Someone whose grades “barely” got him into Harvard as an undergrad is top 99.999%. And lightning must have struck twice if he also got into Harvard Law.
This is a common misconception. Harvard is a top school, the applicants it accepts are very good, but the Ivy League is not Mt. Olympus and not everyone who gets out of there with a degree is an academic demi-god.
The only time a Harvard graduate will not tell you just as much bluntly is when there is a Yale graduate in the room!!
The thing an aspiring scholar should not do is to drive him or herself into anxiety disorders and depression, neglecting the need to have a personal life and broad life experiences, in order to squeeze every tenth of a point possible out of their brains and onto their transcripts. This is not what academically successful people do. What aspiring doctors, lawyers, and professors also should not do, however, is to use the prudent desire to have a balanced life as an excuse to be lazy. Academic fields are the turf of some real go-getters, and lazy habits are penalized.
On that account, I’d say that achieving excellence in the academic skills being taught, excellence in time management and sorting out where to put effort for the greatest returns, excellence in professionally-useful social and communications skills is the key goal, and excellence in self-mastery are the most important things. If those occasionally do not show up in grades, that can be overcome later. If grades are achieved without those things because the student cleverly finds crutches of one sort and another to bump their grades up, such as seeking out schools that give top grades easily, it will catch up with the person eventually.
IOW, it is better to deserve your reputation as a scholar, original and creative thinker, leader, go-getter, and all-around mensch than to merely have such a reputation on paper. That is the ticket! (On that note, though, good letters of recommendation never hurt.)
As a parent, I can boil my hopes and dreams for my children down to one word: opportunity. I want them to have the opportunity to choose their life paths. Whether my child wants to be an at-home mom, a scientist, a priest, a mechanic, an attorney… I want them to be ABLE to choose it.
When you have less than outstanding grades, your opportunities are limited. There are certain things you won’t be able to do with your life because you don’t have the credentials that open doors. Even the one lazy night of poor studying that translates into a “B” instead of an “A” in a class can mean the difference between dream school and settling.
I would hate to think that my children were stifled in pursing their goals and dreams, whatever they may be, because of grades that do not accurately reflect their ability.
I probably can’t afford to send all four kids to ivy-league colleges. If they WANT to go to those colleges, they will need scholarships. Achievements are how those scholarships are procured.
A teenager, or young adult, might think, “Well, I am fine going to a state school and only want to become a teacher. I don’t need a 4.0 for that.” However, many young people really have no idea the paths they will want to take in a year or two, or ten. Things change. How unfortunate would it be for someone who, at 23 realizes that their calling is to be a doctor, but can’t get into medical school?
Even as a woman in my 30s, the grades I achieved in my undergraduate studies (and to some extent, the reputation of the college I attended) will ALWAYS be a limiting factor in what I can pursue in the future.
Do I think we overemphasize grades? No. I think not every student is capable of getting straight-As. But we should all push our kids to perform to their personal utmost, so that as few doors as possible close for their futures.
I know people who did their undergraduate work at Harvard and their graduate work at Berkeley who did not land top-tier academic positions. Other people, meanwhile, did undergraduate work at state universities, got into the same research groups at the same university, and won the more prestigious academic jobs. Why? Because in their field, what they accomplished in the laboratory, the journal articles they published, and the original research they proposed was better. Some, too, just happened to hit the job market in the year that the job they wanted was available–you never get so high that luck plays no part!
You are right about this: the person who does his or her best rarely lives to regret it. Those who work to be in a position to win an opportunity get more opportunities! The only exception is the person who misplaces effort, putting too much effort in a place where there will be too little return.
Yes, the intangibles like a well-rounded life are counted by those looking for the best person for their position. OP, if your only bad grades come from the times you chose a more important life experience, fine. If they came because you neglected to do your best, don’t make silly excuses for that. Do better next time. You deserve that.
. I do try to pray and continue to grow my faith, but sometimes I feel restricted due to school. Part of my frustration comes from wondering why grades should be more important than being accepted to an internship (I’ve been accepted into a computer programming internship over the summer) and being a team captain for a robotics team and a couple of other things… I would think those would show a lot more about myself than my grades.