No, 3.5 overall GPA is not easy to come by in college. Let me share my son’s experience in Arizona State University (ASU) as a freshman in the Barrett Honors College. He was recruited with a full scholarship and a cash stipend. He is a National Hispanic scholar, SAT score was 1560 out of 1600, had taken college classes in the last two years of high school. He was selected as Eastside Journal Top Grad 'Outstanding Scientist' out of 26 students where each school, public and private, nominated their best student for this category. He also was selected as 1 of 18 students from the state to attend a summer program at the University of Washington School of Medicine in his junior year.
He lives at the Honors College dorms, which mean he shares his room and is surrounded with kids with similar academic credentials. He chose attend ASU not only because of scholarship, but because he believes the Barrett Honors College and ASU have leadership with a great vision and he also believes the ASU honors program will be one of the top programs in the country. The academic standards of the honors college are high and are rising. The school is recruiting the best of the best for faculty and investing millions of dollars in research and technology. There is no question that few years from now, the Barrett Honors College will have so many very qualified applicants that the scholarships will be hard to come by.
The first semester was very humbling and shocking experience for my son. He was used to be the top student in his high school and received many awards on his graduation year. He went to ASU to be with other honor students with the same or better academic qualifications. ASU is located in Tempe, AZ. This is the first time away from home with great weather year around (big change from Seattle weather) and so many things to do (over 500 clubs to join.) The academic standards of the honors college are still there to be met even when you are a freshman and your scholarship is renewable for 3 additional years as long as your overall GPA is at least 3.5.
I’ll let your imagination picture the details on my son’s first semester experience. We did try to advise him as much as we could over the phone, but it is new to them and they need to learn from their own experience. I recall going to the airport to pick him up over the Christmas break. When we asked… “How was your semester?” His response was “If I could do the first half of my semester all over again, it would be better. I am learning what it takes…” We knew then, his academic performance had been very different than what we were used to when he was in high school. The Christmas break went by and I didn’t like many things I heard from him or observed. I knew he was asserting his independence, but I wasn’t sure he was going in the correct path. Before he went back to school, we sat down to discuss his goals and our concerns for the next semester. We found out he was also concerned about his academic performance and felt really bad about it. He also, had time to reflect on the social activities of his first semester and he had already decided he was going to have a new beginning when he went back. My hardest trip to the airport was the time when we send them off to his second semester. I hugged him and asked him to take care of himself and do what is takes reach his goal (be an anesthesiologist). Then we said good-bye.
He is almost at the end of his second semester now. I should mention that for him to be able to renew his scholarship (overall GPA 3.5) he needs to have a 3.8 GPA this semester. He is very focused on school going into finals with and ‘A’ in all his classes. He is a Biochemistry major taking Human Event (class required from the honors college), honors chemistry, biology, statistics and other class I don’t remember now. He is also applied and was selected by to the Department of Energy for a research SULI Fellowship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He has learned to balance his social and academic life and hopes to keep his scholarship. He knows what it takes to be a student at the Barrett Honors College and is ready for the challenge.
Spring break was a very positive and exciting visit for all of us. I can see a fine young man, full of ambitions, thriving knowledge and willing to take advantage of the many academic and social opportunities the Barrett Honors college and ASU have to offer. He decided that he will stay in ASU even if he looses the scholarship; he wants to take advantage of the diverse social and academic opportunities ASU has to offer. He wants to study abroad, to participate in the latest research at the Biodesign Institute at ASU (
http://www.biodesign.org/), to be challenged intellectually, to be part of the rising class of Barrett Honors College and ASU (
http://www.asu.edu/president/newamericanuniversity/) and to bank the diversity of knowledge and experience the Honors College and its students have to offer.
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