<p>My daughter is a JUNIOR and we are reviewing our college choices. Just curious what are your thoughts? Should a student select a prestigious school (i.e. Top 20, Ivy, etc) and graduate with a 2.0 to 2.5 GPA or should a student select a lesser known college and graduate with a 3.5 to 4.0 GPA. In the long run, which do you think will be most beneficial in terms of starting a career or furthering their graduate studies?</p>
<p>This is really a false choice. If you can get into a top school, it is highly unlikely that you will graduate with a 2.5 GPA.</p>
<p>The more selective schools tend to have more grade inflation.</p>
<p>[National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com%5DNational”>http://www.gradeinflation.com)</p>
<p>I agree with Hunt. If your kid will barely scrape by at a top school, it is unlikely s/he would be admitted in the first place. Unless maybe there is a major, major hook involved.</p>
<p>So much depends on what the student’s goals are, as well. For law and medical schools, a high gpa is really important. For just going into industry or corporate work after college, it doesn’t matter so much. In fact, for business, I think the connections you make in your college are more important the your gpa.
But I agree with the others. If your kid can get into a top school, she’ll be able to get decent grades with reasonable effort.</p>
<p>Um, some students at prestigious schools DO graduate with sub 3.0 cums, grade inflation not withstanding.</p>
<p>How can anyone assume they will know before they enter any college what their GPA will be? </p>
<p>Someone, regardless of the school, will graduate at the bottom of the class. Even at Harvard. ;)</p>
<p>I agree with Erin’s dad. And not every Top 20 school has grade inflation.</p>
<p>It’s a valid question, and a difficult one. To know for sure, you’d need hindsight and twins who were identical in temperament and academic skill, one going to the Top 20 school and one going to the lesser known college.</p>
<p>I personally believe (maybe it’s wishful thinking) that a so-so GPA from a Top 20 school coupled with lots of solid job experience and good work references are better than a 4.0 from a lesser known school and little to no job experience. But you didn’t ask about job experience.</p>
<p>This 25 year old data, as it is my own experience. I got into Cornell by achieving very high GPA at rural school that was not challenging and because it was in a rural area of NY, I was able to get one of the allocated slots into the SUNY affiliated Ag school as a Env Sci major. Not sure this still happens, but I’m sure there are cases where kids end up with high grades form not being challenged and end up getting into a top school with out the necessary study skills to excel.</p>
<p>Any way, I got by and ended up with a 2.4 GPA. The name recognition helped to get into industry research but I eventually wanted to go back to school. I was told I would not be able to get in (i was think about optometry school) with out taking more classes to raise my GPA. They did not care were the GPA was from and that my 2.4 took a lot more effort than it would have been to get a 3.5 at a basic state school. </p>
<p>So if your DD wants to keep options open, you need to consider her study skills and dedication to achieving a high GPA at a competitive school vs a good but less competitive school where it may be easier for her to achieve a high GPA, INHO.</p>
<p>OP – how is she a JUNIOR and already reviewing college choices? Do you mean she was already accepted at schools, or are you talking about making up a list of schools she will apply to? Just noticed that in your post.</p>
<p>It depends upon the major.</p>
<p>Assume you are hiring an Engineer. Would you rather someone who graduated from MIT (with any GPA), or someone who graduated 4.0 from U of Diploma Mill?</p>
<p>For Music Majors, your teacher is a more important factor than your school. How well you perform is everything. In fact, you could barely scrape by at any school. If you have a great sound at that audition, that will seal it.</p>
<p>In the long run, how many GPA’s do you see on resume’s of 50 year old’s? You might see where they went to school, but not their GPA.</p>
<p>Umm. i don’t know about that Hunt. I barely had a 2.5 at my school, and it was not common. Some schools have very steep curves. I don’t recommend anyone who needs grades, for say, med school or law school where the process is very stringent about what your grades are, to go to schools like Cornell or CMU, especially with certain majors, if they want to maximize their chances of getting into those prof schools I know a lot of kids who killed their premed chances at some school where they might have done just fine where the classes where smaller and things were not quite so cut throat. </p>
