…of course, with rampant grade inflation, it may soon be that the only grades that will be given out in college will be A’s and A-'s. For example, this slightly cynical Op-ed from the Washington Post on Jan 28, 2002: link.
I think that if the school you attend is considered good, your GPA isn’t quite as important than it otherwise would be. If the school is less known, a high GPA can compensate for the lack of school reputation.
I agree. When I am reviewing resumes of students still in college, GPA is one of the first things I look at. If it is below3.4, I stop looking. We get almost all our recruits from two colleges of similar repute, so I don’t have to worry about whether a 2.5 at Harvard is worth a 3.9 at University of Podunk.
The longer you’ve been out of college, the less it matters as then you have built up experience. But before then, don’t kid yourself that what you learned in college counts as “experience”.
Well, if he had worked at a 2.0 or 3.0 level as an undergraduate, he might not have made it to graduate school, and wouldn’t lead the life he has now. True, his business smarts helped him, but it wasn’t everything. Other factors got him where he is.
I also don’t see much point in working for top grades if you’re only doing that just to have good grades. School is about both the book knowledge and the practical skills you learn. If you’re not learning anything as you get your As, you’re not making the most of your experiences.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should slack off and strive to be average. While you should be mindful of what graduate school acceptance committees and prospective employers might think when they review your transcript, you should also consider what your own feelings of your academic performance will be. When you look back five years from now, will you regret giving only 50% effort in your work? You might not care now, but if you think better grades will be something you’ll wish you had in the future, it’s worth the effort today.
Schools probably do offer courses in those topics. But I suspect there are many hurdles in teaching those topics on a widespread, emphasized basis. First, I imagine they’re difficult to teach, and teach objectively. Second, it may be the case that it’s assumed that people already have those skills when they enter college. You could argue that such information should be taught in high school, or earlier. Third, not everyone will agree that a university should teach such things. Some people may feel that parents or peers or experience is the better teacher.
I wonder if that’s a very wise tactic given the paucity of correlations between academic success and professional success.
I think it is. “Professional success” is skewed by the fact that there are some people who succeed despite a lack of academic skill – people who become effective salesmen, for example, due to their personal charisma or intuitive grasp of interpersonal dynamics. Also, personal success is often evaluated in terms of salary and financial means, which is not quite the same as skill or competency.
If I’m recruiting for a particular position, I want someone with the right skills and the right attitude – not necessarily someone who is a “professional success.”
Do you have a cite for that claim?
WHile it is certainly true that not all successful students become successful professionals, and vice versa, based on my experiences, I see a good correlation. I expect the level of correlation to depend on the type of job and degree. In my field, I’m looking for software developers. The candidates have almost always studied Computer Science, Mathematics or some sort of Engineering or Physics. People that can’t get good grades in directly related technical subjects at college are unlikely suddenyl to become good at the same technical challenges as a job.
Do you have a cite for that claim?
WHile it is certainly true that not all successful students become successful professionals, and vice versa, based on my experiences, I see a good correlation. I expect the level of correlation to depend on the type of job and degree. In my field, I’m looking for software developers. The candidates have almost always studied Computer Science, Mathematics or some sort of Engineering or Physics. People that can’t get good grades in directly related technical subjects at college are unlikely suddenly to become good at the same technical challenges in a job.
After 312 attempts, my first double post!
I figured someone would be asking for that. Here it is: “GPA, Extra-curricular Activities, and Personality and Their Relationship to the Professional Success of Advertising Graduates” by William Hammond Norton, Jr., B. A. (that’s me). 
See my earlier post to this thread, about ten from the top.
I’m not basing any claims on my own work but rather on the secondary research I did. I could show you the bibliography, but the studies would all be over 20 years old. I’m sure there are newer studies, and I’ll bet they still have trouble finding good correlations between academic and professional success. I’m not saying that the correlations are zero, but rather that they are quite weak. If all you’re doing is looking at someone’s GPA before hiring them, you may be doing your company a disservice. However if you are being swamped with applications then it might make sense to have some arbitrary GPA cut-off point.
I see you hire software developers. That’s actually what I’ve been doing for the past two decades. I’ve had the opportunity to work with very highly degreed programmers (a couple having PhD’s in CS) and other not so highly degreed programmers. If there’s a connection between the quality of their work and their degrees I haven’t seen it. As often as not I won’t know anything at all about my fellow programmers’ academic background nor will they know about mine. Basically we all just consider it irrelevant.
Atarax:
I read that Op Ed piece as well and couldn’t believe that guy is still a professor. He basically claimed that he was powerless to give anything less than an A since parents would complain.
To the OP, I would guess you are a bit overly concerned with GPA, but at least you’re only calculating it to 2 decimal places… As someone who has hired college grads, I would look at grades only to see that the person wasn’t a total nincompoop, and see
If you know what you want and enjoy doing it, you’ll be a success. A few years after you’re done with school, the grades won’t mean much at all.
Let me point you to my earlier post, #10 from the top. The studies I looked at measured professional success in a number of ways including salary, position, professional reputation, and job satisfaction among other criteria.
You seem to be saying that professional success and academic success are not based on the same qualities; that the interpersonal skills needed to succeed professionally are not required in academia. I completely agree with that. You also indicate that you look for those personality variables when recruiting. Again, I think that’s the way it should be done. So given all that I don’t understand why you feel that it’s good recruiting practice to give so much weight to GPA – a score largely unrelated to many of those skills required for professional success.
Ugh, after the two midterms I had today grades had better not matter. 
There’s no “might” about it. Some companies or industries can be very sepecific about the grades, schools, and background of their employees. Others aren’t.
These are things you need once you are on the job. You need the credentials to get in the door first. Remember, the recruiter doesn’t know you from a can of paint. All they see is an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper with your information and anything you can do to make it stand out helps.
No, I didn’t say that I look for those qualities when recruiting. What I said is that I look for someone with the right skills and the right attitude, which is a different matter. I want someone with the proper skills and who can work well with the team. This could be the same kind of person that is marked as a “professional success,” but not necessarily so.
That’s interesting, because I’ve seen exactly the opposite.
Me too. I’ve been involved in hiring for over 15 years and I see a strong correlation.
Alll the job applications I’ve filled out since graduation 20 years ago wanted to know where I graduated from and what my degree and major were. Only two places EVER asked what my GPA was. Neither of them was what I’d call a plum prospect.
I agree with Krokodil. My GPA has never been questioned though in passing from time to time I’ve been asked about my major and college location. There’s nothing wrong with striving to do your best but be careful of potential ‘performance anxiety’ issues.
Funny how most people quote their SAT scores than their GPA. Oh, the glory days of high school :rolleyes:
How would flunking out of a college affect one’s chances at getting a job? I did so, through stupid actions of my own. I have work experience in an office setting, with nothing but good reviews from supervisors. I am planning on going back and finishing up my degree, possibly while working someplace else, or going and getting an associate’s degree in paralegal studies.
An employer might not ask for your GPA, but having an impressive GPA can still earn you points with them. Heck, whenever I see a resume which reports a GPA close to 4.0, I can’t help but give it a second look.
That alone is a strong argument for having a high GPA. It can open doors that you might not otherwise have… and you’ll never have any reason to leave it off your resume, even decades after you graduate.