Scholarship 1st?
 

I was told that some years ago the minimum GPA to become a member was 3.0 and over the years organizations and universities have lowered it. Has anyone heard this? And what do you think about it? Should organizations that have scholarship and/or academics as one of their principles have high GPA requirements?

I think you answered your own question!;)

I’m not sure if ours had been lowered from years past, but I know almost every couple of years we have raised ours currently. We do stress academics so that is def always a factor .

Grading standards vary as well, so its more of a school to school thing. Even in the same school, grading can be different between majors.

I agree that a 3.0 at one university can be much harder to attain at another (or from one major to another). On the whole, I see the GPAs of our undergraduate members increasing over the past 8 years that I have been a member, even though we have not raised our GPA requirement.

Well said!

That is a current debate right now up here... with a university average GPA around 2.2 it is increasingly difficult to expect the GPAs asked for by HQ - and expect the members to maintain standards involving social, philanthropic, and community commitments. To put the marks in perspective: a 3.3 (77%-79%) is the base requirement for Grad school here at UofT.

Scholarship should be ONE of the pillars of an organization, but not the only pillar.

What are people in college for? To find a husband/wife?

To maintain membership in a Greek organization, I feel that the cumulative GPA should be at least one tenth of a point higher than what is needed to remain in college in good standing (ie, if the school requires a 1.5, Greeks should require a 1.6).

No MRS. here, lol.

I agree. I think that sororities required at least a 2.0 which was raised to a 2.25, but the school required a lower GPA to be a student in good standing.

My point was that scholarship is important and vital to both the GLO experience and the school experience... however that should not be the primary focus of a GLO nor a student to such a level that their involvment in the total university or GLO experience...

I agree with you in that a member should be considered in good standing if the school considers them in good standing. So for example if you can graduate with a Honours Degree here at UofT with a 1.7 then that should be good enough for the GLO... after all a C- to a C+ (1.7 to 2.3) is consider an adequate understanding of the subject matter.

Ummmm dude if someone has that GPA in your fraternity, tell them to take a break from greek life and concentrate on school.

Seriously guys, nobody is saying have a 3.7. But a 3.0 should not be difficult to obtain and anything below a 2.3 really takes effort.

-Rudey

Ordinarily I'd agree with you but a 3.0 is actually somewhat rare to find in any of the Arts & Science (Humanities) programs here... the school average is usually around a 2.1 or 2.2; and it is policy to keep that as the average. There is a marked difference between students in the chapter from different schools in terms of grades, with the Ryerson and York students actually pulling the chapter average (2.68) up to the highest it's been in about 5 years. It really doesn't impact the chapter that much, but we do feel for the sororities that have to being pulling down 2.8s and 3.0s.

And this is on a 4.0 scale?
Its hard to imagine this being an average..... I would think one would be on academic probation or close to it if this lasted more than one semester.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are schools with grade inflation...i swear I know too many people who got grades higher than what they deserved.

Myself included at least once, but it's all in the game, baby baaaaaaabyyyyyy!

Point being, a 2.3 - 2.5 minimum nationally is fine with me. Let the chapters raise it at their discretion.

Yep it's on a 4.0 scale - the school puts you on academic probation if you recieve lower than a 1.5...

Do you have some link talking about your school's average gpa? And do you have some sort of other measure like average SAT or whatever it is people in your system use?

-Rudey

The school doesn't official like to talk about the average GPA or school marking systems; I only found out by sitting in on Faculty oversite sessions as a student rep... but I'll see what I can track down throught the "back channels"... I'll post what I find.

This is what I have found so far through the official channels or university hosted websites or papers... however nothing concrete discussing average GPAs... I'll keep looking.

