Does your GPA define your abilities?

Zoe Deno
Staff Writer

“What do you call a doctor who had the lowest GPA in his class? A doctor,” said David Robertson, an engineering science major, when discussing if GPA’s are as important as students are led to believe.

College faculty commonly tell students that their GPA will affect their academic future. For students with good GPA’s, there are a lot of scholarship opportunities. On the other hand, if your GPA falls too low, you could face academic suspension. Many students’ GPA’s fall somewhere in between those two extremes.

Hudson Valley students have varying opinions on the weight that their GPA carries.
“My GPA matters only as long as it takes to get to a transfer school. After that, Ds’ equal degrees,” said Roberts.

Christopher Carluck, a criminal justice major, feels that his GPA matters because of how competitive his major is. He says it’s harder to get promoted with an associate’s degree in criminal justice, so he will need to transfer and get his bachelor’s degree if he wants to hold a high position in the field.

“When there are more people studying a subject, there are more people trying to transfer out of it,” Carluck said.

Business major Tyler LaCross agreed. “The more competitive the major, the less likely it is for [your transfer school of choice] to pick you. If I have a really good GPA, it will give me an edge over other students trying to get into that college,” he said.

LaCross doesn’t think your GPA is a direct indicator of how intelligent or capable a person is, but a good one is advantageous to have.

Liberal arts psychology student Emily Goerger is conscious of her GPA because she is concerned that having a bad one could affect her chances of getting hired after college. She believes employers may decide to hire an applicant who had a good academic record in college over a person who had a mediocre one.

Nicholas John, a liberal arts major, wants to have the best GPA he can because he is paying for his own tuition. He doesn’t see the point in not having a good GPA, because he believes a student should get all 4 credits if they’re paying for them.

“My GPA matters to me because if it didn’t matter to me, I wouldn’t be here. I am coming here to get good grades and that is what I plan to get,” said John.

GPA’s also matter to Clyde Sisson, a mechanical engineering major, but maybe not as much as they should. He gets stressed trying to keep his GPA up because he is working a job on top of college, and, while he wants to do well, he realizes that he often lacks the time to put as much effort in as he would like.

Child psychology major Damian Rose also struggles with maintaining his GPA while working. “All I am focusing on doing right now is getting through this semester and being able to pay for the next one, because I am broke right now,” he said.

Unlike Sisson, Rose’s GPA doesn’t matter to him at all. He is transferring to Utica in January and his GPA will not transfer.

Not all students plan on transferring after they graduate from Hudson Valley. Individual studies student Malachi Montgomery will be finished with school after he graduates.

“I don’t care about my GPA and my parents don’t, as long as it isn’t horrible. They know I am not going to a 4-year [student],” said Montgomery.

The way a student views their GPA depends on their current situation and their personal education goals. It seems that there isn’t one uniform answer as far as the importance of GPA, so each student should do what is best for them.