A High GPA Is Not All What It Seems To Me

College Life
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<p>I used to work for a consulting engineering/urban planning firm (approx. 60-70 people) and everybody (excluding support depts such as accounting) had a degree in either urban planning or engineering. That includes the president and the rest of the executive board. No econ major or anything else.</p>

<p>Right now I’m working for an international construction management firm, which hires mostly architects and engineers. In my office (approx 700 people), everybody I’ve met has worked their way up the ladder from an entry level position. While I don’t know the backgrounds of all the execs in the company, I know the CEO has a degree in architectural engineering. </p>

<p>I’m sure there are non-engineering majors working at the top of some engineering firms, but it doesn’t appear to be common to me. Especially since the field of engineering I work in requires licensure, which you can only get with an engineering education.</p>

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<p>It is quite foolish for any of you to place any merit on the importance of the grade point average. To be Honest their are just so many different variables when it comes to people, as everybody is different. </p>

<p>I myself am an engineering student, Computer engineering that is. While I don’t have the highest GPA(currently at 2.48), I don’t consider myself any less smart than my higher gpa’ed counterparts. I also don’t think that I am any worse of a engineer to be.</p>

<p>Now I am currently at a senior standing, as are most of my CSE friends. While I do know and study with a few people(3). that have gpa’s of 3.7 and above. I can attest first hand that the gpa has no bearing on how smart ya are. For my past 3.5 years, whenever it came time for lab work, it always seemed to me that those guys with the great gpa’s came asking me for help. Me the guy with the lower gpa, shoot I have even tutored some of them before, and many in between. </p>

<p>Now I have a quite drastic learning disability and always have. I spend hours upon hours studying, im like a machine. When it comes to lab and research work I pride myself on perfection and people notice. Even though I spend about 12 hours a day of studying(class labs included), I still do horrific on tests. usually C’s are the best I can do. I still do bad even with extended time on tests.</p>

<p>Now if you talk to me in person or if I am working in the lab or doing research I am fine, because thats what I do, Im not a bloody test taker, I don’t have the skills to take tests and honestly don’t want them. I am 100% confident that even with a sub par gpa I will still have a productive engineering career.</p>

<p>Se my learning disability is one of those variables, there are just to many to compute. I consider myself a man of knowledge, I love to learn anything there is possible.</p>

<p>Now I dont have a high gpa, but does that make me dumb as a earlier poster said, Id hope ya would not think so, thogh if you do, you are just falling into the idea that America is a country of people who can take tests and do not much else.</p>

<p>Now on a side note I did a Internship at IBM 2 years ago then atto the year later… I got a pretty good glace at what they do when they hire you. If you have a 3.7 or above, they dont want ya,it means you are a Book smart person which is not engineering. They want a 2.6-3.2, which is prime for them.</p>

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<p>good, that means you have a lot of self confidence. A definite plus for many employers.</p>

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<p>wow, so you’re basically saying you’re one of the smartest person in your study group and you never ask questions to your 3.7 GPA friends but instead you tutor them all the time, but strangely you end up having lower GPA than them? hmm talk about arrogance… SO how did you end up so poorly in exams if you can tutor your friends. That kinda boggles me. I wonder if they’re in the same major as you do? </p>

<p>on a side note, one of my TA got a B+ in a particular class. But he end up being hired to become the official TA for that class. I guess not every A+ person want to teach that class like not every superstar professor can/want to teach. But does that mean they’re dumb too? your argument seems to undermine to relevance of GPA and intelligence. </p>

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<p>It’s funny that you’re trying to correlate exam taking with grades whereas in many CS classes the project/homeworks usually counts more than exams/finals. Heck in one of my classes the final only counts for 20% while 80% is based on projects. Are you really in Comp eng/CS? I can understand your logic if you’re in biology or the sciences… but CS???</p>

<p>Anyway, as long as you don’t think you’re dumb why do you care if some posters in an anonymous web board think you’re dumb? are you kinda sensitive with GPA ? </p>

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<p>that’s fine, because I suspect top software companies like Google might not want to hire someone whose GPA is around 2.6-3.2. So I guess all the folks who got “rejected” at IBM because of their horribly high GPA have no choice to work for Google… poor fellas, they should’ve made their GPA lower, I mean who doesn’t want to work for IBM?</p>

