Do grades in college really matter ?

[Mr Herbert]

every job application i did had my GPA (or Course Weighted Average over here). There were loads of companies which wouldnt even hire unless you had 80%+ Course Weighted Average (dont know how that comes out as a GPA).

 

[akatsuki]

If you ever decide to go for grad school or certain more "prestigious" jobs, they will matter hugely.

 

[otc]

Originally Posted by LA Guy

I'm baffled that prospective students think that they are going to sneak it by me that their work experience is completely irrelevant.

Pfft, anything above being a cashier at the local coffee shop is relevant experience for an entry level, first job out of college, type position. Unless you are hiring people from a glorified trade school (lawyers, doctors, most engineers), they aren't going to know ****. College teaches them how to think and whatever experience they got working while in college teaches them how to work in a professional environment. Everything beyond that is going to be learned on the job--even if they think they already know how to do something, somebody at your company is going to reteach it to them.

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

every job application i did had my GPA (or Course Weighted Average over here). There were loads of companies which wouldnt even hire unless you had 80%+ Course Weighted Average (dont know how that comes out as a GPA).

You probably need a GPA for your first job...and maybe keep it on the resume for a few more years if it was high. That being said, 80% sounds low...if you went by a standard percentage grading scale (most high schools do but a lot of college professors like to have a little more arbitrary control over their letter grades) it would only be a B- average...so like a 2.7

Even if you don't think GPA matters...2.7 is starting to get pretty ******.

 

[bananananana]

Originally Posted by otc

Pfft, anything above being a cashier at the local coffee shop is relevant experience for an entry level, first job out of college, type position. Unless you are hiring people from a glorified trade school (lawyers, doctors, most engineers), they aren't going to know ****. College teaches them how to think and whatever experience they got working while in college teaches them how to work in a professional environment. Everything beyond that is going to be learned on the job--even if they think they already know how to do something, somebody at your company is going to reteach it to them.

+1

I actually wouldn't care that much about some summer internship or even 2 years at some accounting firm. Doing 2 years at KPMG or PwC basically says you can stare at numbers and match them up for 9 hrs a day. IME, the level at which a young college grad can do a job well is basiclaly based on 1) how smart they are, 2) how hard they work, and 3) whether they want to do what the job entails. I'm in consulting btw, so this may be different for more technical professions.

 

[ektaylor]

Originally Posted by bananananana

I actually wouldn't care that much about some summer internship or even 2 years at some accounting firm. Doing 2 years at KPMG or PwC basically says you can stare at numbers and match them up for 9 hrs a day. IME, the level at which a young college grad can do a job well is basiclaly based on 1) how smart they are, 2) how hard they work, and 3) whether they want to do what the job entails.
Oh ok, now I get it. Wait--how do you prove those? Oh yea, grades and work experience.

 

[Mr Herbert]

Originally Posted by otc

You probably need a GPA for your first job...and maybe keep it on the resume for a few more years if it was high. That being said, 80% sounds low...if you went by a standard percentage grading scale (most high schools do but a lot of college professors like to have a little more arbitrary control over their letter grades) it would only be a B- average...so like a 2.7

Even if you don't think GPA matters...2.7 is starting to get pretty ******.

im sure the university system is pretty different over here (australia). 80%+ average meant first class honours in my degree, probably less than 5 people out of 80 got it.

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by Pantisocrat

Grade is the ultimate assessment of intelligence
Intelligence and GPA achievement have been shown to be correlated, though it's a far from perfect correlation. Actually, the SAT has been shown to be a better indicator of raw intelligence (IQ) than GPA or almost any other measure used by schools to track performance. It's considered a good enough IQ test for Mensa admission, believe it or not.

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by Eason

^^To the above poster: How many jobs have you applied for which they actually wanted to know your GPA? I can think of just two, both were for university academics. Outside of that I have never been asked.
Oh, pretty much anything where quantitative skills are required, or jobs where mathematics that cannot be done with five functions is expected. ~ H

 

[suited]

Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard

Intelligence and GPA achievement have been shown to be correlated, though it's a far from perfect correlation.

