For the first time in 10 years, students applying to the University for the 2003-04 school year with a less than a 3.25 GPA will not be guaranteed admission.
The University announced July 8 that the minimum GPA required for guaranteed admission will increase from 3.0 to 3.25 as well as at least 16 rather than 14 credits of college preparatory courses.
This change marks a response from the University to the increase in enrollment over the past decade and to the decrease in state funding.
Raising admission standards has been a topic of conversation for the University for some time, but administrators weren’t expecting to have to implement any changes so soon.
“We have talked about (raising standards) for years,” University President Dave Frohnmayer said. “(The rise in enrollment) caught us two or three years before we predicted,” he said. “We weren’t expecting enrollment to be more than 20,000 until 2004 or 2005.”
Frohnmayer does think that the change in admission standards might eventually provide a better image for the school. “A school’s reputation is increased by the school maintaining high standards,” he said.
Frohnmayer attributes the rise in enrollment to the fact that the number of high-school graduates is increasing and that “the University is a very desirable place to attend,” he said.
North Eugene High School Principal Peter Tromba was distressed by the news of the requirements and is worried about what the changes will do to his students.
“We’ll definitely end up sending some of our students to Lane (Community College) or OSU,” he said. “Out of all four high schools, we struggle the most with admission requirements.”
Tromba also believes changes like this will result in grade inflation. For example, if a student has a 3.2 and needs an A in a chemistry class to get a GPA boost, it would be difficult for a teacher to turn that student down, he said.
Along with the increase in GPA, students must now also have 16 credits of college prep courses for guaranteed admission. Previously, students only needed a 3.0 GPA and 14 college prep credits.
Assistant provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University Bob Bontrager said that the changes “make sense.
“We’re both in very similar situations, and we both have to make some hard choices,” he said.
OSU is looking at making some similar modifications, but officials are also piloting a new “writing instrument that will determine the level of motivation and experience in overcoming obstacles of the applicant,” Bontrager said. “GPA by itself doesn’t have much predictive validity,” he added.
Although the alterations will affect 10 percent of his students, South Eugene High School Assistant Principal Larry Soberman is in favor of the changes.
“It’s a good move for the University — for it to continue to become a top-quality University,” he said.
Frohnmayer is hopeful that the new standards will increase the value of education at the University.
“Hopefully, this will do what raising GPA standards and test scores did for intercollegiate athletics,” he said.