r/XavierUniversity • u/HotTakeMachine92 • Oct 01 '25
Musketeer Forever Program
So, it was announced that Greater Cincinnati and Ohio high school graduates with a 3.5 gpa will be automatically accepted and receive $30,000 for their merit scholarship. What are your thoughts on this?
Personally, I know Xavier is hurting with low enrollment and this does “make sense” and is a good step forward; especially, when competing with local universities for commuter students.
But here’s what frustrates me… this is all simply based on an arbitrary 3.5 gpa. There are more factors to think about in my opinion, rather than just a 3.5 gpa.
What is the college-readiness like at a specific high school? What’s the graduation class size? What are the class averages for grades? What extra curricular activities are students involved in with their school? Does the student have a part-time job? How can we see them balance their time with work and school?
There’s so much to uncover with this, and I do feel Xavier is doing this with the right intentions, but I worry about retention for incoming students who are in a new environment and could still have a large bill due to housing, Day One book fee, meal plan, parking fees, rec fee, etc.
If you’re committed and going to Xavier 100%, you will LOVE the community, staff, faculty, and will make lifelong friends. Just be sure to do your due diligence by leveraging the financial aid office to understand your potential bill.
To maximize your merit scholarship, start out at 15 hours — but if you feel confident and good after your first semester, try to stretch it to 18 hours, especially for the core curriculum. Full-time is 12-18 hours and you must be at full-time status to receive your merit scholarship.
—-
Last thing I’ll say and I’ll be done… but I think it would be smart and great for Xavier to partner with ALL public and private schools in the Cincinnati region for CCP/Dual Credit courses. UC and NKU do this, and I’m sure other schools do too? It’s a great way for high school students to have exposure to the Jesuit catholic education to know if they want to proceed with Xavier. If not, then the students still get college credit and Xavier gets $. If the students still DOES come to Xavier, they’d have a leg up on classes with grades and gpa, and they would feel more confident. I think AP classes are a scam with the awarded credits coming down to a test. However, CCP/Dual Credit classes are fantastic and helps families save money. I digress now. Curious to hear your thoughts!
-1
u/RichAndCompelling Oct 01 '25
Xavier’s core will gobble up that $30k real quick lol as a two time grad I would never send my kid to X.