For incoming freshman, one of the main responsibilities they must focus on is studying twice as hard as they did in high school. Many of them are shooting for a certain G.P.A. during their first semester. Many are even trying to manage a 4.0. Which is why some students are shocked when their professors inform them that there is no way to attain an “A” in their class?

How do students feel about a class that, no matter how much participation and studying is put forth, an “A” is not attainable because “the professor said so”?

“If that happened to me, I would drop the class,” said freshmen Annastasha Morrow.

Other students were more positive about the idea.

“It motivates me to try a lot harder in that class, and I will attempt to prove her wrong,” said James Martin, a freshman.

When upperclassmen were asked about this happening in their classes a unified response was “welcome to college.”

Journalism and Digital Media professor Michael Randolph said he takes a different approach in his class.

“I wouldn’t say that to my students,” Randolph said. “I try to make my classes fail proof, and if they fail my class, it’s the students fault for not studying and doing their work. My job is not to fail them, my job is to teach them.”

English professor Susan Murray-Moore understands why professors use this tactic on their students.

“Students have dealt with lowered expectations for so long,” Murray-Moore said. “They don’t know what it means to produce good quality work. Therefore, in academia, the standards MUST be high.”

Freshmen will just have to get used to the tougher standards that Ashland University holds them to. Welcome to college, class of 2015.