How important are college grades?

[Anonymous]

How important are college grades? Freshman is at an ivy. Kid seems happy, engaged, applied/accepted to multiple clubs and goes out a lot! Likes classes/profs but seems to be struggling in 2 of 5 classes. They would likely be doing better in those classes if spent more time on schoolwork and getting help (vs the fun stuff). I know it's only the first year, but how much do grades matter for getting an internship, perhaps in finance?- that's currently their plan but who knows.... Would appreciate any perspective on this topic

[Anonymous]

VERY

[Anonymous]

Depends what they're doing after college. Becoming a public school teacher? Not important. Going into marketing or PR? Not important. Going to any sort of grad school? Important.

[Anonymous]

I’m guessing this varies widely by sector or even business. I (humanities major, jobs in editing) have never once been asked for my gpa or a transcript, for internships or jobs. DH (electrical engineering major, jobs in tech fields) went to internship fairs where some companies wouldn’t even interview students if they didn’t have a 3.5 or better.

[Anonymous]

I thought ivys were grade inflated

[Anonymous]

Much as SAT scores have all become ridiculously inflated, grades at top schools are now increasingly inflated. My friend's kid is at Duke and I think to make Dean's List which is the top of the class you basically need a 4.0 or very close as so many kids are getting that. And they had to restrict Latin honors to a percentage of the class and the bar keeps going up and up.

I think grades matter quite a bit but as others have noted, it depends on what they want to do. For grad school you need to be near the top of your class, especially if you are applying right out of college. Finance also prefers top of class, though I think some kids can get good internships through connections so that gives them some flexibility.

So I wouldn't come down hard on your kid but I would have a reality check at some point.

Yet another way in which life for kids has gotten worse. I have a top MBA and work on Wall Street and coming out of undergrad there wasn't a ton of emphasis on grades and to get into business school grades mattered but were only one piece of a very big picture. Now it is less like this.

I don't do much hiring anymore but I am less in the weeds on these things - if a kid passed the bar to get into a great school, I assume they are smart and give some flexibility on grades - I am more focused on personality, EQ and work ethic and figure that they will figure it out. From weaker schools I care more about grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought ivys were grade inflated

Not Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought ivys were grade inflated

Not Cornell.

Not Princeton either

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought ivys were grade inflated

Not Cornell.

Not Princeton either

This is a bit misleading. While the so-called grade inflation doesn’t occur at all ivies or elites, ALL courses have been gradually dumbed down for years. The NCLB act did so much damage to our educational system. People blame Covid but the majority of damage was done well before the pandemic. I don’t grade inflate but the overall content I teach today is so much inferior, both in quality and quantity, than what I taught in the same courses 15 years ago.

Sincerely,
STEM professor at an Ivy for 25 years.

[Anonymous]

Grades are critical for law school. And perhaps some first jobs.

[Anonymous]

Med school: 3.7, 3.8, depending on college.

Law school: For T14 law schools, you need top 10%, top 15%, depending on which T14 law school.

Ph.D.: at least a 3.5? Research experience.

Finance: 50 percentile or higher?

[Anonymous]

They matter enough for you to encourage your freshman to seek help. It's only September and there is plenty of time to turn it around.

[Anonymous]

Finance is competitive and grades are important. Connections are more important, but without connections grades become very important.

[Anonymous]

Grade inflation is meaningless to grad schools bcs they’ll care about rank. Being top 10% way more important/impressive than a subjective gpa

This is really only important for some grads schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought ivys were grade inflated

Not Cornell.

But Cornell is the poor man’s Ivy — so it differentiates the classes even more.