<p>OP - It would likely be easier to get a good GPA CC vs Ivy, but amongst fairly competitive 4 year schools for a well-prepped hs student there might not be much correlation. </p>
<p>A more key question would be, “which school would enable meaningful internships (or co-ops) in desired area of study?”. Watch for that theme as you research various choices.</p>
<p>You send you kiddo where they will be successful and my definition of successful was a 3.0 or better. My kids felt the same way. If they were in the top 20% in high school then they wanted to go to a college where they were entering in the top 20%. And it has played out so far. My kids’ college GPAs are pretty much the same as their unweighted high school GPAs. I don’t necessarily think they were on cruise control in high school and they got the rigorous box checked and I don’t think they have cruised in college. But it’s alot easier to work with professors and get the perks in a college where you aren’t at the bottom of the heap. So OP put your effort into a good list that spans opportunities and see where the chips fall come acceptance time. No matter what you do in life it is beneficial to get at least a B average - and many colleges require that for the major anyway. S2 has a friend on a year “hiatus” because he can’t get that 2.5 to a 3.0 in his major so the college gave him a year off to think about things. :-)</p>
<p>Good grief! It’s just a hypothetical! Why are some on this site so petulant?</p>
<p>I don’t think people are petulant and it’s a legitimate question - no one really “knows” how their kid will perform when they head off to college. Just go search threads from late November and December to witness “freshman flush.” College GPAs are important not only for what they mean for any future graduate degrees, but read the fine print on the merit scholarships and the fine print under the major and often there are hurdles that the kids have to achieve. And while anecdotal reports abound about how the Ivies don’t “fail anyone” and some don’t give merit aid, I find that hard to imagine since they position themselves as a superior education…someone has to be below a 3.0 gpa. Basically if the kiddo can get into an Ivy the presumption is that can succeed, and that’s true for almost any selective college, not just the uber selective.</p>
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<p>On the other hand, actual graduation rates at colleges that are only moderately selective are not very high. Perhaps there is the presumption that a student can succeed, but also the realization that many do not. Of course, the college may have no realistic way of knowing on an individual basis which of the 3.0 HS GPA students with similar test scores and financial means will actually succeed, other than enrolling them and seeing what happens.</p>
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<p>This probably isn’t an apt example as a 4.0 in an ABET accredited engineering program will be no easy task, even at Podunk U. You can only dumb down multivariable calculus so much. ;)</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>OP I think my best advice would be to research the schools and know your child. I can imagine the scenario where a bright kid goes to the “lesser” school but is not sufficiently challenged or finds her classmates not academically engaged which dampens her own academic efforts and she ends up with lackluster grades.</p>
<p>The question does not have a one size fits all answer. If someone is going to apply to certain professional schools, the GPA absolutely makes a difference, especially if it dips below a certain level. Law school does not give any leeway for lower grades from even engineering majors where the grade curve is known to be steeper vs humanities/social science areas, for instance. Yes, it can hurt. And for grad schools, though knowing someone in the field, references can make a huge difference, if you don’t do so well on the GRE, those grades can make the difference between getting an acceptance at a top program and not. </p>
<p>On the other hand, certain companies do recruit more intensely at the most selective schools, so that going to an unknown school means more effort to get ones name in the hat, and yes, the school name can make a difference, though not as much as many kids seem to think, If a company looks at grades, a lacklustre ivy transcript is not going to be a big draw. A B at an ivy does not an A at another school make, but when it’s close, the school name can make or difference, either way. A lot of Penn State, Ohio State and big school folks out there hiring too, and more of those graduates than from many of the select privates.</p>
<p>My point is that I just don’t think it will work to plan for a higher GPA by going to a less selective school. Are you also going to look for easy courses at that school, or are you going to be in the honors college, try to take upper-level classes, etc.? If so, it may not be that much easier in the first place. And I’m just not convinced that a person who would have gotten a 2.5 at a highly selective college–which usually (but not always) means somebody who didn’t work very hard–will work hard enough at the less selective college to get significantly better grades.</p>
<p>Hunt, sometimes it does. Depends on the kid. If I could do it over, I would have been more proactive with my one kid and explained that some of his choices have steep grading curves and he is not one who wants to hit those books that hard. I also would told him that the premed line Bio course was not a good choice for him to pick for his science req when Rocks For Jocks was right there. I did so with some of my others. </p>
<p>I have one right now who does have to work hard for his grades, and did get hit pretty hard for taking a difficult course outside of his major in a field where he is not so strong and those who take the course are, on top of a heavy course load altogether. If a kid is considering going in a direction where grades are important, and is hovering at point where it could make a difference, taking a course with a steep grading curve is not a good idea unless it is one required for future plans, major or graduation.</p>
<p>cpt, I totally agree with you in terms of choice of major and even choice of particular classes. I guess I just think that kids who aren’t interested in hitting the books that hard may adjust to the level of kids who don’t hit the books that hard in whatever college they attend.</p>
<p>In the work world, school name means a lot more than the GPA. Most employers never check the GPA…but almost all look at the school name.</p>