Honors College changes GPA requirements to ensure graduation credit

Honors students at Miami University received an email from the Honors College on April 7 detailing a change to the college’s current policy regarding GPA requirements.

The new policy requires students who are part of the Honors College to achieve a 3.25 cumulative GPA to earn university honors when they graduate. It also stipulates that they need to complete an honors senior project. The original policy, which was set for the Honors Program, required a 3.5 GPA for students to receive the notation on their transcript.

“This policy change will reward honors students with a wider range of final cumulative GPAs for having completed the required honors senior project,” wrote Zeb Baker, the inaugural dean of the Honors College, in the email.

Catherine Moul, a first-year chemical engineering major in the Honors College, said she appreciates that the lower threshold accommodates honors students who might be struggling academically, but feels that it shows a diminishing focus on academic excellence within the college. Having taken both of her required honors courses, she said she doesn’t think the extra requirements are very challenging.

“I understand the thought,” Moul said, “[but] it just does feel slightly like [it’s] maybe diluting the point of the Honors College.”

Baker said this change was an effort to reestablish standards already in effect for honors students since 2021, when the Honors College began at Miami. Rewriting the policy ensured that the almost 200 upcoming Honors College students graduating in May 2025 will get credit for all of the work they were expected to do.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

“If we hadn’t made this change, no one who is graduating from the Honors College this year would have been able to earn University Honors, because none of them completed that set of requirements,” he said.

Baker also said the new policy helps to emphasize the importance of the honors senior project, a requirement that was optional under the previous honors program policy.

“The real change there is that university honors is a culminating experience, it’s a culminating project,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that students are getting credit for having completed that kind of culminating project, on top of their honors requirements.”

However, the majority of students in the program and the college have exceeded these expectations. In a University Senate meeting on March 10, Baker said that the average GPA within the Honors College is 3.74.

“Eighty-two percent of our graduates last academic year graduated with a 3.5 or higher, and this year it’s going to be even higher,” Baker said. “It’s going to be more like 85% of our students.”

Erin Wahler, the assistant director for student enrichment at the Honors College, said she has seen honors students stay on track with their requirements. Although she primarily facilitates study abroad programs, she’s also an adviser for students in the Farmer School of Business.

“I’ve had some really good conversations, and I think they’re doing well,” she said. “Everybody seems to have a good game plan.”

Elianna Danner, a first-year zoology major in the Honors College, has been finding ways to engage with her passions at Miami. She is currently participating in undergraduate research on avian malaria, she has lined up volunteer work for the summer and she is going on a study abroad trip to Costa Rica next spring, but none of them are specifically designed for Honors College students.

“I feel like there probably are opportunities that just don’t apply to me that I could take if I had a different career path,” she said. “But mostly, I’ve just been getting these opportunities on my own, without needing anything from the Honors College.”

However, she said she’s still thankful for the community and motivation that being a part of the Honors College has given her.

“I feel like it has made me have a lot of faith in myself,” Danner said, “that if I can be taking honors courses and still doing regular college then I can do this.”

bowsers2@miamioh.edu