In the 1980s, I graduated from Ucla with a sub 3.0. Got a job at a then big 8, now big 4, accounting firm. Later went to med school and now a physician.
In the 1980s, a 3.0 GPA was above average at UCLA; now, that is below average, probably due to grade inflation and increased admission selectivity. See http://www.gradeinflation.com/Ucla.html .
Jobs and professional schools which care about GPA are probably a lot more selective (in terms of GPA) for admission now than in the 1980s.
Jobs prospects are greatly affected by a sub-3.0 GPA, but smart people tend to be successful anyway. I graduated mid-80s from what was, at the time, a top-10 college for EE, and almost all recruiters required either a 3.0 or a 3.2 just to get an interview (that would be the top half of 300 or so EEs getting all the interviews). Even some of the crap government jobs required a 3.2. A few required a 3.6 minimum.
As an example, there were four graduates in a sub-specialty that was in high demand at the time and they averaged 4.5 job offers. The top graduate got 17 offers, the second got one offer, and the two others had none. One of those last two is a fraternity brother who eventually found a job and went on to a successful career including national recognition in his field.
Today, entry to the educated arena is more competitive and our economy is not absorbing the quantity of graduates. We have a number of college grads working near-minimum wage assembly jobs at my company, some with good GPAs.
The average GPA at private colleges is now about 3.4, and at some it’s higher. At Brown, for example, the average grade is now 3.6, essentially an A-, so the average GPA must also be in that vicinity. A sub-3.0 GPA at a top 50 private college is probably bottom quartile. Do these students get jobs and graduate/professional school admissions? Yes,most do, but I’m quite certain they’re not getting to the most selective graduate and professional programs. The average Harvard or Yale undergrad won’t get into Harvard or Yale Law Schools, and the bottom quartile certainly won’t.
The average GPA at public universities is probably closer to 3.0 or 3.1.
Not sure what you were reading, or whom you were watching. I was making the rounds in CA late last week and every station I was at in LA and SD was calling for scattered showers and storms starting Saturday as the remnants of the Tropical System moved closer to SOCAL.
You obviously need to switch to one of the stations I consult for 
Actually, I believe every forecaster had rain in the forecast which makes me wonder if you were consulting an app. Nearly all of those weather apps are computer generated and are often pretty bad. Part of our challenge as consultants has been figuring out ways to convince viewers that it is beneficial to them to watch an actual human being with experience and training versus trusting an app.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled debate
My husband said it’s channel 9.
you know what they call the guy who graduated last in his medical school class?
doctor.
i’d imagine the same applies throughout life.
and again, past ones first job (at best), no one really cares what your GPA was…
Different people have different opinions.
No:
Yes:
Maybe so:
https://www.noodle.com/articles/does-college-gpa-matter-when-looking-for-a-job
Now your turn.
“If you attend a top-50 liberal arts college or university (outside of HYPS) and have a GPA below 3.0, what is a typical outcome in terms of jobs and graduate school admissions?”
- I do not have any knowledge about this in general terms, I only know about acceptance to Med. Schools (both MD and DO). the graduate with college GPA below 3.0 (college name is irrelevant) has NO chance to be accepted to the USA Medical School (MD or DO). More so, college GPA of below 3.5 (again from any college) does not have a good chance either and it is getting more competitive with every year. Any applicant from ANY college with high college GPA (3.7+), decent MCAT scores and respectable set of medical ECs has a very good chance at getting accepted to at least one Med. School if THEY APPLY SMARTLY.
Except people with lower GPAs do get in.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321494/data/factstable17.pdf
One standard deviation on the GPA of accepted students gets you below 3.5. Clearly a better GPA helps, but a lower GPA is not a deal breaker.
Med school is one of the fields where a sub 3.0 GPA has the most influence on outcome. However, saying “no chance to be accepted” is not accurate. You can find more details about the rate of acceptance for lower GPAs in other grids at https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/85992/bymcatscoresandgpas.html . The focus of this thread is top 50 schools other than HYPSM, so I will instead use the WUSTL acceptance grid at http://prehealth.wustl.edu/documents/handbook.pdf . Among WUSTL students, the overall acceptance rates were ~35% for a 2.9 GPA, ~75% for a 3.4 GPA, and ~95% for a 3.9 GPA. The sub 3.0 GPA applicants didn’t have a high acceptance rate, but it was far above 0 . The acceptance rates were quite decent for slightly below 3.5 GPA.
Guilty as charged - major GPA was higher than 3.0 though. Am doing what I want, and have been for years.
To clarify, I did get a Master’s degree to help “erase” my undergrad GPA, but I did get into the program because of going to an Ivy IMHO. I was laid off once ever, got several prestigious fellowships, and my salary has been high compared to my co-workers at most jobs.
But I was rejected for a second interview with a Fortune 50 company when being recruited senior year of college because of my sub-3.0 (the first interviewer on campus thought I was great). But otherwise, most people say “wow, you graduated from an Ivy!” when looking at my resume.
Just graduating from an Ivy is more than enough, and after a few years, most people do not list their GPA on their resumes.
I had to laugh to see “teacher recruiter” noted - the stat I’ve seen is that more than 50% of public school teachers graduated in the lower third of their college class.
I know a recent graduate of medical school with below 3.4 GPA from college in the top 50 USNews. He had to apply widely and got accepted the second year out of college and not the first year, he also had some medical related job in his gap year.
No one cares about gpa in the real world especially not in liberal arts or law. The top 50 schools in libarts are not about academics, they never were. They are about job opportunity. The idea is is that these popular schools attract kids of rich and powerful parents and it is up to you to mingle and find opportunities with these people. This is why many folks who graduate from Harvard and Yale have higher starting salaries (though this is not true after about 4 years in the work force in my experience). They all get jobs with their parents or with their friends with connected parents. You do not find connected people like this in lower ranked schools (not frequently at least).
Law is in shambles (financially) right now (actually over the last decade) so you will need to be patient. Its not just you but all lawyers, except those in legacy positions (those who started in established companies that are decades old or have old connections), are struggling or are so overworked (doing low level tasks usually) that they are depressed. Too many lawyers graduated the last 20 years, so right now there is a huge surplus. Its a great skill to have and as you make connections your prospects will improve but right now demand is waning across all areas outside of big business law (due to how weak the middle class has become since the 70s). My sister is a lawyer and she struggled her first 5 years after the bar despite going to UT and actually having a 3.8 gpa and passing the CA bar in her 1st attempt. She is doing fine now with her own office but she was depressed for several years when she realized that law is not the way it was advertised (she wanted to go into medicine but someone changed her mind and now she hates them lol).