Tuesday, November 18, 2003
DECADE WITH THE DAWGS....
While not medically related this story in last Monday's Atlanta Journal Constitution caught my eye about how students at my alma mater are engaging in "creative academics" to keep their HOPE scholarships intact. The story goes into great detail about how students schedule light loads, withdraw from classes, and use the "key" to find which professors give out the most "A"'s in a class, (a tool that was sadly not available in my day).
But what really grabbed my attention was this:
Bill Melton, a seventh-year senior at the University of Georgia, said he dropped several classes, took extra semesters to graduate and changed his major -- in large part to try to keep his scholarship.
A seventh-year senior?
When I was attending UGA it was "fashionable" in a way to hold off graduation until after fall quarter to be able to attend through another football season. But being in college for seven years without graduating? If the HOPE scholarship wasn't picking up the tab for this do you think there would be many seventh-year senoirs? I know that many students have difficulty in obtaining classes that are requirements to graduate (when I was there the hour requirement for a B.S. degree made it impossible to graduate after four years taking a full-time load each quarter), but there seem to be other motivators as well.
The administration of the University is taking notice as well:
Because funding is based on the amount of credit hours each student takes, the University is losing a total of $6 to $10 million a year because students are staying beyond four years to fulfill graduation requirements.
"We've let a (lax) attitude slip in," he (University president Adams) said. "That's why we are thinking of some disincentives," such as possibly not selling fifth-year seniors football tickets at student rates.
As Bluto said in Animal House "Seven years of college down the drain!!"
Go dogs!!! Sic'em WOOF WOOF WOOF!! |
While not medically related this story in last Monday's Atlanta Journal Constitution caught my eye about how students at my alma mater are engaging in "creative academics" to keep their HOPE scholarships intact. The story goes into great detail about how students schedule light loads, withdraw from classes, and use the "key" to find which professors give out the most "A"'s in a class, (a tool that was sadly not available in my day).
But what really grabbed my attention was this:
Bill Melton, a seventh-year senior at the University of Georgia, said he dropped several classes, took extra semesters to graduate and changed his major -- in large part to try to keep his scholarship.
A seventh-year senior?
When I was attending UGA it was "fashionable" in a way to hold off graduation until after fall quarter to be able to attend through another football season. But being in college for seven years without graduating? If the HOPE scholarship wasn't picking up the tab for this do you think there would be many seventh-year senoirs? I know that many students have difficulty in obtaining classes that are requirements to graduate (when I was there the hour requirement for a B.S. degree made it impossible to graduate after four years taking a full-time load each quarter), but there seem to be other motivators as well.
The administration of the University is taking notice as well:
Because funding is based on the amount of credit hours each student takes, the University is losing a total of $6 to $10 million a year because students are staying beyond four years to fulfill graduation requirements.
"We've let a (lax) attitude slip in," he (University president Adams) said. "That's why we are thinking of some disincentives," such as possibly not selling fifth-year seniors football tickets at student rates.
As Bluto said in Animal House "Seven years of college down the drain!!"
Go dogs!!! Sic'em WOOF WOOF WOOF!! |
