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.
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.
**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.
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.
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 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.
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.