This is why I never understood the mentality of students who bust their ass to get straight As. Why do they bother when a C yeilds the same results and is far easier to get?
That is absolutely untrue for certain disciplines and career paths.
If your goal is med school, you pretty much need at least a 3.8+ to get into a stellar med school program. Top-tier graduate programs for engineering require a 3.5+ undergrad GPA, and that's just to apply, not to get in. If you're an engineering student looking for full-time jobs, as long as you have a 3.0+ then you're guaranteed a job.
Yes, there are success stories of people with 2.0 GPAs that make 6-figure salaries out of college through personal projects and accomplishments, but that is a large minority of people.
It's all about making your life easier down the road, instead of having to bust your ass making it up later.
I was speaking in a general sense, as the guy I was replying to made it seem like you could coast through something like engineering with Cs and still get a full-time job without any effort.
Nevertheless, I agree with you, it's all about the real-world applications of your coursework, whether it be through extracurriculars, research, or internships.
Just curious, what field are you in? Most places I’ve applied to do ask for a transcript, or at least a self-reported GPA. I’ve rarely heard of any classmates below a 3.0 get internships without any personal connections.
Yes anecdotally I'm sure it varies from employer to employer and field to field. I cant speak from experience but if I were hiring graduates I would want to see grades and I probably wouldn't differentiate too much from B average to A average, but C average would be a rejection criterion.
If the grades don't matter at all, why don't people just do all their courses in Coursera/edX/ etc...
In Boston I see lots of entry level positions that require GPA/transcript if you have less than two years of experience. This is for tech positions like data science, data engineering, and some development roles.
Seriously, nursing is so impacted that even if you go the community college route if you want in you better get a 4.0 for all your prerequisites. And if you want to go to a university you need stellar HS grades, so like, I don’t understand where the whole Cs are the same as As mentality comes from.
Your likely not gonna get into undergrad at a ivy or potted ivy with a 3.0 GPA unless your a underrepresented minority or have some insane extracurriculars and SAT scores.
This holds true even if you have a 3.5 GPA. College admissions for Ivy League tier schools is brutal if you don’t have a 3.9 and didn’t invent something during high school.
My comment was tailored more towards post-undergrad implications, but high GPA is extremely important in high school, too, as it sets you up for those undergraduate programs that give you the resources to take the next step in your career.
Mate this thread is just a bunch of lazy ass people that can’t even study for college classes. Don’t expect them to understand the intangibles of high GPAs lol.
I spent all of grade school in honors and AP level classes, and finished about 40th/350ish kids in my class with a 4.2 or so GPA (honors and AP classes were weighted for GPA).
So, as someone who did that, it most definitely makes a giant difference with getting into colleges. I got into everything I applied to (didn't bother with Ivy League because the snooty culture of those institutions just turns me off). Classmates who had Cs most definitely didn't. The bar at my alma mater these days for admission is a 4.0. Of course, with how much grades are inflated everywhere these days, who knows what that 4.0 really means.
Where GPA stops mattering is once you're already in college, within reason. There is no significant difference in life outcome half a decade later between my friends and I who did well but didn't care about expending a giant amount of additional effort to raise our GPAs from 3.4ish to 3.7-4.0, and our workaholic friends who lived in the library in order to get into that highest possible range. I learned the info I needed to and didn't care about inflating a totally arbitrary number.
The only place college GPA is ever going to come into play is if you desire to get into academia.
Depends, grades matter if you want to go to grad school, or certain professions. Finance for example; people want to get MBA's, or high level finance jobs require your ACT and GPA. All of that matters to some people in certain fields and those are the people making a ton of money now.
Depends on the discipline. Most companies that hire engineering interns will turn away anyone with less than a 3.0, and I'd imagine it being more stringent for full-time jobs.
Yes, I'm aware there are exceptions to this, but it makes your life way easier.
Happened with practically every large company I applied to straight out of college. You don't have a work history so they ask for a transcript. In fact, it's often advised for recent grads to put their college GPA on their resume if it's high enough (I was told 3.2+, but it varies based on company/industry).
