Grades mattered to me until grad school. For many, you need good grades in high school and college. Masters is becoming more and more common.
Grades matter getting your first job, after that they mean far less. If I’m interviewing candidates for a position i never ask about grades unless they are straight out of college or grad school. Then work experience is much more important.
Yes, architects are more artistic. I would be a bad architect because everything would be square in shape and boring.
@knowstuff, architects are responsible for the look and function of a building. Structural engineers design the structure. Architects learn a little about structures, just enough to understand what engineers do. We find that some of them think they can look up a load table and figure out what steel beam size to use and they’re good to go. Uh, no, there’s a little more to it than that. On the other hand, some architects are quite practical and a joy to work with.
@MaineLonghorn thanks for the explanation and makes sense now that you explained it. Just sounded kinda funny to me once I read it. I just thought in this day and age there would be more cross over. I learn something new everyday.
This kid is wondering when grades stop mattering in LIFE…not when they stop mattering to us personally. I think the answer is…it depends. In my field, my OLD OLD grades and transcripts DO matter because one of the first runs for job consideration includes college grades. Yes, if i get past that, my experience etc will be more important. And if the place is looking more holistically my experiences will matter.
But really…in life…some places will consider your grades for a LONG time.
DH and I still have our college GPAs on our resumes, 32 years after we graduated, because we figure potential clients will appreciate structural engineers who got good grades!
@MaineLonghorn The trick is knowing which structures I can do and which I can’t. I am working on a 1920s Tudor house. No walls line up. I really can’t tell what the load paths are. So on Monday I’m calling the engineer. I don’t actually know what my GPA was, but I do have “magna cum laude with highest honors in VES” which is probably a pretty good stand-in for the actual grades.
Even 25 years post grad school there are some companies, such as McKinsey, that still require a GPA on your application.
@mathmom, ha, sometimes WE can’t tell what the load paths are on old buildings! And that’s how we spot inexperienced architects, when they design buildings with walls that don’t line up.
I stuck my foot in my mouth about grades recently. I testified before a Maine legislative, protesting their recommendation to discontinue the requirement for continuing education for professional engineers. I said that I had gotten As in school and even so, the practice of engineering has been challenging. I went on to say that I worry about the C students, and feel that continuing education helps them a lot. One of the engineering licensing board members replied, “Well, I WAS one of those C students, and I’ve done fine!” Oops… (the committee decided to table the bill to discontinue CE, fortunately)
Confused… Why wouldn’t you want CE? Or is there nothing that applies?
I’d say that normally about 5 years after you’re thru with college grades aren’t as important as the work you have done. Now, in your work you should be still learning, just not getting formally graded on it.
My wife was asked for her GPA AND a TRANSCRIPT (!!!) when she was applying for an engineering management job about 25 years after she graduated. So, you really never know.
I think CE is a good idea, but I have taken so many terrible courses. The last one, the present read the plumbing code to us for six hours. He added nothing. What a waste. Actually he finished in five hours and then we all spent the next hour waiting for our time to be up so we could leave. Ugh.
I have not thought about my GPA since I applied to grad school. I have never put it on a resume. I’m not even exactly sure what it was. If anyone wanted it now, I would probably have to contact my college to find out what it was.
After you receive your diplomas, grades continue to matter only in limited context. Your high school grades matter for college admission, but not for grad school admission. Your undergrad college grades matter for grad school admission and may matter for your first job. Examples: (a) I recall that my son, after graduating at UChicago, was asked about his GPA when he was interviewed for a position in a financial institution. He was also asked about his high school test scores! And he was asked what it might mean that he was a champion debater in high school. (b) When my daughter sought to apply to an MBA program, after working for several years in the economy, they wanted her transcript (from an art college!). But the GMAT test score was critically important, and she studied like mad to get a good score (and did).
By and large, later in life, your diplomas continue to matter but not your grades. Employers are looking at what you’ve achieved outside of school or college. They may ask about test scores (GRE, GMAT, LSAT), and what courses of study you completed, but they are looking at what you’ve done in your post-college career, not what you did in high school, college, or on tests.
Added: When we hire PhD’s for positions at my university, we don’t look at high school or undergrad degree transcripts for grades (though the latter have to be formally submitted, along with proof of degree, to our personnel office). We focus on the applicant’s research record and publications; letters of recommendation; the dissertation topic; and student evaluations of teaching. We rely heavily on letters of recommendation from the dissertation advisor and others. A bad grade here or there means nothing to us.
I don’t remember GPA really even being a thing. For us, it was class rank. There were 5-8 kids who took all of the highest level courses and when the rankings were announced there was little surprise. But then again, there were spots for everyone then in the highest ranking schools. So the kid who got B’s went to BC, or Tufts or BU. The world has changed so the OP is really asking a different question.
When does all the stress of competing end? And maybe for our kids it never will.
To me it’s more about sense of accomplishment, pride, giving maximum effort. These things create to confidence. If you do those things, the grades generally take care of themselves. More importantly, others in leadership will recognize your ability (and willingness) to do the hard stuff. Every leader wants that on their team.
@Happytimes2001 My kids don’t give a fig about grades. They earned their diplomas. But they work in a competitive economy and it’s what they’ve done in the economy, not their grades in school, that matters for their economic lives.
All of the companies I have worked for request proof of degrees in the form of copies of diplomas. The Latin designations for honors on those diplomas substitute well enough for GPA.
Grades stopped mattering after my I got my MBA, 25 years ago. In silicon valley they don’t really care what grades you got, as long as you passed!