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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All the top 10 universities have near perfect graduation rates. When a bottom decile kid earns a degree are they screwed, stuck with crummy offers, or still in the mix for high status gigs? I doubt the credential helps much if your grades are awful, but maybe I’m naive.[/quote]

In my experience as a former third-quartile Harvard student, if you don't have the GPA you're shut out of on-campus recruiting (OCR) and the top grad schools. If you're third quartile and not bottom decile, you may be able to get into a lower-ranked grad program (where the name on your degree may open doors, GPA aside) and redeem yourself there. But there's always teaching, which more than a few of my lower-ranked friends went into. And there's always non-OCR jobs on Indeed.com, where your the name on your degree may catch the odd recruiter's eye. The point is, top employers and grad schools care about your grades, but most employers and most grad schools do not. If you're basically Harvard material but you slacked off at college, you're going to find a place to excel.

Unless, of course, it's a substance abuse and/or mental health issue behind the bad grades, in which case, it's going to be a harder road to hoe.

Lastly, there are dumb athletes and legacies. I know athletes in aggregate do quite well academically, but most of the genuinely dumb kids I knew at Harvard were athletes. They tend to do fine.[/quote]

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