Your GPA: A reality check

Right about this time of the semester, grades start to feel important. Midterms have served up an alphabet soup of letters, heavy on the top two—admit it—but with an occasional nasty surprise mixed in. Combined with a multitude of Fall milestones—career interviews, major declarations, application deadlines, MCATs, LSATs, GREs, GMATs,—your grades seem to be that one $%&# thing that threatens to decide the entire course of your life, from Thanksgiving-dinner conversations to how much money you are going to be clutching in your hands on the day of your death.

The view is radically different from this side of the podium. Given the power relationship involved, it is possible we will never understand one another, but allow me to offer some perspective. It may be because I seem friendly, or because I teach a gut subject (you can’t build a bridge out of a Russian novel, or use it to cure cancer, or to eliminate poverty, or to straighten out Washington, D.C. or to start the next Facebook), but sometimes students get really frank with me about grades. I hear all kinds of crazy things:

• My parents will kill me if I don’t get an A.

• My sorority always wins “top GPA.”

• I need to get into a top medical school.

• I need to get into a top business school.

• I need to get into a top law school.

• I need to get into a top grad school.

For some reason the worst grade is a B+. It’s your first one, ever. What will Harvard think?

It’s the students who want a D who are the most memorable, and I have to admit they are dear to my heart. I had one who skipped a midterm because his gecko was sick—at least that’s what he told me—and missed the final because he decided on a spur-of-the-moment finals week trip to Venezuela. That’s a true story, readers. I loved that kid. But yes, he got the F.

If studying is not your priority, you are not alone. You don’t need me to tell you that. Just don’t expect to talk your way into those grades. Man up, students; you’ll get your Duke degree whatever your GPA. Some perspective is in order. First: if what you want is a job, keep in mind that employers often rank GPA low on their list of priorities. Think of the person you know who has the highest GPA. Now ask yourself why you know that person’s GPA. My guess is because he told you. Now ask if you’d like to sit in a cubicle next to that person for your entire working life. Employers are looking for things like whether people can stand to work with you. Maybe you don’t want a job, though; maybe you’re hoping to get into graduate school. If you want to go to graduate school in the humanities, please come see me. But be aware that graduate schools are primarily interested in your performance in your major. Think with your smart Duke brain: does your C in Chem 32 mean you can’t do research in a different subject? Just do it: Duke wants you to do undergraduate research. And a really great research project (combined with some good letters of recommendation) will interest a graduate school. As for law school, sure, they look at your GPA. But why do you need to go to the top law school in the country? Is it the prestige you want, or do you want to be a lawyer and do lawyerly things? Only the latter is real, and you can do that no matter what law school you attend. (Do yourself a favor, though: Don’t take on all that debt before you’ve considered all the options. Hold off a few years.) Business school? Hello?!? Go out and work awhile and THEN apply to business school. Medical school, OK, you win. But you figured that out sophomore year, right? I-banking too. TFA too. But do you want a consulting job or do you want to teach? If it’s the latter, skip TFA and get the teaching certificate (and yes, you can earn it right here at Duke).

If after reading the above you still want to get a super-high GPA, then here’s my advice: Forget about grades. Instead, take courses you’re interested in. Believe it or not, it’s the students who allow themselves to enjoy the subject matter who get the good grades. And the side benefit is a really good liberal arts education.

If you’re one of those unfortunate students whose parents are all over you about grades, here’s an idea: Clip this column and give it to them when you go home for the holiday. Remind them that there’s a human being under your GPA. And please, when you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, talk about something else.

Carol Apollonio is an associate professor of the practice in Slavic and Eurasian studies and a faculty in residence in Wilson Residence Hall on East Campus. Her column runs every other Friday.