Grade Point Average Change Policy Frequently Asked Questions

Will the colleges change their policies as it relates to program entry since the GPA will be dropped? Or do departments (e.g. Grad School, Nursing, etc.) only accept the cumulative GPA already?
1. Grad schools look at cumulative GPA. In addition, our nursing program currently requires a 3.0 cumulative GPA for admission; education requires a 2.5 minimum cumulative GPA for admission to student teaching. Business will be reviewing their advancement from "pre-business" policies.
In the past, was the Adjusted GPA or Cumulative GPA used for determining graduation with honors?
1. Graduation with Honors specifically looks at the lower GPA (catalog page 46). Who’s Who (an Honors Day award) requires a minimum of 3.0 cumulative GPA.
Instead of multiple repeats of classes as some students did in the past, will the change increase the number of student withdrawals from courses?
1. It is anticipated that there might be more withdrawals under the new policy than has been the case in the past. However, the total repeats would most likely be similar to that currently seen (withdrawals and D/F combined). Anecdotally, there are several cases each semester where a student hasn’t a prayer of passing and fails to drop the course - the failing grade will (hopefully) be replaced as a repeat, so this is not seen as a potential downfall. This will be a potential downfall under the changed policy.
What is a "stopped out" student?
1. A "stopped out" student is one who stops attending school then after some period of time they decide to return to the university.
Once the policy change is in place, what will be my "starting" GPA??
1. A student’s adjusted GPA at the end of Summer 2007 will become their institution GPA going forward. What this means is that previous attempts of courses repeated prior to Fall 2007 will be excluded from the GPA, but previous attempts of courses repeated Fall 2007, and after, will not.
What is a cumulative GPA??
1. A cumulative GPA is an average of all of your grades from all of your courses.

If you have further questions, please email wings@georgiasouthern.edu.