5 Reasons Why Your GPA is Important

Since the new academic year is going to kick-off here in Indonesia, I would like to present my take on the importance of GPA, since many of my juniors asked me about academic evaluation, importance of GPA and its relevance to career. And most importantly, I want to make sure that all freshmen this year would be aware of the true fact about the importance of their GPA since Day 1. So share this post to your kids who are about to attend university or your kids who are currently studying as well.

I started university at the Faculty of Economics at The University of Indonesia with a lot of my seniors telling me that ‘GPA is not everything’, ‘Your GPA does not matter, what matters is your organizational experience’, ‘Dont focus on your GPA’. I responded to these views with a great disbelief and doubt.

Since Day 1 of college, I believed that for a college student and a fresh graduate (later), GPA is the most important aspect for a student’s career, but it is not the only aspect that we should focus on. But then again, it is still the most important aspect that ALL college student should focus on.

Here are the five reasons of why your GPA really matters.

1. GPA is the only truly quantitative assessment of yourself. Your GPA is the only truly quantitative measure that has a standardized scale almost in every country in the world (0.0-4.0) , even though the grading criteria and assessment can be different between universities and countries. However, it is again the only quantitative measure that enables other people (or recruiters) to directly compare (quantitatively) between one candidate to another, to assess which is best. Yes, TOEFL and SATs are also quantitative assessments, but there is one major weakness for these examinations. Not everyone have taken the TOEFL or SATs exam, while all college students automatically have a GPA once they completed at least one semester at their university/college. Just a couple weeks ago at the Young Leaders for Indonesia forum, I met the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs of Indonesia, Mr. Luhut Pandjaitan. In the forum, Minister Luhut always asked the GPA of any students who raised questions to Minister Luhut during the Q&A session. “IPK-mu berapa?”, said Minister Luhut, everytime a student asked him questions. Why? Simply because he wants to assess how knowledgeable are you, because GPA is the simplest and one of the best assessment of a student.
2. GPA is an employment and scholarship requirement that you see on almost any job and scholarship opportunities. When you graduate later, and go look for a job, you will realize that most job vacancies have that ‘minimum GPA requirement’. Having a high GPA will allow you to apply for more job opportunities and apply to the most attractive and competitive industries like invesment banking and management consulting. To give you a picture, top consulting firms such as McKinsey and BCG have a minimum GPA requirement of 3.70 (if I am not mistaken), and this also applies to Investment Banks such as Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, etc even though in some cases graduates with a slightly lower GPA also get admitted to these top companies. Top local investment bank such as Mandiri Sekuritas requires you to have at least a GPA of 3.5 (Equity Research Division). But if you have a low GPA and do not fulfill the minimum GPA requirement, you have a lower chance to be invited to the next phase of selection. This also applies to scholarship opportunities where normally, they state the minimum GPA requirement for successful applicants to be awarded the scholarship. This shows that a high GPA is really worth fighting for in order to give you better chances to get these opportunities.
3. GPA is not only a reflection of your academic capabilities, but also your commitment, perseverance and time management skills. Yes, GPA is a reflection of your academic performance at college/university, but it means so much more than just your academic performance. GPA also reflects your consistency and perseverance in your study, it reflects your commitment as a student and it also reflects your time management skills in handling all of the assignments, class schedules, part-time work, etc. Hence, this article argues that your GPA is also, to some extent a measure of your performance as a human being (while you are a student).
4. You will be ‘judged’ socially by your GPA. Now you need to be careful in interpreting the 4th reason. What is meant by the term ‘judged’ is simply that society (your professor, friends, stranger) can brand you based on your GPA. If a student comes to you and told you that his GPA is 3.99, a natural response of a rational human being is that you will brand this person as a highly intelligent and diligent student. In contrast, when you are introduced to a student with a GPA of 1.78, you will see this person as someone who does not excel in their academic studies, and you might brand him or her as a lazy student. The important part of this point is the social implication of having a high or low GPA, but a positive or negative implication about your GPA heavily depends on your attitude. However, generally-speaking, having a high GPA will gain you respect from your professors, parents, family members and fellow friends. This is simply because society sees you as a committed person, meeting your obligation as a student to study and someone that should be respected due to the rich knowledge that you possess. Minister Luhut’s example is a perfect example for this. Since Minister Luhut does not know anything about you, your career, your struggle, your success, etc, the easiest way for him to know you more, is simply by asking “What is your GPA?”. And at the Young Leaders for Indonesia forum that I attended, if a question comes from a student with a GPA of 3.7+, he will acknowledge him or her by saying “Boleh juga nih kamu” (Boy, you must be good!). 
5. GPA is crucial for your Master or Postgraduate Studies. Similar to the 2nd point, GPA is also a crucial factor when applying to your Master or Postgraduate Studies. If you want to go to top schools like the Ivy League schools, INSEAD, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, etc, having a high GPA for your undergraduate studies will increase the likelihood of your acceptance at these top universities. They might not mention the exact minimum GPA requirement that they require, but what is certain is, the higher GPA you have, the higher chance you will get accepted, ceteris paribus.

Bottomline. Life is a game of choice and everybody has their own preference and purpose. If you want to have a relax life and don’t want to fight for your GPA, its totally cool. But if you are that kind of person who wants to put more effort and take GPA seriously, its also cool!

But in the author’s perspective, GPA is worth fighting for and the time you invest in maintaining a solid GPA will always be a good investment for you as a human being and for your future career. It does not matter if you want to become an entrepreneur or a professional, a high GPA will still benefit you someway. But do also note that your GPA is not everything and you can always become successful even if you don’t have a solid GPA, but generally-speaking, a high GPA will give a higher chance of success, especially if you want to pursue a professional career. Last but not least, if you’re still not satisfied with your GPA, well at least you’ve tried, my friend. And trying is equally important to actually getting a solid GPA. It would be very unfortunate if you didn’t actually try to get a good GPA, or even worse; do not know that your GPA is important.

Sumber : 5 Reasons Why Your GPA is Important

Regards,

Alumni Relation Office (ARO)
Telp. (021) 5345830 ext. 1234,1235,1237
Email : alumni@binus.edu
Website : http://www.binusian.org

Follow Us :
Twitter : https://twitter.com/BINUSAlumni
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/binusalumni
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/binusalumni
LINE : https://line.me/R/ti/p/%40binusalumni
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/binusalumni