It’s a new year, a new semester, a new beginning and a clean slate. It’s another chance to create new goals and to accomplish old ones.
At the start of each of my past five semesters at UF, I told myself to raise my GPA.
Well, that never happened.
Actually, my GPA steadily decreased every semester.
However, as a habit, every January and August, I make plans to attend class more often, review notes, socialize less and begin preparing for exams days in advance.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-education. But repeated long nights at Library West with two cans of caffeine and heavy bags under my eyes are not my scene.
Perhaps I lack self-discipline, or maybe this lifestyle doesn’t suit me.
It’s also a bit impractical to hold myself to such expectations now.
As a junior with two majors and time-consuming upper-level classes, I no longer have room in my schedule to choose from a wide variety of general education courses, carefully picked with afternoon class times and high RateMyProfessors.com ratings. Or for feel-good fluff classes designed for non-majors, such as Man’s Food or Fruits for Fun and Profit.
But why am I stressing out about my GPA? How important is a college GPA to our success in life?
In fact, what is the purpose of college?
For those interested in pursuing professional fields such as law or medicine, GPA is a large factor for admission into graduate programs. The purpose of their undergrad time is to get into graduate school.
The rest of us have to be ready to succeed in the “real world” postgraduation. We need to tackle problems and handle situations like mature adults.
Sure, I work with a team better than I used to, write persuasive speeches on the health care reform and speak intelligently about how supply and demand affect price, but it’s rather unlikely that most of what I’ve learned in class will apply to real life.
We’ve been taught since elementary school that grades are the determining factor in performance. We still have the mindset that smart students get As, average ones get Cs and failures get Fs.
I’ve seen so many of my peers stressing about grades thinking that if they don’t have high grades, they will not be successful. GPA is not correlated to professional success.
A high GPA does not necessarily give you a higher chance of securing a full-time job after college. Employers may look for a satisfactory GPA for your first few internships or jobs as one of the many factors they consider, but after that, your work experience, ability to work with others and network are more important.
In the 2005 National Association of Colleges and Employers Research, managers ranked GPA as less important on the list of considerations than communication skills, work ethic, teamwork skills, leadership skills, self-confidence, friendliness and tactfulness.
It’s a new semester, so we have a fresh start. There should be no regrets about how we spend our college years. Raising your GPA is, of course, a good goal to have, and there are no downsides to it. But if you’re struggling and stressing because of it, leave the perfectionist in you behind. Your desire for a higher GPA should not be so important that your overall college experience suffers and you don’t have time to explore other opportunities.
The college experience is about gaining independence and experiencing new things. It’s about joining groups, meeting different people, trying new things, making mistakes, learning about yourself and making memories. It’s supposedly the best time of our lives — don’t ruin it.
And remember what President George W. Bush told a group of Yale University graduates in 2001: “To all the C-students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.”
Or better said, “Cs get degrees.”
Raksheen Ayaz is an advertising and business junior at UF. Her column usually runs on Thursdays. You can contact her via opinions@alligator.org.
