Hello everyone, I'm currently a senior expecting to graduate under-grad in Spring 2017, and I'm facing the biggest dilemma of my life:
1) Work my ass off, and end up with Magna Cum Laude status
or
2) Take it easy my last year, focus on job search/network, and end up with a Cum Laude
It's also important to note that the only way for me to get Magna is to get a 4.0 average in all my remaining classes (35 credit hours/14 classes). I think I have a good chance, but I also want to be realistic. If I mess up and end up with a 3.95 average for these classes, then all that work would be wasted.
My other alternative, as mentioned, is taking just enough classes to graduate (8 classes).
I'm leaning more towards the first option, but I tend to be overly optimistic. That's why I'm posting here hoping to get some advice.
What do you guys think? Is this a risk worth taking?
For the veterans out there, does having a Magna Cum Laude status make a big difference as compared to just Cum Laude? Thank you!
Doesn't matter get a job
it makes absolutely no difference. focus on getting a job
Getting a job is number 1 priority for sure.
With that said, GPA does stick with you for some time. Even if you shoot for magna and come up just short, you'll still have some marginal benefits from an increased GPA so it's not an entirely binary option here.
Do both.
Cool humble brag bro. Nobody cares if you were Magna Cum Laude or Cum Laude it's a negligible difference. Maximize the value of your time and focus on networking.
Haha, you're right. I really am not trying to brag. GPA doesn't mean much, as you said. But I do want to maximize my chance of getting a good job after college, whatever it takes. Thank you for the advice!
job, job, job. Better off spending 10 hours networking than 10 hours studying.
The odds of you getting perfect grades in every single class between now and when you walk off campus are low. There are too many variables: hard courses, crummy professors, obnoxious roommates that make studying hard, girls that you end up wanting to spend time with, senior spring break that ought to stretch out into multiple weeks if you do it right, and so on.
On top of that, you're adding six extra classes by going from eight to fourteen?
The marginal utility of cum laude vs. magna cum laude in the final or penultimate sentence of your bio in the team section of a private equity firm's website in five years is low.
The only reason I'd advocate for focusing harder on school at this point is if you could move your GPA from 3.4 to 3.5 (which is a hard cutoff at a lot of places on both sides of the street) or from 3.8 to 3.9 (where people automatically think you're basically a perfect student [which is absurd given how narrow the difference is between 3.82 and 3.87]).
Too risky betting on perfect 4.0. Secure a job first
Don't bother. Graduated summa cum laude and, as far as I can tell, it hasn't done shit for me.
It's the same ol same ol.
I would just do enough to get your GPA rounded up to the nearest tenth.
I'd normally say shoot for the stars, but getting all 4.0s is pretty unrealistic.
Focus on getting a job and building a network. By senior year your GPA is pretty set. Despite the extra title, a few hundredths of a GPA point won't do you nearly the favors having a strong network will.
Both? If you think networking and job searching + getting A's in undergrad is challenging, you're underselling work and life in general post-graduation (read: reality). Job > GPA bump however...
Only read title. Answer is yes.
You're only an undergraduate once so do everything you can to enjoy that final year of college without letting your grades slip too much. Your number 1 focus should be on getting a job.
It's nice to have, but the priority is to get a job.
And to be fair, having an interesting job and an interesting skill trumps having an interesting job and magna at Harvard, Princeton, or whatever.
Work your ass off, period. The end.
With priorities being Job/Network and then higher grades (while making sure you still have the grades to get yourself into B school should you ever choose to go that route). But don't fool yourself that you'll be "taking it easy" job searching/networking. You still need to work your ass off.
This will be your last year of "freedom" for quite some time, take advantage of it. I'd focus on maintaining a 3.6+ GPA, while taking the absolute bare minimum number of classes to graduate. Spend your early fall trying to land a job and then once you get a FT offer that you are satisfied with - GO TRAVEL. Schedule your classes so you have a 4 day weekend every weekend and go travel to nearby states with your buddies. Don't get bogged down trying to be 100% perfect when you can try hard/get good grades and still have an immense amount of freedom.
Get a job locked up this fall and enjoy your last semester of freedom.
You should focus on getting a great internship for the summer that will leverage getting great full-time job and start building a great network. But it depends on what industry you want to go into and where you are in school today. My question is do you go to a top school and what are your work experience (past internships)? If you your answer is not much just major and a few curricular activities in school, your gonna have a tough time. I'm in the world of tech now (formerly at Apple and Google) so its a bit different and no one cares about about GPA or even if you finished your degree, they only care about skill and work experience.
By the time you get Magna you should have a job, at which point Magna won't matter. End of story.
All you have to do is not shit the bed with your GPA and you'll be fine. So, strap on your diaper, take an easy course load, and get a job.
Truth be told is that you should be thanking your lucky stars that for you this is "the biggest dilemma of my life".
As someone a bit older, that is hilarious. Seriously, life has been a cake walk for you if that's true. Part of me suspects that rainbows and unicorns might actually be shooting out of your ass right now.
Cum Laude & academic distinctions (Originally Posted: 02/23/2011)
My cumulative GPA is very close to my school's cut off for Cum Laude. If I get a 3.80 or higher I get it. If I get anything lower, I don't, and realistically my GPA doesnt deviate more than .02.
Going foward, how important are distinctions like this on the resume? From my understanding people leave out their GPA after a few years post-graduation, so does cum laude and other distinctions become my only way of demonstrating I did well in college?
Does any of this matter? If so does it matter even after an MBA?
Yea, no one says the numerical number. Isn't cum laude 3.5?
Not my school. Trust, I go there
Why should I tell the guy in the $4000 suit what to do?
Come On!
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