Lowering the bar

Students with below average test scores and GPAs now have the possibility of Ferris acceptance

Ferris has been looking into adding provisional admissions for students who do not quite meet the requirements for attending their university or college of choice.

The minimum requirements for applying students to enroll at Ferris currently include a 2.25 GPA on a 4.0 scale and a composite score of 15 on the ACT. With the provisional admissions, this means an applying student who did not meet these requirements would still be accepted.

This has not been tested by Ferris yet, but “we have piloted [provisional admissions] with campus partners to look at a student from a more ‘wholistic’ view,” Ferris associate director of admissions processes Charlotte Tetsworth said.

“This more ‘wholistic’ approach allows us to move forward in a positive direction for somewhere opportunity is not readily accessible,” Tetsworth said.

There are no set criteria to meet these provisional admission standards, but what Ferris looks for are students who contact an admissions officer and ask what else they can submit to add to the student’s character portfolio. The admissions officer would encourage the applying student to provide any additional items that would show off more of their character, like letters of recommendation, or other items showing achievement.

Some students on campus are not fond of this idea because it seems to undermine people who worked hard to enter their specific college.

“I would feel a little frustrated if someone came into Ferris, and they didn’t meet the standards while other people worked hard to get into here like I did,” Ferris nursing major sophomore Sophee Robinson said.

“But if someone meets specific circumstances, like a low GPA because of their home life, they never got to focus on school, yet their SAT score is good, they should be allowed in,” Robinson said.

Another Ferris student had a different thought on how other applicants could become Ferris students.

“I think it would be fine if someone had a bad SAT but a well GPA … their GPA shows their work ethic, and it means more because it shows they can apply themselves in school, rather than just being good at standardized testing,” Ferris pharmacy junior Kayce Ziemba said.

The average GPA for Ferris State is 3.24, and the average SAT score is 1055, which would convert to a 21 on the ACT. This, with just the averages, would make Ferris a moderate competing scholar school to get into.

Courtesy statistics from prepscholar.com.