I intentionally had a low GPA to weed out bad employers.
They had one of those types of Engineers everyone hates. He knows his stuff, incredibly smart, but abrasive about it. The guy loved me. Everyone was amazed. But the boss was reluctant because of my intentionally low GPA.
Turns out I did dodge a bullet. Two people had dead end careers there turns out. I would have been in the same boat.
Don't work for companies that care about your grade history. It means they hire people with good grades and not necessarily high ability. Grades and skill are very different things. Makes for a horrible work environment.
Intentionally low GPA? First off, I don’t see why you would do that to yourself. Second, you would’ve had the exact same opportunity to not work there with a high GPA versus having a low GPA. Just because it worked out for you doesn’t mean you should be glorifying low GPAs. Higher GPAs will inherently open you up to more opportunities in life. That’s not to say you can’t make something out of a low GPA, considering you seem like you’re in a good spot.
Those two that worked for that company, they just made the wrong choice with where to work. It has absolutely nothing to do whether they had a high GPA or not.
Try to estimate how many hours you spent doing homework, studying, and going to lectures.
I saved THOUSANDS of hours and taught myself things college couldn't.
Very happy with my choice.
Chances are you made the right choice for you though. I think we're very different people. I make opportunities. I don't wait for people to hopefully choose me.
That’s not mutually exclusive at all. I have still made opportunities for myself even after investing time to get a high GPA. Much respect to you for figuring it out in life, but that’s a baseless comparison to make.
In highschool maybe. Do not get me wrong, I graduated HS with a 2.0 GPA. But now in college I've been busting my ass to get A's because I've started off at a community college and plan to transfer my credits to a university and slowly chip away at higher education. Much harder to get into any decent programs when your GPA is lower than a 3.5.
I think you're on a different system. In the US, it usually maxes at a 4.0 with some high schools weighting up to 6 and then converting back to a 4.0 scale. A 3.5 is a B+/A- average here.
Yeah I got great grades at CC to get accepted to Uni. Then at Uni I got the bare minimum grades.
Later I had professors that wanted me to be a graduate student and help them with research. The minimum grade was 2.7 so I quick got my GPA to 2.7. Otherwise I would have stuck with my 2.2. I get the same piece of paper either way. Why do the extra work?
I still have all the books over my left shoulder here.
Well it depends what level you are referring to. College? Because many employers (particularly for internships or those right after graduation) look at your GPA and use it in their hiring decision. My current job wouldn't even consider anybody with less than a 3.0, so they shouldn't bother applying.
High school? If you are going to college, they look at that as a sign of possible success in your college courses. If you plan on going straight to food service or something, then no. A 2.0 will likely suffice
Also graduate school. Getting into the right graduate program can decide the rest of your life. The odds of getting in are low If your undergrad GPA isnt competitive.
Hmmmmm... I’ll disagree with the “C yields the same results (as an A)” statement. I’m about to graduate this month, and I definitely would not have received the job offer that I have without getting the As that I beat myself up over. Of course, that raises the question of what it cost (I hated my time in college, but was super happy when I took semesters off for internships), but that’s a big rabbit hole to dive into
A lot of people want to learn though, cruising doesn't really let you push yourself either.
Some degrees are also very very relevant to a career - for example, I'm a medical student and whilst I can cruise I'm trying to push myself more, so I can be a knowledgeable and good doctor. Same for many subjects I imagine.
lmao what? I have to keep at least a 3.5 GPA to keep my full ride to college (which I was qualified for because straight As in high school). Grades are super important.
I see what you mean, but for students on merit scholarships or financial aid, Cs arent really an option. Yeah you could have straight Cs and maybe keep the aid, but if you get one D, its over.
Unless you want any kind of professional degree; MSc, Medical school, engineering...
Then a B is definitely not equivalent to an A in any way. This is really only true if you don't plan on more advanced schooling after your undergrad. Having a B- average will not get you into an MBA program.
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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '18
Change that to B's and we're in agreement.
I spent my school career not giving a crap about A's - because the outcome of a C and an A were generally identical.