# Parents' "right" to college kids' grades? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767 "2010-05-17T15:07:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![SlowMindThinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/101 "2010-05-19T17:46:39Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > This really speaks to my post above. I’ve hired a fair number of people over the past few years in highly competitive positions in a Fortune 50 company in New York City. > > There is no way I or anyone else I know have ever looked at GPA. You could write on your resume that your GPA was 50 for all the difference it made, because we did not pull transcripts on the hundreds of resumes we received for each position. It might make a small difference if you go through a college recruitment program, but if you go that route, it matters a whole lot more where you went than how well you did there. > > I have no comment on **Dinsdale’s** parenting style because I haven’t yet walked in those shoes. I will soon. My comment is that I was set up with what sounds like similar expectations, that good grades when you are young will be recognized and rewarded later, especially when searching for a job. I have found that with rare exceptions in particular careers, this is simply not the case. Good grades may open some doors (and are not exactly unimportant in my career as an aspiring academic), but out there in the Real World, no one gives a fuck. > > I don’t think I graduated feeling like I was magically entitled to a great job just because I distinguished myself in school. But my parents, who possess truly inspirational parenting skills, did convince me from a young age that my achievements would actually matter in the grander scheme of my life. For the most part, they don’t. This is not to say that such achievements don’t help you learn other life skills, because they most assuredly do. The ability to concentrate, to delay gratification, to organize one’s time efficiently, and to teach oneself are all wonderful things. Getting good grades is fine, too. Grades are great for assigning accountability and as measures of overall progress. > > But I kind of wish I never believed that they counted for much. I’ve certainly interviewed candidates over the last 20 years. Maybe it is because I am in a scientific field, but grades very definitely do count when hiring someone out of school. In part, because of the the skills one acquires in order to get them, but also because they indicate which candidate is smarter and harder working. Yes, no one would look at my grades, and they shouldn’t, because I am 49. When I was fresh out of grad school, they made a huge difference. Even in a teaching career they matter. On my wife’s first interview after college, she was told she was their first math teacher candidate who had gotten better than Cs in their math classes. (A principal at another school had taken all the resumes of the good students on vacation with her. They only got my wife’s after we contacted them, and they broke into (literally) the admin building to get her resume.) She was hired immediately after the interview. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/102 "2010-05-19T18:12:04Z")
> [@SlowMindThinking](#): > > …grades very definitely do count when hiring someone out of school. I highly doubt that one C in my kid’s final semester will make the difference between her getting or not getting any particular job. But the possibility o that hapening certainly is not zero. In any job search, I think there is some benefit in having something an employer can point at as indicating that you are different from - and better than - other candidates. And you want to avoid anything that a potential employer could construe as negative. Splitting hairs, sure, but ISTM that a non-insane recruiter could consider summa cum laude to fit into the former category, and even a relatively minor apparent slacking off in the final semester could be seen as a failure to see things through and maintain excellence through the end. I just see today’s job market as so competitive, that I am sorry to see my kids not take advantage of every opportunity available to them. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/103 "2010-05-19T18:15:14Z")
\*\*Dinsdale \*\*does have a point. True, the GPA won’t appear on the CV, but “magna” or “summa” sure will, and it does make a difference in academic fields like teaching. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/104 "2010-05-19T18:43:43Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > \*\*Dinsdale \*\*does have a point. True, the GPA won’t appear on the CV, but “magna” or “summa” sure will, and it does make a difference in academic fields like teaching. There are certain industries where your GPA is required on your resume, actually. Especially when you are first starting out. ---
**Author:** ![sugar\_and\_spice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@sugar\_and\_spice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugar_and_spice)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/105 "2010-05-19T19:23:45Z")
> [@anu-la1979](#): > > There are certain industries where your GPA is required on your resume, actually. Especially when you are first starting out. Yes in my world if you want to show off your grades then you put your GPA. In college I saw many postings for jobs that want a 3.5 or 3.7 GPA or higher (and have gone on some of those interviews FWIW) and have never heard of diploma honors distinctions coming up. (again, IANAT). Saying you expect A’s for the sake of personal excellence is one thing. But arguing that she’s hurt her job chances seems … pointless. She’s a senior in college, she should already be fully educated on what the hiring factors are _in her field_. And she should know better then her dad, unless they are in the same field but I’m pretty sure that isn’t the case. So if this hurts her job chances then she should already know that, and it can’t be undone. If she actually doesn’t know if/how this will affect her resume, then the problem isn’t her grades, it’s that she’s not taking responsibility for her professional development. ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/106 "2010-05-20T11:33:16Z")
If the parent is funding the kid’s college education, then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for their grades. My mom covered everything when I was an undergraduate, and I gave her access information to my online account with all my coursework and grades. However, the strange thing was that she never looked at it. Once I turned 18 and left for college, she just stopped checking. That was a complete 180 from my high school and middle school days. I mean, this was the same woman who would stalk my [collegeboard.com](http://collegeboard.com) account for my SAT I / SAT II scores and know them the minute they were released online. As for senioritis, I remember that it was common, especially with the folks who had interned with companies the summer before their senior year and received full time offers before the fall term even began. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/107 "2010-05-20T12:40:13Z")
> [@sugar\_and\_spice](#): > > Yes in my world if you want to show off your grades then you put your GPA. In college I saw many postings for jobs that want a 3.5 or 3.7 GPA or higher (and have gone on some of those interviews FWIW) and have never heard of diploma honors distinctions coming up. (again, IANAT). That’s basically saying the same thing, though. IME, Summa Cum Laude meant a GPA of 3.7+, Magna was 3.5-3.7 and Cum Laude was 3.3-3.5 (plus or minus a teeny bit on those for rounding (like 3.75 instead of 3.7)). So saying you require someone with a GPA of 3.7 or higher means you require someone to have achieved Summa Cum Laude. ---
**Author:** ![sugar\_and\_spice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@sugar\_and\_spice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugar_and_spice)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767/108 "2010-05-20T13:34:05Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > That’s basically saying the same thing, though. IME, Summa Cum Laude meant a GPA of 3.7+, Magna was 3.5-3.7 and Cum Laude was 3.3-3.5 (plus or minus a teeny bit on those for rounding (like 3.75 instead of 3.7)). So saying you require someone with a GPA of 3.7 or higher means you require someone to have achieved Summa Cum Laude. I don’t think that’s a universal definition of summa/magna. I just check where I graduated from, the liberal arts division used percentages (top 3%/7%) and my division didn’t use magna/summa at all, it’s just “with honors/high honors”/etc. And this is one of the largest schools in the state. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-right-to-college-kids-grades/539767.md?page=5)