When senior Sally Reasoner decided to attend DePauw, she wanted to bolster her education by joining a Program of Distinction. Her brother Scott, who graduated in 2009, encouraged her to join Management Fellows because of graduates' successes finding employment after graduation.
She didn't have a passion for business management, but Reasoner stilljoined the Management Fellows Program. After two years, she decided to leave the program behind.
Reasoner said she left the program because it decided not to approve her internship with the U.S. Department of Education. The internship did not relate directly to management and was only 4 days a week, falling short of the internship's 40 hours per week requirement.
Yet Reasoner wasn't sure if she would have stayed with the program if the internship was approved.
"I don't know. I don't think I could have lasted through the economics classes," she said. "I did fine in them but I really didn't enjoy it. And I wanted more freedom in my schedule."
Reasoner is just one of many students on campus who drop out of Programs of Distinction. As of last month, 42 of the 61 students (69 percent) who began Management Fellows in the fall of 2007 have left the program. Twenty-seven of the 42 students (64 percent) who started in the fall of 2008 as Management Fellows have also left the program.
Every year, a number of students end up leaving these programs because they cannot meet the required GPA to continue. For Science Research Fellows, students must maintain a 3.1 cumulative GPA by their first semester of sophomore year and maintain that GPA throughout the remainder of their time at DePauw, said Hilary Eppley, director of Science Research Fellows.
As with all programs of distinction, if a student falls below the minimum, he or she will go on "probation" to give the student a semester to raise his or her GPA. If they still cannot meet the minimum threshold, they are dismissed from the program.
Media Fellows must also maintain a 3.1 GPA throughout their time in the program. However, in order to officially graduate from the program, they must graduate with a 3.2.
Dave Bohmer, the director of Media Fellows, said there are no exceptions to the rule. Bohmer recalls telling one student before graduation last year that she would not graduate as a Media Fellow because she did not have a 3.2.
Her GPA was a 3.19.
In the class of 2011, six students have been dismissed from Media Fellows because of grades, while four other students left the program for other reasons. Seventeen seniors still remain in the program.
Bohmer emphasizes that more people leave Media Fellows because of grades than some might think. He believes some students who were dismissed from the program may not want to admit that to their peers, so they tell others that they left the program voluntarily. Furthermore, Bohmer said students who will not have the grades to continue will often drop out of the program preemptively.
The cutoff for Management Fellows is slightly higher. After their third semester on campus, students must have a 3.2 GPA in order to continue. If they do not, they are asked to leave the program. Gary Lemon, director of the Management Fellows Program, said that grades are probably the primary reason that students leave the program.
Retention rates for Science Research Fellows are generally higher than other the programs. Although only 19 of the 29 seniors (65 percent) who entered DePauw as Science Research Fellows remain in the program, the retention rate for the classes of 2010 and 2012 fares much higher, at 84 percent and 86 percent respectively.
Lemon said people choose to leave the Management Fellows program for a variety of reasons. Students often develop other academic passions, or simply find out that economics does not suit them.
"I have very smart students coming here with not even close to a 3.2 who later say ‘I want to be a doctor,'" Lemon said. "And I say, ‘Don't be a Management Fellow. You should be over in the chemistry department or biology department.'"
In addition, Lemon does not hesitate to mention the demands of the Management Fellows program can take up a chunk of time. Students are expected to attend nine lectures throughout the year and write a short summary about the speaker. In addition, students must complete a semester-long, business-related internship, which can interfere with opportunities to study abroad.
Kevin Moore, director of the Honor Scholar program, said that while some students leave freshman or sophomores leave Honor Scholar, seniors often leave the program. Senior Honor Scholars work year-round on a thesis, which can often overwhelm those who already have demanding academic, extracurricular or family commitments.
Senior Kristina Locke left the program well before having to worry about the senior thesis. As a double major, she did not want the stress of writing three senior theses. Furthermore, she clashed with one of her Honor Scholar professors and also struggled to scheduling Honor Scholar courses around her two majors and a desire to study abroad.
As President Casey has discussed potential changes to the Programs of Distinction as part of his DePauw 2020 plan, some students and faculty members support the idea of all Programs of Distinction beginning during sophomore year. Moore disagrees.
"I think it would be a terrible idea," he said. "A big chunk of students say they would not have come to DePauw without the Honor Scholar program. And a lot of students stay because of Honor Scholar. They make us stand out to other competitive universities."
Lateral entries are quite common in Science Research Fellows. Eppley said that in any given class, approximately one-third to one-half of the fellows were lateral entries. She said the students often feel more comfortable with the research-intensive portions of the program after a couple semesters of college under their belt.
Yet, not everyone who laterally joins Programs of Distinction has stayed with them. For example, in the class of 2010, six out of the eight students entering Management Fellows laterally left the program before graduation. As of last month, approximately half of the laterals from the classes of 2011 and 2012 have left the program.
Reasoner said she wishes there were more opportunities for lateral entry into programs such as Management Fellows. Nonetheless, she thinks the programs are "good for driven students coming to college."
Before leaving the program, Locke found Honor Scholar to be a rewarding experience. The classes were discussion-based, classes were more specific than most students had the privilege of taking as underclassmen, and the Honor Scholar director at the time, Anne Harris, was extremely helpful.
"I have nothing bad to say about Honor Scholar," Locke said. "It just did not seem like it was worth all the effort at the time."
