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.