<p>My son, when he was job searching was asked his GPA and transcript. SOme places cut him, as he did not have 3.5. Yeah, it was a shock to him. They cut some ivy leage and MIT and other such school kids too. They didn’t care, if the kid was from XYZ U or Stanford. They wanted that GPA. Some ask for SAT scores too. I do believe that is a first, or early job issue, however. Once you get past that, it’s what you know job wise and your performance their and speaking the shop speak that counts. But, yes, gpa can make the difference in a number of situations, post ug.</p>
<p>As a note, my friend who scored her dream job HAD to have a masters for it, and they did not care that i was from a Correspondence Diploma Mill. it was accredited and that was all she needed. And her husband and others laughed while she was taking the courses for that degree. Not laughing now.</p>
<p>For clarification:<br>
Reviewing college choices i.e. ‘Making a List of College Choices’. </p>
<p>Also, I am not anticipating a lower GPA. My concern is that a more rigorous curriculum MAY result in a lower GPA, and if that happens, is this really a concern?</p>
<p>If you really think the student is going to have a 2.5 GPA, then in my opinion, you are looking at the wrong colleges. I did job interviewing for years and we never interviewed a new grad with a GPA below 3.0.</p>
<p>Well, you can neither assume nor guarantee that your student is going to have the choice between a top 20 / Ivy and a “lesser” school. Those schools are crapshoots (please, let’s not derail on this word) for everybody. Please don’t go in thinking that you’ll have the choice. If you do, be pleasantly surprised by it.</p>
<p>Milbry, yes, it CAN make a difference. My friend’s DD did not do well on her GRE’s but graduated with very close to a 4.0 in her major from a LAC, that was a highly selective school. Still got into a good graduate program. A lower gpa would have sunk her for sure, those in the field told her outright. </p>
<p>But not always. I’ve known some who squeaked through college who have snagged some very nice jobs and situations. Some who failed out of some colleges and needed several goes at it.</p>
<p>I think it’s stuffing the rabbit into the hat to assume that there is going to be a 1.0-2.0 GPA difference between the prestigious school and the alternative. (The OP’s hypothetical was 2.0-2.5 at Ivy University vs. 3.5-4.0 at State College.) Certainly, the amount of native intelligence, elbow grease, and competitiveness required to obtain a 4.0 at most (all?) state flagships would produce far better than a 2.5 at any prestigious private. Now, it might be possible to find some public colleges where the same effort/talent combination required for a C average at Ivy U might produce a B+/A-, but that’s not the same anywhere (including law and medical school applications) as a first- or second-tier public university.</p>
<p>You have to be careful to compare apples to apples here, too. If the student is going to choose courses to maximize GPA, he would do it at either institution. If the student is going to get a 2.5 at Harvard because he’s spending 70 hours/week writing for the Crimson or the Lampoon, you have to assume he would be doing that at State (and thus very likely not getting a 4.0 there, and in fact in my observed experience quite possibly not graduating at all). If you are that kid at Harvard, you could wind up writing for the New York Times or running for President (although in the latter case it would be helpful if your father was a powerful politician, too). If you are that kid at State U, I think your opportunities are more limited.</p>
<p>I agree that a kid whose plan is to major in ECs may do better where those EC actually lead to job offers. I also just think it’s plain hard to predict. My younger son would have a great GPA at Tufts if he hadn’t picked Arabic as his language and International Relations as his major (which required 8 semesters of a foreign language). OTOH, now that he’s finally pretty competent in Arabic, he might actually be employable.</p>
<p>I think the attitude of “I’m going to go an easier college so I can cruise to top grades” is a recipe for disaster.</p>
<p>^ I don’t disagree with that at all. Nor do I agree that I attend Prestigious U so I obviously deserve a 3.5.</p>