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Scholarship Requirements...


Joker
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It's been a while since dh and I have been in college and I wanted to check in with you all here and see if things have changed that much. 

 

Ds, so far, has been accepted to two schools he's interested in and received scholarships to both. They both require only keeping a 3.0 GPA but one requires at least 15 hours each semester (or academic year if taking summer classes, which ds will not be planning) and the other requires only 12. 

 

I was expecting the 12 since it's full time but I'm worried about the one that requires 15. Should this not really be a concern?

 

According the websites at both schools he will also be given credit for several of his AP courses so I wonder if this would also affect his ability to get some of the classes he needs to hit that 15 hours. 

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It's been a while since dh and I have been in college and I wanted to check in with you all here and see if things have changed that much. 

 

Ds, so far, has been accepted to two schools he's interested in and received scholarships to both. They both require only keeping a 3.0 GPA but one requires at least 15 hours each semester (or academic year if taking summer classes, which ds will not be planning) and the other requires only 12. 

 

I was expecting the 12 since it's full time but I'm worried about the one that requires 15. Should this not really be a concern?

 

According the websites at both schools he will also be given credit for several of his AP courses so I wonder if this would also affect his ability to get some of the classes he needs to hit that 15 hours. 

 

My youngest received scholarships for all of the schools he applied to. I believe the GPA requirement ranged from none to 3.2 for the school he is attending. The student must be full time, which is typically 15 credit hours, but again it will depend on the individual school's system.  Ds's school gave him 31 credits for his AP scores. What this means in terms of his scholarship is that he will graduate in three years, not four. He is guaranteed a particular amount of scholarship each year, not an overall total, which means he'll get scholarships for 3 years if he maintains his GPA, but will have to reapply for scholarships for grad school. Does that make sense?  The AP credits have meant that he has a higher priority in registering for classes than his same year peers.  Be sure that your student is registered for a full load. We had a bit of sticker shock the first year, first semester, because ds had 3 waitlisted classes on his schedule, so his scholarship and grant money were dropped. We fixed that in a hurry.

 

Good luck!

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My kids have never taken less than 15 hrs. They tend to take 15-21 hrs. My college sr entered as freshman with almost a Jr standing via credit hrs and has still taken at least 17-18 every semester until this one. He feels like a total slacker this semester with only 15.

 

Fwiw, I have never seen a degree built around less than 15/ semester. 12 may be the minimum for full-time, but it is not the norm and pretty low class-wise.

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A 15-credit limit can cause problems if a student needs to drop a class part way into the semester and can't pick up another one, or is forced to add a class he doesn't want/need just to hold onto the scholarship. For DS, the credit requirement was a bigger concern than the GPA requirement (which I think is only 3.25 for DS's scholarships), especially for an athlete who will be expected to train and/or travel 6 days/wk. He is actually planning to start with 12 CR/semester for the 1st & possibly 2nd semester, and technically he should have enough credits (DE + CBE) to allow him to take 12 credits every semester and still graduate in 4 yrs. If his academic scholarships had required 15 CR/semester, he probably would have turned down them down in favor of a 100% athletic scholarship (which only requires 12 CR).

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Thanks, all. Yes, I'm just a tad worried because dh and I both remember semesters that had a bit less than 15 and semesters that had more. I don't want to find ourselves in a bad situation. 

 

I've also wondered if he could use the AP credits and still graduate in four without overloading himself. 

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Thanks, all. Yes, I'm just a tad worried because dh and I both remember semesters that had a bit less than 15 and semesters that had more. I don't want to find ourselves in a bad situation. 

 

I've also wondered if he could use the AP credits and still graduate in four without overloading himself. 

 

I don't know why he couldn't still graduate in four. My daughter 16 dual enrollment credits when beginning college as a freshman. She also took one science class as summer school at commuity college for another 4 credits. She easily graduated in four years, taking between 12 - 15 credits each semester. It worked very well, starting off with her first semester at just 12 credits to help keep any stress down after being away at school.

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Thanks, all. Yes, I'm just a tad worried because dh and I both remember semesters that had a bit less than 15 and semesters that had more. I don't want to find ourselves in a bad situation. 

 

I've also wondered if he could use the AP credits and still graduate in four without overloading himself. 

 

I did semesters that were under 15 several times too (I typically worked 25-30 hours a week in college, and found that 12-14 was plenty for me to keep track of.) If he doesn't have extra credits ahead of time, that would mean needing more than 4 years to graduate though, and the school that requires 15 may be saying that the scholarship is only good for 4 years. That's something I'd check on the school that has the 12 hour minimum--would they extend the scholarship for a 5th year if needed? Some schools will, some won't. 

