Students, administration in the business school and a committee will vote on academic requirements to decide on the selective prerequisites of the School of Business, because it brings up confusion and contradiction to all parties. The School of Business proposed to include the 2.75 GPA requirement in the university catalogue so students could understand how selective admissions is, however, it was denied a voting committee.

The University Council, comprised of faculty and administration members, had concerns with the business school requiring students to meet a 2.5 requirement at the lower division courses for business and a 2.75 in the business school, said Mary Volcansek, dean of AddRan College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The contradiction was that TCU’s GPA requirement to graduate is 2.0, causing it to seem that students could graduate from TCU but not from a certain school, Volcansek said.

Daniel Short, dean of the business school, said enrollment management is used as a process to control admissions and is oversubscribed.

This correlates with there being a GPA requirement, Short said.

Right now the business school has an enrollment around 1700 students, which is more than the normal 1,400 majors of years past, Short said.

Volcansek said the council has concerns when schools begin using GPA as a way to control enrollment because it can cause grade inflation.

Short said all he wants to do is make students aware early on that admissions into the business school is more selective than it seems in the university catalogue, which, explains the degree requirements at TCU.

Brett Wilson, a freshman pre-business major was accepted into the business school when he applied to TCU. Once he came, he was told technically he wasn’t in the school because of the expectations he didn’t know about.

He said it would be better if students were told up front that there are preliminary steps and requirements before admission into the business school.

“I think it would help people understand (the process) more. It wouldn’t be a shock factor for some,” Wilson said.

The problem students face if the requirements are not specified is that they will apply to the business school after earning 60 credit hours and not realize their GPA excludes them from the school, Short said.

“What we think is not fair to students is to have them work for 60 hours up to their junior year trying to get in the business school – apply, and find out they didn’t meet the standard, without knowing what the standard was,” Short said.

The degree of selectiveness is not being explained well enough, Short said.

“Right now it says you need a minimum of 2.5 to apply,” Short said. “It doesn’t tell you what the average is for people who are admitted. We’re just trying to change the disclaimer.”

This is the first time the business school has made this proposal in Short’s two years at TCU.

Incoming students seem to be have problems understanding the procedure to be admitted into the business school because there aren’t specifications.

Adam Goodlett, a freshman pre-business major, was advised to begin as a pre-major at TCU, though he was already considering entering the business school.

When he wanted to change to pre-business, he wasn’t able to take classes this semester because he wasn’t already a pre-business major.

This is the problem that students face when they are waiting to apply, where they are taking classes towards business and not knowing they could be denied, Short said.

“We don’t want somebody working for 60 hours expecting to be a finance major and then find out they can’t be a finance major,” Short said.

Compared to how it seemed when Goodlett applied, the situation wasn’t what he expected, he said.

“They just need to work on giving a better overview of the program, because it’s just this kind of picture perfect view, and then you get there and you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m really overwhelmed, and no one’s helping me,'” Goodlett said.

Short said that the problem isn’t that a large amount of students are being denied, but that students are being denied without knowing that they could be.

Plans for another proposal will be in the spring.