Recently, the College of Arts & Sciences decided to change the requirements for the Dean’s List for its students. Previously, students in the College of Arts & Sciences were only required to have a semester GPA of 3.5 in order to receive the honor for that semester. Starting in the current spring 2012 semester, the requirement will be a GPA of 3.6 in order for a student to make Dean’s List.

We believe that this decision is ultimately going to be a good thing for the University, even if some students will be left out because of the change. According to Dirk Killen, associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the change occurred in order to “better reflect the current student achievement,” because Wash. U. students have been steadily achieving more.

The University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and John M. Olin School of Business changed their GPA requirements several years ago. In this case, the College of Arts & Sciences is simply trying to catch up to the rest of the University. The goal was to make the honor of Dean’s List that was something that should be strived for and would be difficult to achieve. We recognize that it will be hard for students whose GPAs will leave them off the list. However, as Wash. U. improves and its students achieve higher grades, we must change the level of achievement needed for honors in order to more accurately reflect exactly what designates excelling at a school at which the majority of students already do well.

Moreover, the school did not change the Latin honors requirements for most current students, so students that were hoping to get Latin honors with a GPA of 3.5 will not be affected by the change. Only the classes of 2015 and beyond will need a GPA of 3.6 in order to receive Latin honors.

We think this policy is going to make Wash. U. more widely recognized as a place of high academic achievement where in order to be considered among the elite of the institution you need to perform at a level that would normally be considered above and beyond.

This decision was made with the best interests of the institution in mind. The new Dean’s List requirements will incentivize students to do even better, so they can get the honor of being on Dean’s List.

Wash. U. is a place at which students constantly strive to do better and to improve themselves. We should expect nothing less of the institution. The school is constantly trying to make itself a place that can attract new talented students from across the globe. Making the Dean’s List requirements more stringent is a way for the University to do just that.