find out why colleges have GPA requirements?

Question

im doing a argument paper for my college writing class and im going to argue that GPA requirements for classes,majors,and to be in college shouldnt be...but i cant find out how the requirment even came about or why. i got to kent state university www.kent.edu

Answer 1

Many elite school have far more applicants than they have space for. Harvard, Duke, Columbia, Stanford, etc have about 20,000 applicants or more each, for about 1500 Freshman spaces.

So, how can they decide who should be admitted? College essays are often written by ghost writers. SATS are important but they do not tell whether a person is capable of working hard over an extended period of time. Personal references are obviously biased. So what else has the college got to go on.

Every college I have visited (which is hundreds) has said that the GPA is the most important single factor in admitting their students. It shows how 20 or more professional educators have evaluated a students work over a period of several months each. There may be a grade or two that was unfair or somehow doesnt reflect the student's abilities, but taken as a whole, there is nothing else that is even close to it for making a judgment about a student's potential for academic success.

Answer 2

I don't know, but this is my view on it.

Colleges want to be sure that a perspective student can handle that college's courses, and someone with a really low GPA can't handle a college-level class. After the issue with the SAT a couple of years ago, colleges depend more and more on a high school student's GPA and transcript.

Answer 3

As it stands now, colleges and universities have more and more applicants who want to get in, but not all of the applicants have the necessary scores required for entrance. Now, don't get me wrong, there are remedial college classes for students who don't have all the requisite scores for the degrees they desire; the problem is that most of these classes fill up faster than the standard-level courses offered by such schools. So really, when you think about it, these colleges are trying to save time and class space by winnowing out those who have failed to secure the standard prerequisites. Also, these universities are trying to impress upon such students that it's wise to be more responsible for one's grade standing before embarking on a career course that one really wants. I mean, if you wanted to take a journalism course, but received straight D grades in high school English, would you make a good journalist?

Answer 4

Some colleges have GPA requirements because they are oblivious to the fact that a GPA is only a slight indication of the depth of intelligence an individual posesses. However, GPA's are indications of determination and an individual's ability to complete assignments and stay focused in class.

Answer 5

i dont know but heres my opinion on the topic

people always complain about standardized tests and GPA being used as evaluation criteria, but how else are they supposed to evaluate applicants? and if they changed the evaluation criteria, people would complain about that not being fair. damned if you do, damned if you dont. there are flaws with the GPA but you need to rate people on something, and if people were doing poorly in high school classes it may be a good indication they wont do well in college. usually the requirements arent that steep unless youre going somewhere prestigious, and if you cant make them youre probably not smart enough to be there...

Answer 6

read Doonesbury

2 Sundays ago - 2 college friends met in the cafeteria after not seeing each other for a while

Zonker complained that he was still struggling in choosing a major

Angel said she had finished, went on to get a doctorate, and had two children

thoughtful pause

Zonker said something about continuing his sophomore year

*******yeah - bet his GPA was really high
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since there are a restricted number of seats in class -
how will you set the determination to choose?

# of hotdogs downed in 3 minutes
# of tequila shots on Friday night
# of pictures on myspace.com
GPA? - how quaint