Penn State can forget about that 4.0 GPA this semester.
The university recently received a "D" on a report that evaluated colleges' and universities' general education programs.
In an American Council of Trustees and Alumni's (ACTA) report, "What Will They Learn? A Report on General Education Requirements at 100 of the Nation's Leading Colleges," colleges' and universities' general education programs were evaluated through the classes they offered in composition, economics, U.S. government, history, language, literature, math and science.
Penn State was one of 17 schools that earned a D, directly beneath "C-grade" schools like the University of Iowa and the University of Maryland.
Twenty-three percent of the 60 "state flagship" schools surveyed -- one of which was which Penn State -- received a D grade. Only 7 percent received an A.
Of the 100 schools reviewed, only five received an A: the United States Military Academy; the University of Arkansas; the City University of New York-Brooklyn College; the University of Texas-Austin; and Texas A&M University.
One-fourth of the colleges and universities graded in the report received an "F" -- including Ivy League schools such as Brown University, Cornell University and Yale University.
The report, released in August, is available at WhatWillTheyLearn. com.
Despite the low ranking, university representatives said they were undaunted by the ACTA findings.
"Penn State takes a lot into consideration when identifying their requirements for general education," university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said. "Groups' reports have little bearing on this."
But ACTA "stands by their grade," said Charles Mitchell, the group's program director.
"If a university is taking into consideration a lot of things, one of them should be national studies," Mitchell said.
Language and mathematics were the only areas in which Penn State's general education requirements are up to par, according to the report.
Natural and physical science general education at Penn State "may be fulfilled with narrow courses or courses with little scientific content" and therefore did not receive proficient marks as a general education requirement, according to the report.
The scope of the university's history courses was also criticized as being "too narrow to count as American history surveys."
"We look for universities that provide a broad introduction into topics and then get into narrow areas to lay the proper groundwork," Mitchell said. "One misconception about the report is that a university offers 'bad courses.' But we look for the basics students need to know first and believe that universities should too."
Lane Stephenson, director of news and information services at Texas A&M -- one of the schools that received an A -- called the report "pretty cut and dry."
"Either you offered the courses as core curriculum or not," Stephenson said. "We obviously feel that students at Texas A&M get a well-founded, well-rounded education."
Some students at Penn State said they are happy with the way the university approaches general education requirements.
"It makes sense to me to learn a little about everything," Caitlin Adams (junior-English) said. "I think a really general class would not be as interesting."
