1. You are not a number. Remember when your SAT score was the single most important number in your life? It’s probably a dark, stressful blur of Saturdays at Panera with the SAT tutor your mom insisted you meet with. It’s essay after essay of formulaic thoughts and verbal analogies. Now, can you tell me what your SAT score was? Four years later, and I am not entirely sure I could. After you get accepted to college, your SAT score becomes buried in a deep hole in your mind with the rest of the numbers that you once thought defined your existence. Soon your GPA will join it there.
2. Your GPA does not account for creativity. When we obsess over numbers and grades, we lower our aptitude for creativity. It is one of the many ways college courses can become intellectually limiting. With such high stakes for grades, the future, and a desire for perfection (in our teacher’s eyes) we slowly become less and less creative. Creativity is an essential skill in many job markets, one that does not necessarily shine in a GPA bogged down with slacker freshman year grades and that horrible biology class you had to suffer through.
3. Some employers will dismiss resumes with GPAs listed. Past a year or two out of college, some employers will actually throw away resumes with GPAs. It portrays you as juvenile, and focused on the wrong concepts in the job market. Your superiors are not going to give you an A+ and verbal praise every time you submit that report on time or complete a presentation. There are no GPAs in the real world. Embrace it.
4. Some majors are too subjective for GPAs. Think humanities. While these courses are equally considered tests of our intelligence, compared to more technical sciences, they are often not as black and white. English and philosophy classes are not filled with multiple choice tests and there are no right answers. That 20-page semester long paper is not guaranteed an A no matter how hard you study and prepare. To expect a 4.0 in an English, history, or philosophy major is unrealistic and unfair.
5. Learning continues out of college. Considering a number stamped on a piece of paper at age 22 to be the truest representation of your intelligence and value as a member of the workforce is ridiculous. You are 22 years old. You will learn on the job. You will learn from experience. The world can teach you a lot more than your college TA can, despite how much you may think their practice tests and senseless hours in the library matter to your future. Stop stressing and start enjoying your education.
