<p>Kind of an informal survey/discussion question here. </p>
<p>It's one that a dormmate and I were talking about over dinner at a Denny's the other night. We both worked very hard in high school and continue to do so, but we shared about how so many people we know in college (who were very strong high school students) seemed to not only do less well, but seemed to even care less. </p>
<p>For perspective, I attend a TOP 30 USNWR school and most of my peers were 4.0 high school students. But once in college, it seems like so many just do not care anymore if they receive B-'s. ...Some do noticeably care about grades like C's. But I would say that 50% of more of our classmates seem to be fine with B's and B- grades and spend more time in social activities than on school work. Procrastination is huge on my campus and it's extremely common to see studetns in our library pulling all-nighters just getting started on their paper assignments and other work the night before it's due. </p>
<p>Admittedly, I'm a bit less social. lol. But, still, I guess it's just curious that this seems to happen to once 4.0 HS students in college. And it's not just at my school, but also elsewhere as well. I've talked to my sister, cousins, and friends at other schools and I see this trend as well. </p>
<p>What do you folks think?</p>
<p>it’s because 95% of high schools are a joke and top 30 USNWR schools take the cream of the crop. At schools where As are limited it can be hard to be at the top of class anymore. Additionally there is less nightly homework to force you to review material and no more parental influence.</p>
<p>Honestly speaking: what’s the point? You work your whole life to get to college, and then what? Who cares if you have all B’s and you’re having fun? Does getting a good GPA in college really even matter?</p>
<p>Granted, but the lack of effort is so striking. </p>
<p>To give an example, I’ve had classmates literally turn several assignments in late (for the same class!) or flat out miss/forget about them. </p>
<p>This never happened in high school and I know that these students had stellar records (enormous AP course loads or IB track, in addition to varsity athletics and other activities). …</p>
<p>They were not the type to just not turn an assignment in and seemingly not care. </p>
<p>Do not get me wrong. Our school library is also filled with folks studying extremely hard as well. But it seems equally filled (50% or so) with the aforementioned types. You hear them talking and laughing it up about how they’ve just started a paper due in 8-hours and will work through the night, etc. You hear these folks coming out of a class with a B- and saying “Whew! Glad I got a B- in that class.”</p>
<p>But I get some of what you’re saying. I just feel something else may be going on as well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It does matter certainly for graduate school, where GPA is often 40-50% of the admissions equation. </p>
<p>But also for jobs as well. In our current economy, even Ivy League grads are unemployed or underemployed and on food stamps (a quick Google search can give you some perspective). </p>
<p>Statistically, I believe something like 50% of new college grads are without jobs in this economy or working in fields they may not have studied for or needed a college degree to even do. </p>
<p>It’s extremely competitive in the real world, so this is still surprising to me.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is necessarily true. Maybe freshman year people slack off because they’re coming down from senioritis and everything is new; I know many people who did their poorest freshman year. By sophomore year, students are more adjusted and know what to expect, so they get better grades. Not even by trying harder, but just knowing how tests/homework is calculated. By junior year, everyone smartens up and realizes that they have a limited amount of time to save their GPAs for grad/med/law school, so they spend tons of time in the library. Same for senior year. During senior year, many people cut wayyy down on being social and spent more time on grades, at least in my experience.</p>
<p>A lot of it could be burn out. But some more than likely just hit the ability wall in college. Effort can get you 4.0 in HS, but in college its more of a matter of ability. If one studied 6 hours a night in HS to maintain an A average then he will likely have to drop down to a B average in college. Ability trumps effort in college.</p>
<p>It could be that in high school, external discipline (daily homework assignments, taking attendance, and parental reminders to do homework and study) helps keep some students on the straight and narrow path to academic success, but when they go to college, their internal discipline is not there, especially in the face of more social distractions than they had in high school.</p>
<p>Because if you made it into a top 30 school, the hardest part (IMO) is already DONE.</p>
<p>In college, people often split up according to major when it comes to willingness to work hard. This is just another generalization, but having switched from a non-science to a science major, I’ve definitely noticed a difference in the average person’s worth ethic (or current work ethic) once getting to higher level classes.</p>
<p>OP, I’m guessing you’re not a STEM major? I’d imagine more slackers gravitate to non-STEM majors, generally speaking, so you would see more if you’re not in one either.</p>
<p>@ Beachlover15 Right?</p>
<p>Because a lot of high schools are essentially spoon feeding the material to the students. Don’t get me wrong…high school isn’t necessarily easy, but it’s not particularly challenging. Basically anyone can get through high school with a good GPA as long as they put the work in, but a lot of college classes come down more to personal passions and personal aptitude. </p>
<p>Many high schools don’t really teach kids how to learn…they just teach them how to follow outlines and read directions. Many students, upon getting to college, don’t know how to handle the classes. Most college classes require a lot of self teaching…the professors don’t hold our hands and guide us through our homework assignments.</p>
<p>I do math tutoring, and I see this a lot. A couple students that I’ve tutored in math this last year were in pre-calc and calc in high school, and upon getting into college, they were not prepared for college calculus. One student was in business calc last semester and failed, then dropped down to college algebra this semester, and was failing beyond repair at midterm, so he dropped the class, and is dropping down to remedial algebra II for the summer semester. He was an A student in high school pre-calc. The thing that he struggled with the most was that he had to teach himself. The professor didn’t walk him through every possible type of problem that he would encounter, like they do in high school.</p>
<p>I’m 26, so I’m older than a lot of my classmates, which I think makes a pretty big difference. I see more of the older students at my school excelling, and more of the younger students screwing around, not really taking their classes seriously. I’ve spent the years between high school and college teaching myself all about various topics that I’m interested in…so I’ve developed these skills over time. Many high schools don’t teach skills like this.</p>
<p>My intro to the humanities class has served as a good example of this. Our final project is an art catalog using 12 paintings from 4 different art schools of our choosing. We have to do technical analyses of the paintings, compare/contrast the different styles, do artist biographies etc…and basically format it into a book. There aren’t any real strict guidelines to it, outside of the main things that we have to include in it. We weren’t given an outline that says “this part has to be this many pages; do this like that; put this here; use this many technical terms here; put this part next to this part” etc. The older students that are around my age aren’t really having any problems with that, but the fresh out of high school crowd all seem to be struggling with that. No one is holding their hands and telling them how to do it…they’re being forced to actually “create” something, rather than just being told to follow an outline.</p>
<p>**** HIGH SCHOOL GPA =/= COLLEGE GPA
people change, college is more difficult than high school, and stop making grade inflation even worse -__-</p>