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...I just think all the emphasis on grades is misplaced...
No, I'm witnessing first-hand the importance of grades regarding employment opportunities (no, not me - I got my degrees a while back). The opportunities for those who actually strive for excellence are amazing.
Most employers I've had, including the federal government, have required transcripts. Mileage on that one really varies.
State agencies typically require transcripts for hires as well, though my perception is that it's to confirm receipt of degree, and not to evaluate GPA.
As most have mentioned I think places that ask for transcripts (state, federal, etc) are likely just looking to confirm the degree not GPA. Getting into gradschool might be hard, but I had a friend that graduated from a 4 year college with like a 2.5 gpa. He took maybe 8 classes at the local community college and got something like a 3.9 gpa there and was able to get into a really good Physical Therapy program. So maybe look into something like that?
No, I'm witnessing first-hand the importance of grades regarding employment opportunities (no, not me - I got my degrees a while back). The opportunities for those who actually strive for excellence are amazing.
Striving for excellence out in the real world can be rewarding. And yes, maybe grades might help a person get that first job. But to assume that once you have a bunch of good grades you're set for life is silly. Nobody cares. You have to perform.
Striving for excellence out in the real world can be rewarding. And yes, maybe grades might help a person get that first job. But to assume that once you have a bunch of good grades you're set for life is silly. Nobody cares. You have to perform.
That is true, but you also never know when those grades come into play for future career goals/changes. I recently applied for a couple jobs that required my college transcript. Given that my children are in college or done with college, those grades are pretty meaningless, but I still had to submit the stone tablets that those transcripts were written on....
Say you had a guy who went to college and graduated with a 2.0 GPA, no relevant internships or anything of the sort. He didn't major in finance or engineering either meaning that whatever he majored in, he would need a masters or professional school experience in order to break into a lucrative career.
So the guy graduates college with a 2.0 GPA or whatever is required for graduation. To help his cause some, lets say he went to a fairly relevant university (not Harvard or Yale but a respectable state university).
In the grand scheme of things, how screwed is he if he wants to actually get a job that pays more than 50k annually?
Does he expect to start on Day 1 with a $50k+ job?
Maybe they're happy with Cs. Maybe they skipped 95% of their classes. Maybe they're bored. Maybe they're smart enough to realize it doesn't matter.
And it's possible that this might mean you'd be an employee who is happy with mediocre performance, calls in often, gets bored easily, and thinks he or she is smarter than everyone and doesn't need to do a fair share of the work, and the rules don't apply to him or her. To an employer, at least, who may be interviewing many other applicants who show more drive and initiative, historically.
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What would you say to a person who wanted to see your 2nd grade transcript? You'd wonder why they cared. College is the same, only a little more recent.
Except that you're an adult or close to it in college, and being expected to take on a more adult-like workload. No, I would not say that "college is just like second grade, only more recent. " Unless you went to clown college.
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To be sure, no one should try to get bad grades. I just think all the emphasis on grades is misplaced. And let's face it, if you're stupid, all the good grades in the world won't save you once you're in the real world. Fortunately, for all the C students.
Eh, it's a valid benchmark of several things, which is why its used.
Does he expect to start on Day 1 with a $50k+ job?
I think the point there is that a 2.0 is so bad that it locks you out of graduate school forever, and without grad school, it's hard to move up. Most legitimate schools will never consider someone with a GPA that low.
Of course, with an advanced degree, $50k not a great salary, even to start. The people I went to grad school with who left academia mostly started off in the $125k range. (The people who stayed in academia, of course, didn't come anywhere close to that at their post-doc jobs, but most of them gave up and went into finance or something after a couple of years.)
^^Totally field-dependent. I can think of numerous human services that require master's degrees at minimum and won't touch six figures.
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