Ask HN: In college, how much did you care about grades? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: In college, how much did you care about grades?

6 pointsconfuzzled20 comments

I have been looking at my grades for this year, and they have been extremely disappointing. I'm a bad test taker, but I'd be lying if I said that was the only reason for my sub 3.0 GPA. I didn't have the motivation to do well in tests because I didn't see the point in them; especially classes that are just requirements and uninteresting. Don't get me wrong, I do love learning. It's just that I hate being "tested" like a lab rat. I know for a fact that I am hazy on details about things I learned 2 years ago, so what would be the point of testing? At the same time, there is tremendous social pressure to do extremely well. I know so many people who would freak out about a "B", and I have gotten much worse grades than that. :(

So HN, how did you do in college? How much did those grades affect your life?

edit: Added a little bit more detail

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I barely graduated with a 3.0. The interesting thing about the grades I received in classes was that they tended to be a lot higher when I got to take advanced undergrad or graduate-level classes than Freshman-level required courses.

My first employer couldn't care in the slightest. They were interested in my past work and experience, and how well I did in the interview. None of my subsequent employers have ever mentioned anything about my education.

My recommendation: don't kill yourself over grades, but do as well as you can. If you never find any of the material interesting, then you may have a problem with your selected major.

College, the beta version, I didn't care about grades. I was only taking three classes (French, English Comp, and Music) and ended up only paying attention in French class. Came in handy when I decided to go to Paris that summer.

Some years later I read Soul of a New Machine, got excited about studying EE, and managed a partial scholarship to NYIT.

I cared about passing, and cared about learning (most) stuff, so I mostly got good grades. Switching from EE to CS helped. :)

My enthusiasm sort of petered put after a while, I started lowering my course load (school + work was getting hard), then dropped out for bit then went back, but nine years later I graduated with honors and an award from the the English department.

I had wicked great English profs, and a few really good CS teachers. Most of the time teachers would let me slide on assignments if I otherwise demonstrated understanding and the ability to apply what I knew. So I had some fun. Had one math prof who gave me a C even though I swear I never got more than 30 on any test. But I was the only one in class who asked intelligent questions and could make useful observations. (Thanks, Dr. Vitale!) Sadly, I sucked on the tests.

Did the grades matter later in life? I doubt it. I think all that mattered was that I had a degree. Might be wrong, you never really know, but I don't recall too many people being impressed. Once you get a job all people care about is what you're doing right then and there, not some college grade.

Overall I think you should learn as much as you can for its own sake, which often leads to good grades anyway.

I cared very much about my grades in undergrad, and I ended up with a very high GPA. So far, I'm glad I cared as much as I did.

Will your grades matter after undergrad? That depends on what you want to do. It will hurt a bit if you go to grad school (your undergrad grades matter for getting grants). It'll hurt a lot if you want to go to medical school (but you can still get in to some schools if you bring your GPA up somewhat).

Do you have a project or set of projects that demonstrate ability? If I had to choose between two people, and one had demonstrated his abilities with great code/art/etc, I'd pick him over the guy with nothing but grades. However, if I had no other metric to measure you by other than grades, I'd pick the guy with better grades.

If you want high grades, you have to push everything else aside and focus on doing well in your classes, and not taking on more than you can do well in any given semester. If you can't do that, quit school for awhile. Do something great in the meantime so that you have something to show to yourself. Self-esteem is something that can't be faked, or given to you by others. You have to earn it yourself. Either way, don't do anything halfway, because that's just a recipe for the same mediocrity you're inflicting upon yourself now. It's not too late to turn yourself around.

I went to a state-related school, so maintaining a high GPA was pretty easy. I don't think my grades ended up mattering much to anybody other than me after college, but at the time they helped. I was able to take advantage of some opportunities during my undergraduate years that required good grades. I got a fellowship to do undergraduate research, and a two-year full scholarship from the math department in my last couple of years. At the least, I saved a fair amount of money.

So, judging from my experience, I'd advise you to keep an eye on the current financial effects of your grades. Otherwise, I wouldn't sweat it. Unless you're planning on staying in academia, or applying to grad schools.

I do have one additional piece of advice, which you can feel free to take or not take. It makes sense for a high schooler to resent testing, since you are forced to attend. It doesn't make sense for college student, because you're there of your own free will. Saying "I hate being 'tested' like a lab rat" indicates that you're not approaching college as the voluntary experience and opportunity it is. Losing that residual resentment might help you with some of your motivation and performance issues.

Thanks for the advice. I do not resent tests by themselves. For e.g. I'm fine if you are continuously tested throughout the year. However, I have an issue with a test that is 40% of your grade, and is just 3 hours. It could render your quarters work useless if you messed up.

I never went to college, but I felt like you do about my high school grades. Now that I've spent 15 year in industry, on the other side of the table interviewing college graduates, I know that I haven't given up anything verses the _average_ college CS graduate.

