Originally Posted by brilliantcp
It's kind of like having a college scholarship that requires a 3.0 GPA and progress in your declared major. If you really need the scholarship, you need to protect the GPA and take the required classes. If you don't really need it, you can take what you want and worry less about grades.
I know that, this tread got a bit off topic about the Calc sequences. The calc class was supposed to be only one example. In my DS's case he is doing a lot better in the math/science classes than humanities. It is unlikely he will get A's in the humanities classes. Therefore he really could use the boost of getting A's in his science and math classes to improve the overall GPA.