Think the long nights you've spent with your face buried in your books at the library to get that 3.5 grade-point average are going to earn you honors at MSU?
Think again.
MSU's GPA thresholds have been raised, starting with students graduating in spring 2008.
Instead of earning a 3.80 to graduate with high honor and a 3.50 to graduate with honor, students planning to graduate in spring, summer or fall 2008 will have to bump up their GPAs to 3.82 to receive high honor or 3.55 to receive honor.
Those graduating in 2009 will need a 3.84 or a 3.60, and by 2010, the numbers will be 3.86 to graduate with high honor and 3.65 to graduate with honor.
The GPA adjustments are made to keep the percent of those honored at around 20 percent - 6 percent with high honor and 14 percent with honor, said Ralph Putnam, chair of the University Committee on Academic Policy, or UCAP.
The grades of the graduating class of students each year are used to determine thresholds for the following year.
Putnam said the old numbers - 3.50 and 3.80 - haven't been adjusted in recent years to keep a consistent percentage of students honored.
"Over time, GPAs have increased - whether that's due to grade inflation or better students," he said. "And more than 20 percent of students have been getting honors and high honors."
To fix that, the university is planning to adjust GPA thresholds annually, as its supposed to, he said.
The university first planned to increase the GPA thresholds at once, instead of gradually.
But people raised concerns, Putnam said.
"It was too much of a jump," he said.
So the administration changed the policy to gradually revise the GPA thresholds during the next three years instead, he said.
"There was at least one concerned parent who got the administration to rethink it and asked UCAP to look at it again," he said. "Just on the basis of that, we reconsidered it."
Physiology junior Madhu Manyam said she appreciated that the university decided to implement the new thresholds in phases.
As a student who has already started working toward a goal, she said it was comforting to know they aren't going to drastically increase right away.
"It's a little easier for those starting with a fresh plate to get to those GPAs," she said. "But it doesn't make my life any easier."
Despite being disappointed she would have less room to mess up in her classes, Manyam said the raise would be an incentive to work hard.
Jessica Baginski, a microbiology junior, disagreed. She said the thresholds would exclude too many people.
"It's a little bit discouraging," she said. "Especially if you're struggling in a class. You might panic."
Colleen Maxwell can be reached at maxwel79@msu.edu.
