skeeps any 3.0 scholarship. And you can always find easy classes for A’s to help keep the GPA up. Most schools have yoga for 1 credit. Movie and culture classes with no homework besides some reading for 3 credits. As long as your aware of your GPA, it is usually doable to maintain. Partying and praying to get a great final grade to bump things up, never happens.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2019 11:23     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.


Son graduated with 3.85 gpa in chemE major. Can be done but extremely hard.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2019 11:13     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.



I think at my daughter's school, roughly 1 in 4 get an A or an A- in the big classes.

It would be great if all of our engineering students could be in that 25% for at least some of their classes, but that's asking a lot. My kid is in school now with some startlingly capable students. She's good, but she's not honors-quality.

I'm fairly certain that the professors in engineering understand all that need to about grading curves and distributions.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2019 10:44     Subject: How common is it to lose merit aid?
So no one in engineering/math classes get A’s? Sounds like more of a grading issue by professors with no background in education assessment.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2019 10:13     Subject: Re:How common is it to lose merit aid?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.


My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.


May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.


This is probably the Purdue poster


Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.


NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.


I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!


PP here. Hmm, you are making me rethink. Actually Purdue is not high on ds' list. At #9 in US News, it is certainly the highest ranked engineering program he has applied to but being from DMV, I don't think he has much interest in being in midwest. My concern with Purdue is the fear that it weeds out a large number of kids. I haven't necessarily heard of Purdue as weeding out a lot of kids but assume it since it is so highly ranked but relatively easier to get into compared to similarly ranked engineering schools. Do you know?


Call them! Ask! I did call Purdue when my kid was applying and their weed out answer wasn’t terrible. I don’t remember the details since the call was about some other things and my kid ultimately didn’t apply. It is relatively easier to get into because snazzy coastal kids don’t want to go to Indiana. It is a fairly self-selecting bunch of kids. As for the Midwest, great place to go to school and learn that it is actually possibly to be surrounded by nice people.