Okay entry marks for Canadian students, this is all that I could find, and in a discussion paper:

Quote:

Our average entering grade of 85.7% is the fifth highest in the country and 98.8% of our students have entering averages of 75% or better (compared to 99.95% at McGill).

http://www.utoronto.ca/plan2003/greenC.htm

Okay admissions standards for US students taken from webiste that provides info for US students:

Quote:

* Applicants from High Schools in the USA: Arts and Science- St. George campus, UofT at Mississauga, UofT at Scarborough, the Faculty of Music and the Faculty of Physical Education and Health will consider applications from students who have completed or who are completing 12th Grade in an accredited high school with a high grade point average throughout their high school studies. Applicants must present high scores in SAT or ACT examinations (for admission in 2006 students should present the Writing Test if taking the ACT) and at least three SAT II or AP subjects appropriate to their proposed area of study. Scores below 500 in any part of the SAT I or II are not acceptable. Students should present scores of at least 1150 on the SAT I's and 24 on the ACT. Many programs require higher scores. Transfer credit towards Arts and Science programs is given for some Advanced Placement tests with scores of 4 or 5. For further information on Advanced Placement transfer credit. (pdf file) The Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering will consider excellent 12th Grade students with high SAT scores who are completing at least two Advanced Placement examinations in Calculus, Physics and Chemistry. No transfer credit is awarded. As competition is extremely keen, SAT I scores should be at least 1300 for most programs in Engineering. Students seeking admission after one year of university are required to present a GPA of at least 3.5 with two semesters of Calculus, Physics and Chemistry.

http://www.adm.utoronto.ca/adm/adm_i...dm_usa_stu.htm

So far I haven't been able to find any statistics covering any of the averages for undergrads... the Rotman business school has some info, but the discussion isn't about the MBA programs.

I'll keep looking but I'm not really holding out to much hope right now... the University of Toronto is VERY protective of any information regarding marking or grade statistics... I'll browse through some governmental oversight documents, but many are protected information and not availavle to the public.

Our GPA is 2.25 for actives 2.5 to be on E board and 2.0 gets you on probation with the school. I think as long as your GLO's GPA is a bit above the good academic standing mark,a nd you encourage people to shoot for even better than that through your scholarship program, then you're doing great !

Beta Theta Pi was the first fraternity to require a 2.5 chapter GPA for a chapter to remain in good standing with the General Fraternity (1984).

Beta was also the first to require a 2.5 GPA for an individual to be a member in good standing (1997).

My chapter requires a 2.6 GPA to initiate and remain in good standing. That's a little bit lower than a B- average here in Nebraska, as we have a +/- grading system.

On our campus, Farmhouse requires a 2.7 to initiate.



I think that fraternities and sororities should require minimum GPA's average student. Believe me it's a great recruiting point when you can tell a kid that joining the Greek Community is going to improve their GPA...at Nebraska there is almost a .2 of a point difference between greek and non greek GPA. (with Greeks being higher of course).

We have a self-imposed requirement. For a brother to be initiated, we require him to get a GPA equal to or greater than all-men's average -- we're not a fraternity for average men, so our expectations are the highest on campus. Most other fraternities at Central Oklahoma only require members to get a 2.25.

If an initiated member has a low GPA, say sub-2.25, he won't play sports and will be on probation for a semester. He's also required to study 8 hours at the house or be subjected to some fairly stiff fines.

You'd think all that would hurt our numbers. Actaully, it couldn't further from the truth. Not only do we REALLY help some guys get through school, we also have the highest fraternity GPA on campus. This semester, we had the highest GPA in 3 years at UCO.

Wow, this is really interesting @ Sigma Nu and Beta Theta Pi's grade system.

Nothing outstanding here. Most Greeks at least LXA require a higher GPA than the school.

When I talk or email with a New Associate, The first thing I say is get Your Grades.

If you do not, you will not be of help to yourself or your Fraternity.

Fraternity is secondary, Grades are first, Graduate and get into the real world first.:)

True, most greeks require (to my knowledge) a GPA higher than the school but I have yet to come across an organization that requires a 3.0 or even a 2.7 to become a member.

When I rushed at IU years ago, the minimum GPA to rush was 2.5. However, most of the sororities required a 2.7 or higher to bid.

We were told by our field consultant that Elon is raising recruitment GPA requirement to 2.7. Sophomores and juniors are grandfathered in with the old GPA requirement of 2.35.

fsu
 

many of the sorority chapters at florida state require a 3.0 to join.