Isn't GPA overrated?

TevashSzat
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:03:36 +0000

Okay…this post will sound somewhat arrogantish, but whatever…some thoughts:

For reference: I came from an extremely competitive public high school in Maryland, we usually end up with at least 10 people going to ivies every year. I was the valedictorian of my class and am at Penn right now. SAT Score: 2340 (800 Math 800 CR 740W)

Frankly, I feel that saying that doing well in High School, especially, depends mostly on work ethics, is to a degree, BS. After some observations in both HS and college, me and my friends have agreed that you can divide the generally “good” students into a couple of categories:

1) Those who have alot of effort, but their innate intelligence isn’t good enough.
2) Those who may not be geniuses, but work a ton son they do well in school.
3) Those who are extremely smart, slack off, but do well in school because they are smart.
4) Those who are extremely smart, work a ton, and then goes and takes all of the AP tests other than the language ones just because they can…(knew a guy who did this actually…***)…and then get into HYPSM without a sweat

I probably fall in category #3.

I went through all of high school slacking off…I really did quite minimal amounts of work and you wouldn’t want to know how minimally I studied for the APs. I took a total of 12 APs, all 5s. I did not study for any of my 7 APs senior year and got 5s on them. Basically, I really did not have any work ethic at all. I maintained a 4.0 GPA, took the hardest possible schedule at my school, and pretty much coasted my way through HS. I took a Differential Equations course at Johns Hopkins my senior year with their undergraduates because I finished our math sequence Junior year, and did well and got an A in it too.

Like again, I fully acknowledge that this sounds arrogant to a degree. Now to the OP: That is what extremely smart means, because frankly, HS classes, all of them, are a joke. I have had extremely tough teachers that generally give out lower grades, but, yet again, if you are smart enough, that shouldn’t bother you.

You could lament about doing stupid reading assignments and such…but they are just reading…just power through the book the night before and actually develop being able to read quickly and also comprehend…it is a lifesaver at times.

I have had teachers who literally did not teach you anything. My AP Chemistry teacher basically sat at his desk and checked his email every day while we just played videogames. That still did not stop me from getting a 5 on the AP.

So when you say that you have a bad GPA because you are an extremely smart person who slacks off, I say BS. I am not an exception, I would say a good percentage of extremely smart people in HS simply just do not work that much and just do enough to get into a top college. I have many friends who did this in HS and we are all now at ivies…none of us could be called as those who did nothing but study all day long in HS.

OP, you are overestimating how smart you are. Realize that HS classes ARE NOT hard at all…they are a joke compared to even the easier classes you would take in one the elite institution in the country. The mere fact that you think you are smart and lamenting your low GPA to being a slacker merely means that you aren’t as smart as you think you are…you would fall in category #5:

5) People who think they are smart and slack off, but don’t have the innate intelligence to make up for their lack of work ethics, and so, do terribly in school.

To do well in academics, I have come to found up, you must be able to truthfully recognize your level of intelligence relative to your peers and adjust your work ethic accordingly. If you have had any aspirations to go to a top university, then I assume that even if you want to slack off, you would probably only want to do so but still maintain good grades. Doing poorly in school and blaming it on a lack of work ethic merely means that either you haven’t realized what your true level of intelligence is.

Like I said, I sound extremely arrogant in this post, but I feel the general OP perspective is wrong. Lamenting that work ethics trumps intelligence simply means that you aren’t smart enough.