Preparing for college: grades

I’m going to kick off with a little series for those not yet in college. Basically, these posts will include the information that I wish I would have known when I was in high school. I’m planning to do about four posts on this subject: Grades, Extracurricular activities, Finances and Choosing the right school.

I always did well in school. I have always had that inner drive to do my best. However, I never realized how important grades could really be until the end of the first semester of my sophomore year – I found out for the first time my G.P.A. and class rank. It was so strange to be a number, just one number in a class of almost 700 numbers. Fortunately, I had a good number.

DON’T LET YOURSELF BE DEFINED BY A NUMBER.

Your teachers might try to convince you otherwise, but you are not your G.P.A. Your G.P.A. is simply a number that shows how well you have been doing in school and how you stack up next to everyone else in your class; it is not you. A good G.P.A. comes in handy, but it is not everything.

Don’t stress over your grades, but do try to do your best. The best for one person may be a 4.0, but the best for another might be a 2.9. Prime example: I graduated with a 4.07, and my brother was happy to graduate with a 3.2. Don’t worry if you don’t get straight A’s, but always strive to do the best you possibly can.

Why should you care about grades? Of course, you should want to do well in everything you do, but aside from that, why do grades matter?

Grades are one of the factors that will determine where you can go to college. Every university has a list of criteria for determining whether to admit a student. This list usually includes many of the same factors (G.P.A., class rank, test scores, etc.), but not all universities rank these factors in the same order. For example: Ohio University may value test scores (ACT/SAT) more than any other factor, so you could be admitted with good test scores, even if your G.P.A. and class rank weren’t so great. On the other hand, Ohio State might value your class rank the most and might admit you with good standing, even if, as a poor test taker, you didn’t do as well on standardized tests. (These are just examples and are not in any way indicative of the criteria of these universities.)

I’ll leave you with one last thought: good grades can help you get good scholarships! (I’ll explain more about that later.)