<p>With the tough job market, phbmom, grades AND internships/experience matter. Plus, good grades will come in handy if graduate/professional becomes the plan. You just don’t know where the future will take you. Best not to have your grades be a stumbling block to those future, yet unknown, plans.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>When the average GPA is over 3.5, there must be a fair number of A’s going out.</p>
<p>^ Which school are you referring to?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yep, internships/experience are great. But having a stellar GPA helps students get the best pick of internships.</p>
<p>Not full on As…A - maybe…</p>
<p>What I see a lot is students don’t do the homework or reading if it doesn’t “count towards your grade”. The bulk of most people’s studying goes towards the week before a major test or assignment. It’s not consistent and that doesn’t work.</p>
<p>The problem is that some people don’t want to learn because they want to learn. They learn only because they know it will get them a job if they get good grades.</p>
<p>By the way, Honors at graduation at UChicago is a 3.2. It’s a tough curve but they expect students to learn something and not necessarily to get an A on every class. Their t-shirts say, on one hand “UChicago: where fun goes to die” and on the other hand “If I wanted an A I would have gone to Harvard.”</p>
<p>Don’t want to make it sound like my daughter personally minimizes grades. Her experience is that people around her downplay them. My husband and I are very proud of her efforts which were rewarded with a nice department scholarship for the coming year.</p>
<p>well, I just go to a regular public college, I’m sure its definitely different at an elite school. But for the majority of people (average college students), college is about the degree and the grades, not for learning. Just my observation, maybe other people will disagree.</p>
<p>phbmom,
I have never heard that GPA does not matter. First, for some (pre-meds) high GPA is absolute must, they will not get into Med. School otherwise. Second, I was asked about my GPA during job interview after having 30 years experience in a field and long list of local references. I did not remember and told them that, except that I graduated Magna Cum Laude and they could estimate GPA based on that. Do not shoot yourself in a foot with low GPA. High GPA shows to everybody that you can complete work to the best of your ability and it is very important.</p>
<p>^well in some cases such as Reed College, Evergreen State and New College Of Florida, GPA and grades really don’t matter to students.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Places like Stanford, Harvard and Yale. </p>
<p>[National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/]National”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/)
[Grade</a> inflation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Grade inflation - Wikipedia”>Grade inflation - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>^ According to your link, Harvard’s average GPA is under 3.5</p>
<p>Yes, 5 years ago it was a hair under 3.5 and increasing. As was Yale. Yale is now above 3.5.</p>
<p>But more to the point, there are several schools hovering in that area, and you can’t reach it without a lot of A-range grades.</p>
<p>^ Yes. In fact, Brown reports that the majority of grades are A’s there.</p>
<p>Perhaps the students are that good…?</p>
<p>
Of course GPA is important early in your careeer and for grad/med school. But if somebody wanted to know my GPA after a 30 year career, the only way they would find out would be if it was written on my rear end and they could read it as I walked out the door.</p>
<p>Edit: Minor clarification. If they wanted to know just out of general interest that’s one thing. If they were going to use it in the hiring decision, with all the other far more important things I have done in the last 30 years, I would walk far, far away from that place.</p>
<p>Google does that, at least according to Jeff Barr.</p>
<p>[Jeff</a> Barrs Blog Google Cant Google?](<a href=“Jeff Barr's Blog”>Jeff Barr's Blog)</p>
<p>
Well, I guess Bill Gates is out of luck then, since he didn’t even graduate.</p>
<p>Scratch Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg off the list too.</p>
<p>At the engineering orientation my S attended, they made a huge deal about keeping up your GPA. They discouraged students from using AP credit for core courses, feeling that jumping right into more advanced courses would drag down their GPAs.</p>
<p>And I would imagine GPA plays a part in getting accepted at internships; I have seen posts from graduates having trouble getting jobs because of less than stellar GPAs.</p>
<p>If it’s fellow students playing down the importance of GPAs, I would say they’re in for a rude surprise once they graduate.</p>