 

Of course, if he goes in with some AP credits (assuming the school accepts them), that will definitely help him be able to finish in 4 years with less than 15 hours some or all semesters. 

 

I tend to like more flexibility rather than less!

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12 may be nominally full time, but I almost never see any of my advisees take below 15 unless they are on academic probation and we don't allow them more than 13 or 14 hours. I would not be concerned about a 15 hour requirement.

If you are worried about a course and think you might have to drop it, you just sign up for 18 or 19 to have wiggle room.

 

 

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Do you know if the requirement for 15 hours is 15 hours completed each semester or 15 hours registered for at the beginning of the semester?  Also, is there a semester grace period?  I am not sure what the "or academic year" means--is the requirement 15 hours per semester OR 30 hours per academic year?  

Edited by jdahlquist
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Do you know if the requirement for 15 hours is 15 hours completed each semester or 15 hours registered for at the beginning of the semester?  Also, is there a semester grade period?  I am not sure what the "or academic year" means--is the requirement 15 hours per semester OR 30 hours per academic year?  

 

I don't understand the phrase "semester grade period"...?

 

Of the scholarships I've seen discussed, or have researched for other families, when the scholarship requires 15 credits to maintain the award, that means:

- a semester-based system

- 15 credits are completed (not just signed up or registered for 15 credits)

- 15 credits per semester, not year -- so a total of 30 credits per year

 

Academic year is going to vary a bit from school to school, as some are divided into a semester system, some a trimester system, and some are on a quarter system. For a semester-based system that usually looks like:

- two 15- or 16-week terms (fall and spring)

- possible summer term of 5 weeks or 8 weeks

- possible winter term of 3 weeks

 

My *guess* is that original poster's comment about 15 credits per semester, or per semester plus summer term = academic year, would be that for maintaining the 15 credit minimum, the particular school's scholarship allows for:

   fall term, spring term = 15 credits each

   spring term + summer term courses = 15 credits

   fall + winter term courses = 15 credits

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That was a typo--I meant grace period--some scholarships will allow a student one semester to bring up a GPA if it falls below the minimum required

 

Ah! :)

 

Yes, good question to ask. that is definitely something to check into is a school's policy on if a student has the opportunity to have the scholarship restored if they can pull the GPA back up. :)

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A 15-credit limit can cause problems if a student needs to drop a class part way into the semester and can't pick up another one

 

 

This. I wanted to take 9 hours my first semester, but because of scholarship I had to take 15 (well, 30 in one year, but they wouldn't pay for summer classes). I was concerned about a 1 hour class, but I didn't want to go up all the way to 18 hours to play it safe because 6 classes seemed enough to try to juggle at once. I ended up dropping two 1 hour classes (the one I was concerned about and a 1 hour lab class that took 20 hours/week) and a 3 hour class because the grad student teaching the 3 hour class was just terrible, putting me way below the necessary hours. Then, in Spring I took 19 hours, which I did manage to pull off, but that still left me behind, requiring me to pay out of pocket for a summer class. It's awful to be behind the curve, trying to catch up. I did pass the summer class too, despite getting ill but then I just felt completely burned out in the Fall, and disillusioned with everything, and ended up dropping all but two classes, one of which I ended up ignoring at some point as well, so I passed only one class. Then, of course, I was in an even deeper hole for the coming Spring, and I ended up flunking everything by simply not attending after the first couple of weeks. 

 

So, I did lose that scholarship. Now, for full disclosure, I probably shouldn't have lost it, since I should've been able to keep it if I'd managed to deal with the paperwork needed for a medical or other withdrawal (I qualified for two different kinds), but I couldn't, so, I don't know. I still don't have a degree. In retrospect, I wish I'd just started college with 9 hours instead of trying to deal with that scholarship - that free money wasn't free, far from it. 

 

Obviously, I was in a different situation than most people starting college (had only gotten to the country 8 months earlier to get married to my spouse, who was giving antipsychotics during my first Spring semester (the 19 hour one) for an acute bipolar mixed state, after which I got diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and depression and got meds for that, etc). So, there was a lot more going on than for most people... I just really hate the pressure that the scholarship added with the required hours and the GPA. So, I'm sure it's all rainbows and sunshine for plenty of people, but you're right, sometimes it's not, and when things start spiraling out of control, it can just add to the stress and make it so much worse. 

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This may be a stupid question, but how many hours is a standard course? When I was in college, many years ago, a standard class was 3 credits. At my ds's college, a standard class is 4 credits. So at his college, a normal semester load is 4 classes, which is 16 credits. At my school, 16 credits would have been an extremely heavy load. I had 15 credits sometimes (5 classes), but never above that.

