Just to expand on this discussion a little bit, I also think it’s worth keeping in mind that even a 3.0 can be hard. I understand the rationale behind “…but that’s also after giving them a semester or two grace period to bring up the GPA.”
The problem is, some freshman in particular (but really, any students struggling with significant hurdles) have super catastrophic first semesters. I have a bright friend who grew up very low income in a bad school district (few opportunities, etc), and after making it into an elite university has struggled immensely with both the social and academic transition. This student finished last semester with a 1.something GPA. It is nearly impossible to bring that up to a 3.0 – depending on the number of credit hours (it’s usually recommended to take the bare minimum required to be considered full-time when on probation), it can be mathematically impossible to raise a 1.something to a 3.0 in one semester. This institution and some of the student’s scholarships from third parties only give them 1 semester to recover.
Some catastrophic semesters cannot be recovered from, period. I like what MIT does in that their first freshman semester is Pass/No record. I’m sure it helps with retention rates.