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Comment by elhudy | Hacker News Reader

I think we're missing a big part of the story here.

>[I] was asked to write a statement justifying my lower than usual gpa (2.6) and a week later i was informed that the offer committee was unable to give me an offer.

What if it wasn't the gpa that turned them off, but the statement he wrote? I'm imagining something along the lines of "Well my GPA was bad because my professors weren't very good and I also partied too hard, but I've come to know better now.". It sounds like they really wanted to give him a chance, but he blew that statement.

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> "Was adjusting moving across the continent for school in fields I were not familiar with in highschool. Balancing real life responsibilities and focused on a lot of extra curriculars. Grades within my major were good and it has been upward trending."

> "I have rarely gotten Cs actually for some reason, especially not my major classes. Either way, i don't see how this disqualifies me from the job as it was not in the job description to have a high GPA, and I passed my interviews reasonably well."

Of course it's possible that the OP isn't telling the complete truth, but he's been a regular poster in that sub throughout the process so I doubt he's making much up. Also, if it really is based on your explanation that's just encouraging dishonesty and is a shitty hiring metric. If you're going to hire on something as arbitrary as GPA then the reason behind the number shouldn't be a factor. "We're sorry, we only accept candidates with low GPA if both parents died, but as only one of yours did during your undergrad we can't move on with your app."

Good counterpoint - I wasn't willing to read through all of the replies to find this info.

If someone has a 2.6 gpa then can it be actually be that C's were rare? It seems like he'd likely have ~40% of his grades be C's right?

Mostly A’s and B’s with a few scattered F’s can really drag a GPA down. At some universities, the cutoff for deciding to drop a course can happen only a few weeks into the semester... sometimes F’s happen :(

Mine the cutoff was 2 class days.

That's one possible interpretation, but it's both highly speculative and very generous to Google. Why do you focus on that one so strongly?

He was rejected before they even asked for a statement justifying his GPA.

The statement (or just asking for it) gives the company a written proof to explain why this candidate is being rejected and allows them to defend their decision in a potential discrimination lawsuit.

Given Google's hiring process, this is unlikely. It's almost certain he was denied at the executive review stage, after getting a yes everywhere else.

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