<p>Good point. Unless the easier school is near a busline from my extreme example. Often there is not a correct decision, as opposed to an incorrect one. Only that you have a decision to make....And that you sometimes have to make the decision with "less than perfect" data.</p>
<p>Mebbe I'll start some philisophical thread where we can bounce What ...never mind I'll just do it.</p>
<p>mkm - my son was accepted to and considered attending the school I believe your son is at (Wake?). It was near the top of his list but, in the end, he chose the honors college at his state school. I remember that Wake has a very well known reputation for being tough with grading. My son went on Studentsreview.com and was concerned about the number of complaints on this topic. Although I also remember that we both noted that the school was universally known for having good professors and a top notch classroom experience.<br>
I often wonder what is the right answer with this type of situation. Is OK to for a school to have grade deflation and expect more from the students? Does it make them better prepared for the world? Or does it hurt them when they go on to grad schools or first jobs. I struggled with this and my son did too - he works hard and he likes getting good grades. I'm not sure how he would feel if he worked hard and didn't get good grades - it would be a new experience for him.
Good luck to your son. I have a feeling most grad schools and many employers know how tough Wake is and account for it when they review candidates. Seems only fair, especially if the grading is tougher than at a place like Harvard (which has a much higher avg GPA I believe).</p>
<p>toneranger, sounds like your son did better research than mine did. He had heard rumors, but just dismissed them as from students who didn't want to work. He has found out that hard work doesn't always pay off in returns. Maybe a good life lesson--but a hard one to swallow. What's the old saying? "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger"? Thanks for the kind words.</p>
<p>My Ds 1st semester gpa is nearly identical to her final hs gpa. Interesting considering the college was considered a "reach" for her.</p>
<p>
[quote]
College grades don't necessarily effect the rest ofyour life. Most employers never see them!!!!
[/quote]
Others have responded to this statement, but I will chime in that I believed that statement until recently. If you still think this is true, take a look at your kid's Career Services website - you might be suprised to see, as I was, that they are expected to bring transcripts when meeting with on-campus recruiters - at least in some fields. GPA's are expected on resumes nowadays - at least in some fields. And, as originaloog says, those with higher GPA's can expect higher starting salaries - again, at least in some fields.</p>
<p>I don't like it, but it is the case.</p>
<p>Re the OP's GPA poll, count DS in the category of the kid who got almost all A's with the occasional B+ in hs. Freshman year GPA around 3.6 (Engineering). Now at JHU as a sophomore transfer, he worked really, really hard for a 3.25. He doesn't like having to work really, really hard for a B. But that is what is required in some of his Engineering classes. We're more than happy with the grades.</p>
<p>mkm56, if your son attends WFU, a current study indicates that the avg undergrad gpu is not 2.8 as you indicated in a previous post but 3.18. This is still indicative of little grade inflation considering the quality of student admitted. And about 1/3 of students graduate with honors or with a gpa of 3.40+.</p>
<p>Assuming that your son can maintain that 3.5+ gpa, that accomplishment will stand him in good stead come graduation.</p>
<p>jmmom, I do not understand why you do not like the fact that accomlishment in the classroom shoud positively impact outcomes upon graduation? If you were a recruiter for a company owned by you wouldn't you desire to hire the best graduates possible?</p>
<p>Of course gpa does not tell all of the story about a prospective hire, but it indicates a lot considering that these students are also those who often have participated in undergrad research or independent study, put together a challenging academic plan and have been more likely to participated in study abroad programs.</p>
<p>Whats not to like????</p>
<p>There are a lot of possible reasons. They only see GPA and not classes, so someone could take the easiest and lowest level courses while someone else could be taking Honors and Advanced and famously difficult classes, but their GPAs would be viewed side-by-side. This is also true with comparing schools: people looking at the GPAs generally cannot evaluate which schools have massive grade inflation or easy classes and which schools have hard grading or demanding classes. I attend a very difficult school, and I'm worried about how my GPA will look to med schools when I know I could get a higher GPA at an easier school or by taking an easier course load.</p>
<p>corranged, most of the medical admissions committees will have heard of your school and are in fact capable of evaluating a transcript. If you look at medical admissions statistics, you will notice a range of GPA among the admitted students.</p>
<p>It's only my own opinion, originaloog. But I've done a lot of hiring over the years, including for research positions. I've never known the GPA's of my hires, whether just out of college or not. I'm not a fan of "numbers" as summary measures of an individual's skills, talents, potential - whether it's their SAT score, their GPA or the "rank" of the school they attended. YMMV.</p>
<p>corranged has hit upon a good bit of it. Mostly, I want my kid to go to school for an education, not for a transcript. I don't like to see the transcript following kids around. I don't like to see kids overly focused on their GPAs. JMHO.</p>
<p>My S is a junior and is motivated, enthused, energized, and challenged at college. As a result, his GPA has gone up when compared with HS. In HS, he tended to do very well in classes he was interested in, and ok, without much effort, in other classes. I'm most pleased that he is turned on by his education, but am glad too that he is getting good results at the same time.</p>
<p>originaloog, yes, I went back and looked at the spring numbers released from Wake and the average gpa was 3.08 with frat. average being around a 2.9--this was from spring '06 only I guess. Not sure where I pulled that 2.8 from--might have been another semester only average? </p>
<p>It is a hard adjustment for these kids who were used to having hard work
result in A's in high school and now sometimes an "A" is out of reach no matter how much effort is put in. Like I said before--good life lesson in many respects but can be painful.</p>
<h1>1 child had outstanding grades in college but he didn't stay!</h1>
<h1>2 child at large Southern college had high grades in her major, predictable lower but okay grades in her weaker math classes required for major.No special honors at graduation , found a job she liked easily in her Education major upon graduation.</h1>
<h1>3 child majored in Computer Engineering and got a D which meant he had to repeat it for his major.The math classes were rougher than high school.He got another D his second year, which he has to repeat summer.Now has decided to change his major to IT, not becasue of the D but because he didn't like the programming, said he 'dreaded' the class. So that is where he stands.</h1>
<h1>4 child at a smaller private college is doing well in Biology and keeping his scholarship.</h1>
<p>AS COMPARED with high school all G.P.A.'s went up except child #3.</p>
<p>jmmom-So in your hiring you had no interest in the person's GPA? Surely you had some idea as to how they had done grade-wise. For instance were you only interviewing known top-achievers or established scholars?</p>
<p>Nightingale, I don't know about jmmom, but most employers looking for college grads are primarily interested in work experience. GPA doesn't mean much in the work world, because success in the academic world has very little bearing on the skills required for success in a career.</p>
<p>Both of my recent graduates had a tough transistion to college life, but did much better as they progressed through the program. The chasm crossing from HS to college was great from them, even though they went to a great HS with a high degree of difficulty they had trouble with the speed and marking philosphy of college courses. In HS they mark homework and have alot of small prep quizes for the "Big test" that isn't how it works in college. Most course move at the speed of light and it's a couple of quizes, some labs, a paper or two, and that one big test or final. Usually very different from the warm and comfortable confines of HS. The other thing I want to cite is study habits, sitting in front of the PC trying to study while having 8 IM chat windows open doesn't cut it. They both had to learn that the way you study is packing it off to the Library for a 2-3 hour study block or prefecting your development as a professional paper writter. The other factor they have to remember is that entrance into many if not all of the upper division programs requires a 3.0 GPA minimum. My one boy who is now a successful teacher had a tough 2nd second year overcoming the first year to get into the education program. he said he wsihed he had known that earlier as he might not have been so distracted in the first year and worked harder.</p>