<li><p>What’s more impressive to you: someone who has a high GPA but, when you look at their selection of classes during their collegiate career, is purposely “padded” with lots of 100 levels or otherwise typically unchallenging classes/electives (i.e., easy A’s) OR someone who has an average to somewhat high GPA but whose schedule included a lot of challenging, upper level courses (not guaranteed A’s)?</p></li>
<li><p>What’s more impressive to graduate schools? Do they only look at the overall, final GPA, or do they take the time to review what sort of classes the student took as well?</p></li>
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<p>A fellow student a friend and I know is ranked in the top ten within our class, and while he has done extremely well in his major and minor required courses, he also has taken the lowest level electives available in other fields of study to pad out his schedule and get easy As, thus pretty much certainly boosting his GPA. Compared to others we know, who took classes that actually interested them but definitely did not guarantee an easy final grade, we were wondering which would “look” “better.” </p>
<p>Is it smarter to be “grade-grubber” and go for the easy grades to get that higher GPA? Or is it better to attempt to do the very best you can, even if it isn’t a sure A, in the classes that actually interest you?</p>
<p>(Weirdly enough, this conversation came up because we were talking about college football-- we were arguing what’s more impressive: a 12-0 team that only played weak opponents all season, or a 10-2 or 9-3 team that played a difficult schedule-- or in sports lingo, a question of “strength of schedule”.)</p>
<p>Well, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking easier classes to help you out a little bit. If you do well in your major/minor classes, why would grad schools care that you took Concepts of Science instead of Fundamentals of Chemistry for your science core?</p>
<p>A lot of places will just look at your In Major GPA which will eliminate most of the “grade grubbers” and your GPA doesn’t matter THAT much anyway unless you’re going to grad school.</p>
<p>In football the 10-2 team is better (probably) but the 12-0 team has a legitimate gripe about not being included in the national title picture. Season long playoff my ass.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input so far, guys. But one of the questions was: what’s more impressive to you? </p>
<p>I’m at a liberal arts college, so there is a core curriculum for all students (everyone has to take at least one art, science, math, history etc class, outside of the major). So, for example, for the classes outside his major, Bob Smith only takes the lowest level courses to satisfy his core curriculum requirements, regardless of whether they are actually interesting to him, in order to maintain the highest GPA possible. Whereas Bill Jones takes classes that actually interest him, even if they are for sure not easy A’s. Is Bob or Bill “smarter” to you?</p>
<p>Does anyone really discuss GPA in college? I know my friends and I don’t. But really, if you’re paying a hell of a lot of money to go to school, don’t you think you should learn about things that you want to learn about? I know American society is very numbers-based these days, but seriously… Sometimes, you’ve got to do what you want to do, not what might look the best or get you ahead the fastest. If you have passion for what you do, that will impress interviewers or future employers a lot more than the grade you happened to earn in a college class.</p>
<p>Doesn’t the difficulty of getting an A depend more an the professor than on the course level? At my college the intro (100 level) courses are survey courses while the 200 level courses usually go into depth. Neither is harder per se.</p>
<p>Talking about GPA padding: Bryn Mawr students take classes at Penn when they want to improve their GPA Can you image an employer saying “She took four classes at Penn. What a lazy student!”???</p>
<p>^^ Good point b@r!um. Let’s say its the same principle: the person ONLY takes the lowest level courses and/or the courses in which the prof is well known to be a cupcake in terms of difficulty. Either way, its only about the ease of getting the best grade, instead of having the most interest in subject matter or wanting a challenge. </p>
<p>URichmond: many people don’t talk about GPA because it can easily seem petty and intrusive. But a lot of people actually do.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think it matters. Personally, I wouldn’t take a “easy A” class in something I didn’t enjoy because I would probably not go to class and not study as much as I should, and end up with a B in it or something. Generally, I find it’s easier to do well in class you enjoy than classes you don’t.</p>
<p>I would be most impressed by the person who took the hardest courses possible and got perfect scores in all of them.
Excluding that… I respect people more who take classes that interest them than classes that are simply easy grades. If those two coincide, then whoopdidoo! However, in a college with a core curriculum, I think the practical choice for a student is to take the easy classes. Say I’m a French major, but have to fulfill a math requirement. If I’m not interested in math and/or really bad at it, I would certainly take the easy course. It would be the smart choice for me. I want to take hard language and writing classes, but at the end of the day GPA does matter. Especially for grad school.</p>
<p>Moderately high to high (i.e., 3.5-3.7+) with difficult classes are what impress grad schools. In many areas, including medicine, psychology, and law, if you have less than a 3.5, most grad and professional programs won’t really give you a serious look; however, if they see a bunch of easy coursework, it is unlikely you will ever make the cut for an interview either.</p>
<p>Intro courses are not necessarily easier than upper-level courses. In fact, sometimes they are more difficult because the subject matter is so foreign.</p>
<p>Mohammad wong: That’s a good point! I know some intro courses are specifically designed to fail a certain number of students to make them think carefully before picking that major (and yes, of course it depends on the college)</p>
<p>To be completely honest, grad schools aren’t going to know which professors at your school are easy and which aren’t, so if you really want that boost to your GPA, go for it. In the world of business (the so-called “real world”), no one cares about the specific classes, just your GPA, and that’s only for a few months, maybe years, after you graduate.</p>
<p>With that being said, however, I would definitely say go for the classes that interest you. If you are interested in the topic, you are much more likely to be engaged, and your grade is much more likely to reflect that.</p>
<p>Grad Schools look at your overall GPA and your GPA in your major. To improve your overall GPA you can easily balance your courseload of hard courses with easier ones (usually easier courses satisfy Gen Ed reqs). No sense in taking HARD advanced gen eds.</p>
<p>I know people who took all hard classes (low GPA) and then took all easy courses (high GPA) for an average medium GPA… but I don’t think that’s a smart method at all… it’s better to just maintain a consistent load to get a consistently high GPA.</p>
<p>Don’t take the overacheivers seriously. Unless your school is handing out A’s, grad schools aren’t going to deny someone with a competitive GPA because they had “easy” coursework. There’s still a grind to getting good grades, regardless what class you’re taking.</p>
Can you image an employer saying “She took four classes at Penn. What a lazy student!”???</p>