Weigh in on the GPA vs. experience debate?

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>I'm a senior at a decent flagship university (definitely not an Ivy League, but pretty consistently ranked in the top 50 worldwide). To this point I've been able to maintain a 4.0 by sacrificing sleep, a social life, and mental and physical health. Which sucks. I've also been working off and on and had a couple of internships... Generally trying and failing to do everything I've been told employers expect from entry-level applicants. I will be working a light part-time job this last year of school and am considering applying to another internship that will most likely require a greater time commitment than my previous internships. I'm coming to the realization that if I'm offered the position, there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to commit to that and to get all my reading done. Basically, I will have to skip some schoolwork and sacrifice my grades if I want the additional experience, so I need to decide which is more important.</p>

<p>As much as I'm told that experience matters, I'm also told that a 4.0 or close to it will open a million doors and automatically get me interviews I wouldn't otherwise be offered. I have this thing about feeling like as soon as my GPA starts with a 3, I will no longer be set apart from other applicants, and anything under a 3.7 or 3.8 could put me in a throwaway pile after an initial screening for a competitive job. But the internship is a great opportunity, and I feel like I need that, too. (If it matters, I'm a journalism/public relations/advertising/production student and I don't plan to apply to grad school, but who knows).</p>

<p>Any thoughts? About my situation specifically or about the topic in general.</p>

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<p>I was able to get an internship at a federal defense contractor with my GPA being less than a 4.0. I think at that point my GPA was 3.75 or so. Other engineers I have spoken with at this company had GPAs less than even that when they were hired.</p>

<p>Here is what I have seen and heard: If you finish college with a GPA above 3.5, you have done a stellar job. If you finish with a GPA higher than a 3.0 but less than a 3.5 you have done well.</p>

<p>If you have internship experience on top of this, you are even more lucrative to companies for hiring.</p>

<p>In my opinion, you absolutely need to show that you have experience in order to be taken seriously by companies. So if you have a great GPA and no work experience of any kind, that hurts you more than having a lower GPA and work experience.</p>

<p>That being said, you should always care about both. Keep your GPA as high as you can and make sure you get work experience. You can’t go wrong if you have both.</p>