Actually, the SAT has been shown to be a better indicator of raw intelligence (IQ) than GPA or almost any other measure used by schools to track performance. It's considered a good enough IQ test for Mensa admission, believe it or not.

I would say in addition to intelligence, when dealing with students of average age, maturity and GPA would have a significant relationship, depending on what characteristics you categorize as "maturity".

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by otc

Pfft, anything above being a cashier at the local coffee shop is relevant experience for an entry level, first job out of college, type position. Unless you are hiring people from a glorified trade school (lawyers, doctors, most engineers), they aren't going to know ****. College teaches them how to think and whatever experience they got working while in college teaches them how to work in a professional environment. Everything beyond that is going to be learned on the job--even if they think they already know how to do something, somebody at your company is going to reteach it to them.

I was talking about graduate school applications in particular, and technical jobs (engineering.) Research and R&D positions, followed by technical, and then management, positions, are pretty much the only things that are really considered relevant, unless you've accomplished something really exceptional (represented your country in the Olympics, for instance).

You probably need a GPA for your first job...and maybe keep it on the resume for a few more years if it was high. That being said, 80% sounds low...if you went by a standard percentage grading scale (most high schools do but a lot of college professors like to have a little more arbitrary control over their letter grades) it would only be a B- average...so like a 2.7

Even if you don't think GPA matters...2.7 is starting to get pretty ******.

In Canada and most other Commonwealth countries, 80% is the equivalent of an A-. Our graduate office translates a 75% as the equivalent of a 3.6 GPA, which I'd agree withy. It's not that easy to maintain an 80% average. I know that in the USA, an A is usually at least a 90%. In my university graduating class of ~450, there were less than a ten people with a 90% average and above, because the 10th place was occupied by someone with an 88% GPA.

 

[AndiSmith]

For me, my grades in college don't matter as long as it is not a failing grade.

 

[Saved1008]

thanks everyone for your post

 

[dragon8]

Originally Posted by AndiSmith

For me, my grades in college don't matter as long as it is not a failing grade.

LoL. I was thinking your way too.... then I decided to go to graduate school.

 

[Ajaxv2]

I have had this debate roaring in my inner self now for two straight years. Upon entering college (right next to San Jose, it's easy to be inspired in Silicon Valley

), I formed a small real estate investing company with a buddy of mine from high school. He's an Econ +Chinese major, and I'm Econ+ Dutch. We both have been interested in real estate investing since our early high school days.

While he wants to get a job doing something Econ and Chinesy after graduation, I am going to keep working on the company. In this way, I don't believe [grades] will affect my career path. You see, I have a 3 year window (after graduation, so 5 years TOTAL from now) to make the company successful whilst my gf pursues graduate school in a health-related field.

I have a 3.8+ in anything quant-related, and a <3 in the rest of my humanities. Please tell me that I should be concerned; I'm fully capable of a 3.8+ in everything if I only apply/ied myself.

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by Ajaxv2

I have a 3.8+ in anything quant-related, and a <3 in the rest of my humanities. Please tell me that I should be concerned; I'm fully capable of a 3.8+ in everything if I only apply/ied myself.
Think of your grades as an investment in options. If you apply yourself and get the grades across the board as high as you can get them, you're basically creating backup options down the line. On the other hand, if you coast by and just get the good grades in your best subjects, you're taking options away from yourself. At this point in your life, it's better to keep doors open than to close them, even if you don't think you'll be taking those doors later on. The truth is, you never really know this early in life which doors you will or will not be walking through in five, or even ten years' time. Accordingly, you really don't want to close doors that you're capable of keeping open. To give you an example: let's say your business doesn't work out, you go bust, and you end up deciding to get a graduate degree to shore up your credentials and make up for the lost corporate time. In that situation, wouldn't you prefer you had made the grades back when you had the chance? It's a possibility you may not want to have to face. But it's a possibility you may well face.