<p>High school grades or college grades? It seems that if you don't want to go to grad school that college grades aren't that important.</p>
<p>To who exactly ? Potential employers ?</p>
<p>I suppose that's true, but many people want to go to grad school, and for that (especially professional schools such as Medicine, as opposed to grad schools in the PhD sense) GPA/grades are very important.
Of course, not everyone wants to go to college, so for them, high school grades aren't all that important either. I don't really get the point of this question.</p>
<p>High school grades help you get into undergraduate programs. College grades help you get into graduate and professional programs. In both college and high school, some grades more than others. If you do not plan to go to college (or grad school), you can just do the minimum work to graduate.</p>
<p>I'd be surprised to learn about the employer who won't prefer a 3.7 GPA over a 2.0.
If I were an employer and read the application of a college student who just got passing grades in almost all courses, I will wonder whether he is stupid, overstrained, unambitious or just lazy. In either case, I would not want him to work for me.</p>
<p>I've never had an employer ask about GPA. </p>
<p>The thing is, however, you never know what you might want to do after college. You might not want to attend grad school now, but at 40 you may change your mind. And then, that that college GPA will matter. Just do your best.</p>