In spite of this I'm looking to start going to college for the first time this fall. While I believe the average college CS student has no advantage over a motivated self-starter I think those who really strive to achieve their best and take advantage of the resources available to them will end up ahead of the self-educated. So now that I look back, I believe that attending a good college and putting forth 100% effort will give me both personal satisfaction and afford more opportunities than I would have available to me otherwise.

What I'm trying to say is: if you don't care about performing as well as possible, you're not getting much of a career advantage from going to college. On the other hand, if you strive for your best you can open up opportunities that you'd never be able to reach otherwise.

I know that I haven't given up anything verses the average college CS graduate.

Except...

Except what?

i think fezzl's point is that you can't know what you missed. You can look at others and say that you dont think it was necessary, but that could be because you didn't have access to the top pool of CS students.

Ability to spell, maybe: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/verses.html

Honestly it depends on what you want to do

If you are looking to go into the non-CS corporate world, grades matter a lot. This is primarily how companies will screen applicants. However, based on my personal experience, my grades weren't stellar either, but I managed to compensate them with other pretty cool things like starting my own clubs, working a ton of different jobs, being active in the community, etc.

In my personal opinion, grades are a poor indicator of personal achievement. Just be sure to do something substantial on the side to make up for your grades.

Oh and regarding the "social pressures" of doing well, fuck everyone else. It's your life, not theirs.

Edit: Someone else mentioned grades are a measure of work ethic, which I will agree upon. However, if you can show your employers where you spent a majority of your time (and why the alternative is worth investing in over school work) then it should be OK.

To be honest, I cared quite a lot about getting a relatively high GPA and was upset if I scored below 5.25 (out of 6). I don't think that standardised tests are good in themselves but they help keep a student intellectually honest. Some people will tell you that grades don't matter, a creative person reads freely and off the curriculum -- and that's true. But indulged too much it can weaken your intellectual discipline, which you desperately need on any ambitious project (especially a self-driven project).

You've got to love what you do but you've also got to DO it when you don't love it. I think the best thing is to strive for both: learn your own way, read what you want, but also push yourself to pass these exams. If you just go off and do what you want, scraping by academically, how can you be really SURE you were honest with yourself, that you weren't just making excuses?

I think that you're strategy is a little off here. The classes that are just requirements and uninteresting to you should be the 'easy A' picks. For basic requirements I always looked for a class or professor that was known for an easy A - other classmates and sites like myedu.com (formerly pickaprof)can get you started. Conversely, save the real work and effort for classes that you are interested in or ones that you think will be most beneficial to you after you graduate. For these classes intentionally pick profs that you know will expose you to the best knowledge, even if they're not the easiest. I think this gives a good balance while in college and sets you up well for your professional career.

I never cared one bit about grades my entire life (despite constant prodding by teachers and parents), and my grades ended up all over the place. Consequently, my GPA was pretty bad (Not that I remotely remember what exactly it was).

I've never once regretted any of that. (In fact, the only thing I do regret about college is ever going in the first place. Colossal waste of time and money. Libraries are a far more effective and vastly more economical form of education. Never forget: Post-secondary education is big business.) One you leave the overrated academic ivory tower, nobody will ever give half a shit about your GPA, and for good reason.

At the end of the day, grades really reflect work ethic. No secret here.

No one can say in retrospect whether or not grades affected life. It's one of many factors, and no one can say "me | 4.3 GPA" would have had a different life from "me | 4.2 GPA" or "me | 3.2 GPA"

This is the one thing I'll agree about with grades: they do reflect work ethic. But sometimes, it really is hard to get motivated about subjects that seemingly have no bearing on one's future.

i kept a 3.2 which was exactly enough to maintain my scholarship. CS was a difficult major at my school and a lot of larger, easy classes suffered from grade deflation. a lot of times i decided to just take the B in classes i didn't care about.

i also did a lot of CS group projects on my own which led to a lesser grade but better learning experience. i put a lot of effort into learning material i was interested in and got good grades in those classes.

post college, my GPA has had absolutely zero effect on any facet of my life.

So if it wasn't for your scholarship, you wouldn't have cared about grades?

i probably would have regardless because i've been conditioned that way all my life, but i wish it wasn't the case. i'd have had a hard time dealing with getting a C, but looking back i wish i spent less time doing busy work for dumb classes and more time doing other things like chasing girls and having fun

the fact is i could have worked my ass off for an A in french class, or writing, or whatever, and years later i wouldn't remember the material regardless because i didn't care about it at all. in the classes i did enjoy and did want to do well in, the material stuck with me (partly because it's my job)

I cared much more about figuring out what to do with my life (1) than grades. Never had good grades, never hurt me, seemingly. Then again, it's hard to say.

(1) and girls

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