GPA vs. School Prestige

Shawn Roberts

An issue that many students face when considering what institution of higher learning they want to attend is the prestige of a school versus how hard it would be to obtain high grades at a school. Some say that higher grades are more important because that’s what employers look at first; however, I believe that it is prestige that wins this battle.

The truth is, there are many employers who do not even look at GPA when considering whether to hire one for a job or not. While searching for sample job applications I found out that a large number of employers only ask for the graduation date, university attended, and degree/diploma. This is a big indicator that what is most important in getting one’s dream job is the prestige of the school that they graduated from. An employer knows, just like everyone else, that if someone graduated from Harvard medical school they have the knowledge and understanding to do the job requested. The prestige of a school one attends also shows that person has the desire to learn. They put themselves in an environment where there were high expectations so they could better themselves instead of taking the easy way out and attending a community college where they could easily ace all classes. Another thing it says about a person is that they must have received high test scores or grades at an earlier time in their life in order to be accepted to a prestigious institution.

Proponents of a high GPA might say that receiving high grades shows the work ethic of someone and that if someone receives low grades they do not work hard. In actuality this is completely wrong. Someone receiving high marks could very well be receiving them because the courses they are taking are not challenging enough and they’re not learning a lot. Someone who receives less than stellar grades may be in a class where working hard is expected and the course is much more demanding. In the end does it not all come down to who is more qualified for the job?