A minimum GPA requirement for students who receive student loans seemingly makes sense. Asking for a demonstration of commitment by students that receive thousands of dollars in assistance doesn’t seem unreasonable. A closer look, however, shows such a requirement would be arbitrary and actually work against the objective of student loan programs.
The purpose of student loans is not, nor has it ever been, to improve or guarantee student performance, but rather to provide the financial means to attend college for those who would otherwise not be able to afford it.
Nor should good grades be the aim of student loan programs. For many students who may not attain good grades, particularly low-income and first-generation students, graduation is the only goal. And rightfully so – high school graduates are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed and earned only about 60% of the salary of college graduates in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Having being employed by four organizations in the six years since I graduated from college, I have not once been asked for my college transcript. I have been asked for proof of graduation, however, which demonstrates that in the real world, your degree matters – not your GPA.
The requirement would also leave behind students who had a bad semester or year. I personally had a horrendous first year of college. After ending up with a GPA hard to consider “good,” I got my act together and graduated with two bachelor’s degrees and high honors.
For students juggling full-time jobs or a family, performance may fluctuate from semester to semester. By giving up on students who may have a bad semester or year, this policy would punish the very students it was designed to help.
In addition to the misguided logic of a GPA requirement, there are also practical challenges. Settling on a universally accepted definition of “good grades” would be impossible, as different schools use different grading scales and systems. This requirement might also encourage the type of cheating and grade-inflation that plagues law schools.
Student loans are an investment in our society. And while some investments may go bad, an educated society is better off in terms of salary, quality of life, and productivity. As the US begins to slip behind other countries in education, now is not the time to exclude people from the process in a shortsighted policy like this one.