Students say class scheduling, GPA influence decision to drop out of Honors Program

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Kellie DeSchutter began her academic career in the Honors Program with the knowledge her senior research project was a couple years down the road.

But the Troy junior joined the ranks of the roughly 60 percent of honors students who will not graduate through the program.

DeSchutter said she left the program after realizing scheduling issues with honors requirements would force her to take — and pay for — classes not necessary for her degree.

“I don’t think they offer enough 300-level classes and they don’t give you the (class offering) schedules far enough in advance,” she said. “I’m going to be here for five years as it is, so I don’t feel like sticking around for five and a half just to get the little thing on my diploma that says I graduated from the Honors Program.”

CMU’s retention rate is actually higher than the national average for honors programs, said Honors Program Director James Hill.

The national average is somewhere between 25 to 30 percent.

Hill said students leave the program for many reasons including financial issues, a desire to graduate early and failure to maintain the required GPA.

The largest reason for students to drop out of the program is a fear of doing the required senior research project, Hill said.

“I think there’s just a fear that, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to do this huge project and I don’t even know what to do. Maybe it’s time to get out so I don’t get in over my head,’” Hill said.

Sterling Heights senior Ann Laszczyk said she chose to leave the Honors Program because its classes were bringing her grade point average down.

She decided that graduating without honors would be better than with honors and a lower GPA.

Dropping the Honors Program means Coral senior Jessica Meredith will graduate a semester earlier.

“(They should) make it easier to work the honors program around any education plan,” she said, noting her shock that there were not more honors education courses offered at a school known for its education program. “They say that it won’t keep you here longer, but in my case it would have – and that’s not right.”

Hill said a major focus for improving the retention rate is to improve the quality of the students in the program from the beginning.

The program has higher admission standards and honors protocol requirements for incoming honors students.

“I think we’ve filtered out a number of the students who are faint-hearted. The quality of student is high enough I think they’ll stick it out,” Hill said.

Even for those who don’t make it to graduation, Hill said he is happy students can benefit from the Honors Program for however long they stick around.

“Even if you don’t finish the Honors Program, the advantages of it far outweigh whatever you’re going to incur in terms of additional classes,” he said.  “And you will like the classes and you will like the people you will deal with, so that makes a quality education experience that much better.”