 

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This may be a stupid question, but how many hours is a standard course? When I was in college, many years ago, a standard class was 3 credits. At my ds's college, a standard class is 4 credits. So at his college, a normal semester load is 4 classes, which is 16 credits. At my school, 16 credits would have been an extremely heavy load. I had 15 credits sometimes (5 classes), but never above that.

 

Depends on the class.

At our university and some others I've seen:

Calculus, calculus based physics, chemistry 1+2, bio for majors  = 4 hours. Lab courses are only 1 hour, but you spend a ton more.

Gen ed sciences, upper level courses, all humanities = 3 hours.

 

How many hours the students take depends on the course selection and student ability. While most of my advisees are fine with 16-18, I will discourage some from taking above 15 if they are either struggling or are taking a load entirely of difficult time intensive technical courses. If they are in trouble academically, we do not permit more than 13.

 

ETA: our degree program requires 128 hours, i.e. an average of 16 per semester. A student who takes only 15 and does not have transfer credit will not graduate in four years.

Edited by regentrude
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Most of ds' classes will be 3 hours since he's an English major. This scholarship is from Purdue and it looks like, according to an outline they have online, that it would be five classes for all eight semesters.

 

I'm not sure yet exactly which ones his AP credits will cover. I'm not as concerned as I was but I do worry about him getting the classes when he needs them to keep the hours each semester.

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 but I do worry about him getting the classes when he needs them to keep the hours each semester.

 

Look at the sample curriculum for the degree to determine whether the courses are heavily sequenced and serve as prerequisites for one another. In my experience, English degrees do not have this issue (as opposed to STEM disciplines); once the very first prerequisites are taken, most of the upper level courses can be taken in interchangeable sequence, which makes it much easier to put a schedule together.

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This may be a stupid question, but how many hours is a standard course? When I was in college, many years ago, a standard class was 3 credits. At my ds's college, a standard class is 4 credits. So at his college, a normal semester load is 4 classes, which is 16 credits. At my school, 16 credits would have been an extremely heavy load. I had 15 credits sometimes (5 classes), but never above that.

 

 

In theory, 16 hours consisting of four 4-hour courses should be roughly as much work as 15 hours consisting of five 3-hour courses. That said, some people find some things easier than other people (i.e. some people might spend a lot less time on a 4 hour calculus class than on a 3 hour history class, or vice versa), and the more separate courses there are, the harder it is wrt executive functioning. Which is one reason I hated my first semester of 4+3+3+3+1+1=15 hours. Four 4-hour courses would probably have been easier (but, the one 1-hour course was a university requirement, and the other was a lab that was a major requirement but took for.ev.er, way more than the 1 hour it was supposed to be). I do *so* much better with just one or two classes in a short session than with more in a longer session, so taking 15 hours in 8 weeks of summer, spread over two courses in 4 weeks in summer I and two courses in 4 weeks in summer 2 is much, much, easier for me than taking 15 hours spread over six courses in 16 weeks in a fall semester, despite being twice as many credits/week. I seem to have some executive functioning issues though.

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This may be a stupid question, but how many hours is a standard course? When I was in college, many years ago, a standard class was 3 credits. At my ds's college, a standard class is 4 credits. So at his college, a normal semester load is 4 classes, which is 16 credits. At my school, 16 credits would have been an extremely heavy load. I had 15 credits sometimes (5 classes), but never above that.

 

First: the number attached to the credits approximately represents the amount of hours of teacher contact or classroom instruction. For example, 3 credits means the class meets about 3 hours each week (Side note: how that 3 hours is divided up into individual classes per week can vary: one 3-hour class; two 90-minute classes, three 1-hour classes.)

 

At schools with courses of differing amount of credit awarded for different classes, it usually has to do with how "heavy" the subject matter, or how much additional time is needed for labs for learning. For example, at our local state university:

- 3 credit classes = many intro/gen. ed. courses, English, Humanities/Social Sciences, some Math/Computer courses etc.

- 4 credit classes = Foreign Language, some Math/Computer courses, Fine Arts with labs, Natural Sciences with labs

- 5 credit classes = intensive Sciences with labs (Biology, Chemistry, etc.)

