Photo illustration by Alissa Miller.

A study done over the summer by researchers at Northwestern University found no link between the time spent on social networking sites and grades. Approximately 1,000 first-year students were surveyed for the study where no effect was established.

This study published in the latest issue of the “Information, Communication, & Society” magazine rejected other studies done prior to July 2010.

The average time spent on Facebook and other social networking sites by 10 interviewed Emporia State students was one hour. These students felt that their grades have either not changed or were better with the use of Facebook.

“Facebook helped me pass classes at K-State – my friend helped me with my grammar,” said Jackie Denton, junior marketing and business major.

First-year ESU students that were interviewed spent an average time of one to three hours a day on Facebook. None saw changes in their grades or study habits.

Surveyed second- to fourth-year students spent less time on Facebook on average but again saw no change to their grades regardless of time spent.

Overall, the interviewed ESU students also found no link between Facebook and grades. They saw Facebook as way to stay in touch with friends and teachers, get information regarding homework and connect with fellow classmates for help.

Director of the Office of Professional Education Services Sue Peterson noticed a different correlation between social networking sites and academic performance.

“It does affect professional performance, not necessarily the grades or GPA,” Peterson said.

She did not see the direct link of time spent on social networking sites to lower grades, but relayed stories of situations in which Facebook had led to lower grades due to content on the pages.

Psychology Department Graduate Assistant Megan Koranda also saw a different correlation of Facebook use to grades. Koranda believed social networking sites such as Facebook were great communication tools that could correlate to grades.

“With all the network sites that everyone is sharing, it could be a situation that it could be sharing too much information,” Koranda said. These social networking sites impact students with their communication and access to information that could ultimately affect their grades.

The 2010 study referenced the results of a 2009 study done by researchers at Ohio State University. Researchers at Ohio found that Facebook use directly led to lower grades in students.

When a researchers later went over the data of the 2009 study it was found that was not enough information to determine if that conclusion was true.

A commenter on the 2010 study felt that students used Facebook and other social networking sites as a diversion. But with this diversion came a connection to other classmates and discussion that led to more comfort in academic settings.

Liz Coffey

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The Guaranteed Grade Point Average scholarship will soon be completely eliminated from Emporia State’s financial aid program and will be replaced with the Hornet Award. According to Elaine Henrie, director of financial aid, potentially 190 students will receive the guaranteed GPA scholarship for next year, but the official count won’t be released until final grades are in.

The new program, which was started two years ago, actually offers students more money per semester although the award will only extend over two years instead of four.

“Students are pretty excited about having a two year opportunity we found,” said Laura Eddy, director of Admissions. “I don’t think any schools in the state of Kansas guarantee (scholarship money) for four years. That’s something in the past.”

Now students will have the opportunity to be awarded scholarships based on both the ACT score and their high school GPA. On the low end of the scale, students with an ACT of 22 and a GPA of 3.0, $700 is available. On the high end, $2,000 will be awarded to students with an ACT of 29 or higher and a GPA of 3.75 or higher.

The previous award amounts were $500 for an ACT score between 21-23 or a GPA of 3.5. The highest award amount on the old program was $1,200 for an ACT score of 27 or higher.

Eddy said that the change in program has not hurt recruiting.

For third and fourth year students who no longer apply to receive a GPA scholarship, more awards will be available from individual departments.

“(When funds come) we will push more dollars out to the departments to award,” Henrie said. “It will be a process. That will be the goal to get it pushed out to the department so that you work with your department for the last two years.”

Transfer students will also still be eligible to apply for the Hornet award.

Students who started college on the GPA scholarship will continue to receive the award until they reach their four year maximum on the award.

“Anyone who started under that, we certainly didn’t pull the rug from under them and change it,” Henrie said. “We were going to make sure that were following all the way through with that. That wouldn’t have been fair or the right thing to do.”

One benefit of the new program according to Eddy, is that it gives students more opportunities to receive scholarship money.

“We’ve been able to add an early application scholarship, a valedictorian scholarship,” Eddy said. “In the past student’s would ask us, ‘what else can I apply for?’, and really there was nothing else. It’s given more opportunities.”

The Guaranteed GPA award was created over 10 years ago under ESU’s previous president, Kay Schallenkamp.

“It didn’t require any kind of application nor did it look at students in total,” Henrie said. “It worked somewhat. It really did not take into account both the ACT and the high school GPA. The student’s who actually get that money have been more successful than some of the students in the past because we were only relying on one aspect.”

With the old program, students who had a high ACT score but low grades in high school could still receive a large award. In the reciprocal situation, there was really no way for students to get any scholarship at all.

“When we are using donor money, it is pretty important to have some accountability,” Henrie said. “We had to find the most effective ways to spend those dollars. It becomes accountability, that you took your high school education seriously and that you tried your best on your ACT.”

There was also no application process with the GPA scholarship.

“ESU was kind of an outlier for not requiring a scholarship application,” Henrie said. “If you’re really interested in a scholarship, you have to do something to apply. Rather than being based on scholarship it was almost more based on entitlement. If you’re a student who works pretty hard, I think that is a significant difference to earn your scholarship.”

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