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…No.</p>

<p>Having a severe learning disability is the exception rather than the norm. Most people with low gpa’s don’t have a disability but maybe are not so good at their subject or just didn’t work hard enough at it. I don’t think you can extrapolate your situation to most other lower gpa students.</p>

<p>Also, you can’t assume that “book-smartness” precludes the ability to be creative, work well with others or be a good engineer. Lots of book-smart people have that intelligence extend to other areas.</p>

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<p>A low GPA can hurt you when applying from a job…</p>

<p>Example:
A friend of mine is graduating with a PhD in inorganic chemistry. His graduate GPA is 3.5 - his undergraduate was slightly less than 3.0. He applied for a job at Intel & he was getting multiple emails about his CV & possible interviews. He finally got a phone interview where they asked him his GPA (for grad & undergrad). As soon as they heard his undergrad GPA… interview ended. He got an email the next day saying they only consider people with a 3.5 or better undergrad GPA. ***… his undergrad GPA shouldn’t matter since he has a PhD now… AND he’s a really friendly, hardworking, funny guy, he’d be awesome to work with.</p>

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<p>no, gpas have nothing to do with IQs or intelligence</p>

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<p>Bottom line, I need a high GPA for law school. Other people need high GPAs for med school, business school, that i-BankingConsultingHedgeFund job.</p>

<p>I’m not bitter. I wouldn’t enjoy engineering anyway. I enjoy talking to people and helping them with their problems that they can’t help themselves with. I could either be a financial consultant or a lawyer, and I choose to be the latter. That’s all.</p>

<p>And the law has been a passion of mine since, like, middle school. Engineering and machines and stuff, has never been a passion. I considered becoming a judge at one time, too. But I think I’ll like lawyering better.</p>

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<p>GPA is more reflection of good work ethics and understanding of how to get through courses tactfully. Yes, general intelligence helps, but its the hardworking that end up with the greater GPAs</p>

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<p>maybe i have a different perspective than most of you since i am in the hardest college major (electrical engineering). if you have a high gpa in that major then to me you are smart cause people in my major know how difficult it is to score around the mean in almost every exam that is given.</p>

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<p>Unlike most people on this board, I know very smart students that don’t get good grades because they work 40+ hours a week, not because they lack work ethic. Not everyone has Mommy and Daddy to depend on</p>

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<p>BuzzLiteBeer thats is not true, I study alot usually 12 hours a day and I still get bad grades. School is just harder for me, though does that mean I am not hardworking. I doubt that. I know alot more people with 4.0s who do nothing than those who work hard.</p>

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<p>A high GPA at a challenging college means one of two things.</p>

<p>Either:

  1. You’re extremely smart
  2. You work extremely hard</p>

<p>I wouldn’t call either of those qualities objectionable.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>I understand that many believe this to be an oversimplification of a complex phenomenon…but I feel that this is simply the general trend. </p>

<p>The school you attend and the major/course you take also play a role in GPA, but I find it hard to believe that someone who works hard can still score poorly. If your college is difficult than you obviously are capable of the work since you were accepted (unless you’re a recruited athlete or other type of admit who isnt used to the rigors/stratgies of high standard academics).</p>

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<p>^^ someone could work really hard and score poorly if they study inefficiently</p>

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<p>The downside to a 4.0 GPA is that it probably means that ALL you did in school was study. If you have a 4.0 AND you’re well-rounded, that’s incredible. And, by incredible, I mean literally not credible. I’m much more impressed by somebody who has a 3.5 GPA, works part-time or volunteers, plays a sport, plays a musical instrument, learns a foreign language at an intermediate level at least, participates in two to three clubs and has an officer position in at least one club all at the same time. THAT is an overachiever. Somebody who does nothing except homework for a living is NOT an overachiever, but merely a one-dimensional number on a piece of paper. Colleges and employers want to see that you’re not only a good student but also a productive member of society.</p>

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<p>This thread was made when Bush was president. Unintentional necro?</p>

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<p>Dude, how did you even find this? There are probably kids on this site that were in diapers when OP created this thread. </p>

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<p>I can’t believe 2007 was 17 years ago… time sure does fly. </p>

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<p>@Numbersz‌ - LOL, I calculated it too when I read that post. There are a few forums dedicated to prep school admissions, and those kids would be like 12/13 but even then, they wouldn’t be in diapers unless they were really, really late bloomers or something. I wasn’t gonna say anything though. ;)</p>