<p>This thread is full of kids that couldn’t pull a C in general chemistry and now major in marketing and are bitter about it.</p>
<p>“Not to mention schools like Cornell, MIT, Caltech, U chicago-tell kids there that they can get A’s by just turning in their HW…”</p>
<p>Yeah you’re right… but you consider merely turning in HW “trying”? You get back what you put into it. Of course natural ability comes into play, but everyone in these schools has natural ability, so it’s just how much you’re willing to sacrifice in terms of free time and fun.</p>
<p>I don’t know. For real…GPA just says what you got in the classes you took. That’s it. It doesn’t say anything else about you.</p>
<p>That’s like saying your PPG is how many points you scored per game. Cause you just defined GPA… And yes it does say something about you. A 2.5 displays a lack of focus, intelligence, effort, motivation or all of the above. Whereas a 3.8 doesn’t make you a great person, nor a genius, but it does show that you did well. Of course different majors/schools are easier to get higher GPAs in, but employers know that and take it into account.</p>
<p>People who argue GPA doesn’t matter are wholly off the mark. It’s not the holy grail that some people believe it is, but it’s not an insignificant number either.</p>
<p>Like I said, GPA is merely what you got in the classes you took. The rest is rhetoric.</p>
<p>GPA can get you the interview…the rest is up to you.</p>
<p>Ding ding ding. Ebola is correct. What school you go to and what your GPA is will get you an interview (or not.) Once you get in there nobody cares.</p>
<p>Edited 10 char</p>
<p>Yes, gpa is related to intelligence: if a student tries to diminish the value of success in college, where the point is to learn a lot and do well, then that student isn’t too intelligent! (Either that, or he is trying to rationalize his less than stellar grades). Who in their right mind would say, “Sure, give me a 2.5 because I didn’t want that 3.5 anyway? I’d rather spend my time defending my gpa to others who think it mattered!” :D</p>
<p>Well let me put it this way: If your school doesn’t have a core and your GPA is lower than 3 that is pretty bad. I can understand the low GPA freshman/soph years if you’re forced to take a lot of classes you’re not interested in/terrible in. But everyone has the ability to get a B in a class they enjoy learning in.</p>
<p>Sometimes smart people get low GPAs because they don’t turn in problem sets, don’t go to class and/or don’t study for exams. Sometimes people of middling intelligence get good GPAs because they outwork 95% of their competition. GPA can be a good indicator of intelligence and work ethic, but other measures, like standardized tests and interviews, are also useful.</p>
<p>And then also GPA depends on your professor, since you know, they’re the ones who give you a grade. If they barely teach you anything, and give hard tests and pop quizzes, don’t expect a good grade.</p>
<p>Well, what are we considering a decent GPA?</p>
<p>Due to health issues, I had a mediocre freshman year GPA (3.2). I really only have this year and a semester of senior year to bring it up because my study abroad GPA does not factor into my general GPA and grad schools don’t look at 2nd semester senior year. Oh, frustration.</p>
<p>Depends on the major, really. I’d say 3.0 is decent for most majors, though.</p>
<p>
That is certainly true! But think about this. If you were an employer, who would you rather hire? A person of high ability who doesn’t care enough to work hard and produce, or a fairly smart person who works his butt off and achieves more than he should be able to? </p>
<p>Whether there is any correlation between gpa and intelligence or not, I would think that employers and grad schools will usually be more impressed by people who care enough to do a good job. This also speaks to personality, which is important in hiring. Of course, if personality traits other than intelligence and work ethic are most important in a particular job, this may not apply.</p>
<p>Low GPA could very well be because of laziness. Or being very scattered and disorganized. My D constantly loses points for forgetting to hand things in. She would be running an A in honors stats now, but is running a B+ because of that. Same in French and English AND public speaking! I fear for her when she goes away to school…she actually went to school this morning with a gold ribbon tied to her finger to remember to hand things in. I’ll bet she comes home with the stuff still in her backpack and the ribbon lost.</p>
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<p>lol this is almost completely false, GPA does not really have any link to IQ hence the need for GMATs and SATs. I know PLENTY of engineers and even business majors with sub 2.5 GPA’s that are smarter than many 4.0’s I know (who spend at least 5x as much time studying)</p>
<p>if you look at the stats it actually indicates that girls generally get higher GPA’s while guys to better on tests, next you’re going to tell me that girls are smarter than guys because of GPA!</p>
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<p>Question:
1.)how do you measure smartness?
2.)when you hire someone, do you prefer someone who get things done very well or someone who are smart?</p>
<p>
Usually it does have some link, imo. There are exceptions, of course. </p>
<p>But gpa does certainly corellate to the common-sense sort of intelligence. If you know that you will be judged by your numerical success in college, you would be pretty stupid to blow it off. Likewise, knowing that good test scores can open doors for you, you would be foolish to not do your best on these.</p>
<p>Why would any thinking person make it harder on themselves?</p>
<p>To answer pearlygates’s question about employment:
At my place of employment, a certain degree of professional competence is assumed because of licensure requirements. For those non-licensed employees, successful job experience is valuable. </p>
<p>Other qualities besides intelligence that are important are reliability, being hard-working, and getting along well with co-workers.</p>