36 percent of students make Dean’s List despite efforts to make it more selective

Despite efforts implemented in 2010 to make the Dean’s List more selective, a significant drop in the number of qualifying students has not yet been seen.

Administrators expected the fall 2010 change, which increased the required GPA based on credit hours, to eventually decrease the percent of students making the list from about 39 percent to about 25 percent.

But last semester, 6,589 students, or about 36 percent of the undergraduate student population, made the list.

Only sophomores and freshmen are subject to the modified rules, but Andrew Perrin, associate chairman of the sociology department, said in an email that the number is still too large.

“If in fact the rate achieving Dean’s List is around 35 percent, that certainly remains too high in my opinion, although it is some improvement over the peak of 40 percent,” he said.

Perrin was chairman of the University’s educational policy committee when the policy shift was approved.

Ray Angle, director of University Career Services, said employers do not put heavy emphasis on whether or not potential employees have made the Dean’s List.

“I have never had an employer ask me to refer only students that have been on the Dean’s list,” he said.

“If they are looking for quantifiable numbers or quantifiable information, they ask for specific degrees or specific GPAs. To them it’s the overall GPA.”

It is, however, psychologically rewarding, Angle said.

The change made it more difficult to get on UNC’s list, but some of the University’s peer institutions are even more selective.

Norman Keul, associate dean of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, said the top one-third of students in the college makes its dean’s list.

In past years, those making the top one-third have consistently achieved a 3.75 GPA, he said.

The University of Virginia’s policy is similar to that of UNC, but requires students to be enrolled in no less than 15 hours and maintain a 3.5 GPA.

Sereeta Alexander, a research analyst in the Office of Planning and Analysis at the University of California at Berkeley, said in an email that there is not a specific GPA cutoff at Berkeley for the list.

But the list consists of the top 4 percent for the College of Letters and Science and the College of Natural Resources, Alexander said.

Angle said making the dean’s list at universities used to have more significance.

“There was a day when colleges and universities, I don’t know what UNC does, would send that information out to the hometowns of students and they would publish it in the newspapers,” he said.

“It would be stamped on your transcript: Dean’s List this semester.”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.