 

Based on the above, the work load largely breaks out like this:

12-13 credits = full time, lighter

14-16 credits = average to heavier (depends on how writing-intensive or math/science lab-intensive)

17-18 credits = very heavy 

18+ credits = extremely heavy, and requires special permission to attempt

 

I think a lot also depends on how many classes the credit load translates to. 15 credits for five 3-credit classes that involve a lot of intensive reading or research and original writing might be harder to juggle than three 5-credit classes that involve a lot of lab time and math, just due to the extra time reading/writing might take, but also because you have to also have the ability to juggle 2 additional "directions" for the 2 additional classes (if you know what I mean ;) ).

 

Back when I was in college, similar to you, 15-16 credits could be a real trick to manage, esp. when working a lot of hours at a job. But for our DS#1, similar to your DS, all of his classes were 4 credits, and he took 4 per semester, so 16 credits was standard for most of the student population at the school. No explanation, except perhaps, things change over time...??

Edited by Lori D.
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My kids have never taken under 15, and if anything, have found it difficult to stay within the limit of what's allowed during a semester.  But in any event, if your ds finds himself short a class he can always take an extra curricular class that he's interested in, even a fun gym class or something.  If he's worried about the grade, he can sometimes even choose to just take it pass or fail.  I don't think it will be a problem.

 

 

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This may be a stupid question, but how many hours is a standard course? When I was in college, many years ago, a standard class was 3 credits. At my ds's college, a standard class is 4 credits. So at his college, a normal semester load is 4 classes, which is 16 credits. At my school, 16 credits would have been an extremely heavy load. I had 15 credits sometimes (5 classes), but never above that.

 

3 hours for most, 4 hours for math and science that requires a lab. dd actually had a 4-hour accounting class with a lab last semester. 

 

I think it was the same way back in the day when I was in college - my math and science classes were for idiots non-majors, and I surely hope the people taking calculus got more credit hours than I did, lol. 

 

Then or now, 15 hours would be pretty standard. I don't see how 16 hours could be considered an extremely heavy load, because 15 hours per semester only equals 120 hours over the standard four years, which is the standard minimum for graduation, with 124 also fairly common. 

 

If it's a quarterly system, that would be different, but you need 15 hours per semester in a semester system to graduate on time. Some scholarships will allow you to do 12 some semesters and 18 other semesters. 

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Then or now, 15 hours would be pretty standard. I don't see how 16 hours could be considered an extremely heavy load, because 15 hours per semester only equals 120 hours over the standard four years, which is the standard minimum for graduation, with 124 also fairly common.

 

Those are my thoughts. I have been really shocked by the number of posters who posted 12 or fewer hrs. 15 in my mind is pretty avg and not a heavy load.

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My daughter's scholarship requires full time, which at her school is 12 credits per quarter. She has had a couple of quarters when she only took 12 credits, and quarters when she took more than 15. She is graduating in four years even though she did a lot of exploring. For her, it was very good to have flexibility.

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Thanks, all. Yes, I'm just a tad worried because dh and I both remember semesters that had a bit less than 15 and semesters that had more. I don't want to find ourselves in a bad situation. 

 

I've also wondered if he could use the AP credits and still graduate in four without overloading himself. 

 

Yes, it absolutely is possible to use AP credits and graduate in four years without overloading. Ds who has multiple disabilities really struggles with 15 credits 12-13 had become his norm. He picks up a class each summer in summer school and brought in some AP, CLEP and DE credits and will graduate next year (in 4 years) with a double major an a minor. 

 

15 hours is a standard load, but as someone else mentioned, it can be a problem if he needs to drop a class or if he has classes that are not the standard 3 hour course. For example, if you have a 1 or 2 credit health/PE type requirement (many colleges do) then he would have to take 16 or 17 hours if all his other classes are 3 hours in order to not fall below 15. The same is true for 4 and 5 hour courses, causing the load to either drop to 13 or 14 hours or go up to 16 or 17. 

 

Whether or not it is an issue depends completely on your ds and his ability to handle the load. I have one that would not be able to keep the scholarship under those conditions (thankfully his very large scholarship only requires 12 hours), but Dd's boyfriend has this stipulation and is in the BSN program which varies each semester from 14-17 hours. On the semesters when only 14 hours are required, he has to add a class outside the program. It makes life harder, but he is senior and did what it took to keep the scholarship.

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I took 12; my scholarship only required 12 and because I had 30+ hours of credit coming in, I didn't need more than that to finish in 4 years.  The real reason I took 12 instead of 15, though, was that the scholarship actually paid me the difference in credit hours cost between 15 and whatever I took, so taking 12 gave me an extra $1500/semester or so.  

 

I found 12 ridiculously easy to maintain, but it was an English degree.  15 credit hours of hard math and sciences would have been a lot more work than 15 hours of average public school humanities, imo.

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