With the school year completed, students depart with the knowledge their various disciplines have taught them. Maybe it’s equations, or literary analysis. But there’s one universal lesson most students at university understand: how to get the highest marks.
Maybe that means grovelling for a better grade. Maybe that means writing a paper the way a certain TA prefers it. What drives this need for high marks? For many, it’s scholarship money. However, there’s an inconsistency between marks required and scholarships received.
In order to maintain an entrance scholarship, students must achieve a minimum GPA of 10, reflected as an 80 per cent or A- on exams and assignments. For those with the highest entrance scholarship Carleton offers, this means 0.1 of a GPA can result in a difference of $4,000. Not to mention, regardless of scholarship amount, which ranges from $1,000 to $4,000, all scholarship recipients must maintain the same A- average.
I have been in classes where a sympathetic professor or TA will agree to bump a mark a percentage point to help a student keep their scholarship. But more often, I’ve been in classes where those who are teaching and marking us handle questions about assignment feedback with comments such as, “You shouldn’t be at university if all you’re focused on are grades,” or, “Every poor mark is an opportunity to learn.”
These remarks may be accurate, but with scholarships lost for as little as 0.2 of a per cent, students can’t run the risk of putting learning ahead of achieving an exceptional mark. For many students, retaining a high average and subsequently their scholarship is the best chance they have to fund their own education. It leaves them in a position where losing their scholarship could mean falling back on student loans, or dropping out of school altogether.
Losing a scholarship by 0.2 is not an exaggeration. It is the frustrating reality for many students, including my roommate. She finished her first year with a CGPA of 9.8, which wasn’t rounded to help her renew her $2,000 entrance scholarship.
I know there are those who will accuse my generation of expecting a reward for every mediocre action. I know some will say 10 is the cut-off, and 9.8 just isn’t a 10. But there is a difference between slacking off all semester, and missing a scholarship by 0.2. That 0.2 difference can be the decision to circle B instead of C. It’s choosing true when you should have gone with false. It isn’t laziness.
If we are supposed to be in an institution where the importance is placed on learning, and not grades, why can’t a 9.8 be rounded up? Why is 0.2 worth $2,000?
My intention is not to malign Carleton’s scholarship system. I admit it’s already very generous. Carleton allows for scholarships received with high school grades valued higher than an A- to nonetheless be renewed at an A- in following years. They also provide the opportunity for students to gain back a scholarship previously lost.
However, as a student who is desperately obsessed with maintaining a 10 GPA, I can attest to the stress caused by trying to keep a scholarship. I have shamelessly begged for a 79.5 to become an 80, and I have cried from relief when a professor pulled my high B+ to a low A-.
Removing this pressure from students is probably a bigger problem than Carleton. It would probably have to come from Canada introducing universal access to post-secondary education. But there is no doubt the current correlation between grades and scholarships creates a negative atmosphere for students to excel.
I don’t want to be in university for the grades, I want to be here to learn. But like so many students, I literally cannot afford to.
