Financial aid should be for students who actually earn it by working for good grades.

There are too many students on campus who receive financial aid but take it for granted by not giving their studies the proper attention.

Grades are crucial to your transcripts and your transcripts are crucial to universities, so it is a win win situation if you put a good-hearted effort into getting good grades.

Free money (or fee waivers) are a huge help to students on our campus, but it is handed out on an eligibility based on income.

This means that if the student qualifies, he or she receives aid and will continue receiving it as long as their GPA stays above a 2.0.

A 2.0 is equivalent to straight Cs and surely we as students could do much better than straight Cs.

Therefore, financial aid should really consider encouraging students to earn at least a B in one or more classes in order to continue receiving aid.

A “B” is not impossible to obtain, and it also boosts up your GPA which in turn can only help your chances to get accepted into the university of your choice.

Think of it as back in high school in those classes where students earned a “Pass” or “No Pass” instead of an actual letter grade.

That meant it didn’t matter if you turned in all your assignments, did excellent on all the tests and quizzes, and/or had a perfect attendance record, you would receive the same “grade” as the student who only did the minimum amount of work to pass.

That doesn’t seem fair at all. Students who actually put their heart into their education should be rewarded, and those who only strive for the minimum requirements should get a reality check.

Life is full of disappointments, but that doesn’t mean students who earn good grades should be discouraged to start doing only the minimum work required. Let’s push for a better generation, not a worse one.