GPA calculation for '01-'02

The following summarizes the calculation of the gpa required for 
admission to the CIS/CSE majors for Su 2001 - Sp '02:

1. Target number: The first step is to determine, based on our current
tenure-track faculty size, and using the (university-approved) formula
below to determine how many students we should target for admission to
the major. The formula is:

  B = (503*F - 45*M - 90*P)/60

where
  B = number of CSE and CSE students / year
  F = Tenure track faculty size
  M = number of MS students / year
  P = number of Ph.D. students / year

503 = credit hours generated by average OSU faculty member / year
 45 = CIS credit hours needed for MS
 90 = CIS credit hours needed for Ph.D. (after MS)
 60 = CIS credit hours needed for BS

Current values:
  F = 29 
  M = 60
  P = 9

This gives us 
  B = 185

Notes: 
a. The number of masters students (value of M) has varied between 57
and 64 in the last three years; the number of Ph.D. students (value of
P) between 10 and 12.

b. The number `60' for the number of CIS credit hours needed for BS: I
am not sure where this comes from; it probably should be adjusted
upward since we have added several hours to the tech electives hours
for the CSE program and these will (generally) be CIS hours. 

2. The second step is to determine the current demand for the major.
This is done by taking the number of students who have been admitted
under the current gpa requirement (3.0), and from that estimating the
total demand by using the percentage distribution of students below
and above that gpa.

Since the 3.0 gpa requirement has been in effect only for a couple of
quarters, we don't have an exact number for how many students would be
admitted over a four quarter period. A conservative estimate, based on
the figures that we do have, suggests a number of 230.

According to the grade distribution curves (provided by Eng. college)
the number of students below 3.0 is 56.6%; thus, with the current
requirement of 3.0, we admit 43.4% of the students who want to get
into the major. Hence the current total demand for the major is 530.

3. The next step is to determine what the gpa requirement should be to
bring the number of admits to our target figure of 185.

Again using the same grade distribution curves, 37.8% of the students
have a gpa of 3.1 or above, 32.5% have a gpa of 3.2 or above. Hence,
with a gpa requirement of 3.1, we would admit 200 students; with a gpa
requirement of 3.2, we would admit 172 students. In table form:

    GPA requirement     No. of admits
         3.0              230
         3.1              200
         3.2              172

A requirement of 3.2 would seem to take us a bit below our target. But
I think 3.2 would be justifiable. For one thing, based on our
experience of the last few years, the formula seems to underpredict
the number of students who will be admitted for specific gpa
requirements. For another, even if the underprediction was because of
special circumstances in those years (although I don't know what these
special circumstances might be -- maybe unusually rapid growth in
demand?), we could argue that we need to take care of the too-many
students already admitted during the last three years, so we need to
take a conservative approach to the number of students we admit in the
next year or two.

--Neelam Soundarajan
Chair, UGSC.