2008 Woodie Awards
Freshman GPA decrease largest in 5 years
By: Meghan Kazer
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: News
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The GPA for the class of 2010 decreased from the fall to spring semesters last year, representing the largest drop in five years, and the second largest in eight years.
Neal Abraham, vice president for academic affairs, said last year was an unusual year. Typically, GPAs followed an upward trend until the installment of depauw.year1 mentor program, which was created in 1999, he said. This is the same year rush was moved from the fall to the spring semesters. Since 1999, GPAs have followed a downward trend.
Abraham said he speculates several reasons for this shift. Last year, roughly 5 percent of the class left before second semester. This was due to several factors including medical reasons, poor academic performance and social misbehavior.
"I would propose that the people who left after the fall semester must have had lower GPAs that pulled the fall average down," Abraham said.
However, there was still a significant decrease in the GPAs of students who stayed.
Abraham said another reason for the shift could be the transition from first-year seminars, with generally smaller class sizes, to larger classes second semester.
"Students get more attention; it's more noticed if your homework is missed, it's more noticed if you're missing class, he said. "You get faster feedback because there are fewer papers to grade."
Abraham also said there could be an increase in distractions as students become more comfortable at DePauw.
"Clearly the greek recruitment and rush is one of these," he continued. "But there are lots of evermore engaged sorts of things that you can do in a second semester that you couldn't figure out your first semester."
Tom Hansen, director of fraternity and sorority services, said the Greek Life Committee will be looking at the correlation between new member involvement and GPA.
"At this point we don't know," he said.
Students' preferences for classes also decrease second semester. Fall semester, students choose courses they are interested in and the University creates a schedule.
Neal Abraham, vice president for academic affairs, said last year was an unusual year. Typically, GPAs followed an upward trend until the installment of depauw.year1 mentor program, which was created in 1999, he said. This is the same year rush was moved from the fall to the spring semesters. Since 1999, GPAs have followed a downward trend.
Abraham said he speculates several reasons for this shift. Last year, roughly 5 percent of the class left before second semester. This was due to several factors including medical reasons, poor academic performance and social misbehavior.
"I would propose that the people who left after the fall semester must have had lower GPAs that pulled the fall average down," Abraham said.
However, there was still a significant decrease in the GPAs of students who stayed.
Abraham said another reason for the shift could be the transition from first-year seminars, with generally smaller class sizes, to larger classes second semester.
"Students get more attention; it's more noticed if your homework is missed, it's more noticed if you're missing class, he said. "You get faster feedback because there are fewer papers to grade."
Abraham also said there could be an increase in distractions as students become more comfortable at DePauw.
"Clearly the greek recruitment and rush is one of these," he continued. "But there are lots of evermore engaged sorts of things that you can do in a second semester that you couldn't figure out your first semester."
Tom Hansen, director of fraternity and sorority services, said the Greek Life Committee will be looking at the correlation between new member involvement and GPA.
"At this point we don't know," he said.
Students' preferences for classes also decrease second semester. Fall semester, students choose courses they are interested in and the University creates a schedule.
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