Following word that the requirements to the Dean’s List are changing this semester, the administration says there are no plans to change the requirements for College Honors.

Students received an email alerting them of the change to the Dean’s List criteria from Dirk Killen, an associate dean in the College of Arts & Sciences at the beginning of the semester.

“You will be cited on the Dean’s List if you meet the following academic standards: completion of a minimum of 14 units of graded work while achieving a grade point average of 3.6 during that semester” read the email from Dean Killen.

The GPA requirement for the Dean’s List was previously set at a 3.5, meaning that students will now have to earn a 0.1 higher GPA in order to meet the qualifications.

According to Killen, students have questioned whether College Honors, which in the past have been linked with Dean’s List, would also be affected by the change.

College Honors will not change for the class of 2012, 2013 or 2014. If there is a change, it will only take effect for the classes of 2015 and after. The deans have not yet taken up this question,” Killen wrote in an email to Student Life.

Some students are against the changes to the Dean’s List requirements.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous” junior Anwesha Majumder said. “We have such high standards as it is that raising them makes them that much more inaccessible.”

Others think the change is reasonable, and even beneficial for students and the University.

“I approve of it. I think it will make Wash. U. more competitive when compared to other schools” sophomore Jonathan Winstone said. “It’ll make it more valuable and meaningful to be on the Dean’s List if it’s harder to obtain.”

The changes will make the requirements to be on the Dean’s List in the College of Arts & Sciences the same as they are in the John M. Olin School of Business and the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

“Business and Engineering raised their Dean’s List requirements to 3.6 a number of years ago, and Arts & Sciences is now in line with a standard that better reflects current student achievement, which has been continually rising,” Killen wrote in an email to Student Life.

“A 0.1-higher GPA is manageable and I hope it can be used as a chance for students to challenge themselves to go a little farther” junior Dan Pasque said. “But if [the administration] did something else within that same trend and continued raising it, students would have a good reason to do something about it.”

The change in the criteria will go into effect for the spring 2012 semester, and the Dean’s List will be announced in June 2012.