Of course. Just don't obsess over the GPA.
At the end of the day, your work ethic will get you so much further in life than your GPA.
Kids - School Grades
- Thread starter Jeremy
- Start date
At the end of the day, your work ethic will get you so much further in life than your GPA.
I was a "A Bis almost as good as an A, but a lot less work" type student. One could argue that striving for top grades could develop habits of excellence that could carry over to one's work life. On the other hand, I always had one or sometimes two, part-time jobs while I was in school. I think it's something kids have to find their own way on.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
As far as the getting into colleges part, I honestly don't know what to think of that. There's so much uncertainty about what colleges will exist, what programs they can/will offer, and what kind of outcomes are there for graduates that I sometimes don't even know for sure if that matters.
For sure, we'll take full advantage of the free credits and stuff, but it's hard to say what the paths forward will be after high school right now.
For sure, we'll take full advantage of the free credits and stuff, but it's hard to say what the paths forward will be after high school right now.
This is how it was for me growing up and how I'll message it to my kids when they're old enough.
- Top priority is school ("school is your job" was a common phrase)
- Extracurriculars are highly encouraged year-round (sports, music, drama, etc) for a balanced education
- If anything gets in the way of school, it takes a backseat (This never happened, but I think it's important to have clear expectations on priority)
- No working during the school year, summer jobs only (some kids have to work to make ends meet so fully understand why this isn't an option for everyone)
My family's academic expectations were very high which paid off in terms of scholarships, but it definitely came at the expense of time with friends. I'll probably be a little more lenient with my kids when the time comes and try to find the right balance.
I don't necessarily want mine to struggle, but I do want them to be able to identify when they might need some help. My oldest certainly reached a point where his natural ability began to fail him, instead of seeking help, he tried to avoid the problem which led to bigger issues. He finally got things figured out. My youngest has reached the age where my oldest first began to show some struggles and we have repeatedly impressed upon him to ask questions if things aren't clear and seek out extra help if necessary. There is no shame in that. Beyond that, I can accept less than A work as long all efforts were made to do their best.
I think it's all connected, they need to put in the effort, and that effort should result in grades that are commensurate with their ability.
School isn’t as important as you all are making it seem. It’s a giant day care center and doesn’t really prepare you for real life.
I agree with @isufbcurt, show them what will get them into college, anything above is gravy.
I agree with @isufbcurt, show them what will get them into college, anything above is gravy.
I have what I think is the obvious question, Is getting parental advice from Cyclone Fanatic really a good idea?
Actually I brought an education related question for one of my kids to this board several years back and thought the conversation was pretty insightful. We can be a thoughtful group every now and then.
Actually I brought an education related question for one of my kids to this board several years back and thought the conversation was pretty insightful. We can be a thoughtful group every now and then.
We did have the one thread a few years ago that was shut down.
A lot of controversy on whether it's acceptable to put a diapered kid on the restaurant take-out counter.
Also best advice I ever got was even if you got credit for a college class to retake it anyways. There might be things you missed or weren’t fully covered that could hurt you early on, plus retaking the material is a nice way to fluff that freshman GPA while adapting to college. Everyone’s different but it was great advice for me.
HS grades get you into college, if they know where they want to go (super early for that) then give them a target/goal. Support and offer help if they fall behind.
Second and most important thing is let them know that just because they are good at a subject doesn’t mean they have to pursue it even though everyone in their life will be telling them too.
My eldest hasn’t ever had to ask questions or seek out help. That’s my concern. If things come so easily to him all the way through high school (junior now), he’s not going to learn how to do that. I don’t want him to fail a class, but it would be nice to see him have to crack open his Chromebook at home to study for a test. But as long as he’s getting A’s, I don’t really have a leg to stand on to tell him he needs to study.
When I was hired at Iowa State many years ago, there were 63 applicants for my position. I wanted the job so badly, but I figured my chances were pretty remote. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when they offered me the position.
They told me the reason I was selected was the way I answered the final interview question in front of a very large search committee.
At the end of a half day long interview, they said they had one final question which they acknowledged wasn't very fair since I didn't know who the other finalists were. They asked if I could explain why I should be selected over those other finalists. After pausing a few seconds, I got pretty serious and said I don't know anything about the other finalists, but I know one thing with absolute certainty - none of them will be as appreciative or work as hard as I will.
Over the many years since then, I've had the opportunity to hire a lot of people at Iowa State. The two things I have always focused on when selecting a candidate are work ethic and soft skills. Technical skills were always secondary to me. You can teach technical skills, but after you become an adult, it's pretty difficult to teach soft skills or work ethic.
I paid attention to the candidate's college GPA as it can be reflective of their work ethic, but it wasn't of great importance to me compared to their work ethic or soft skills.
They told me the reason I was selected was the way I answered the final interview question in front of a very large search committee.
At the end of a half day long interview, they said they had one final question which they acknowledged wasn't very fair since I didn't know who the other finalists were. They asked if I could explain why I should be selected over those other finalists. After pausing a few seconds, I got pretty serious and said I don't know anything about the other finalists, but I know one thing with absolute certainty - none of them will be as appreciative or work as hard as I will.
Over the many years since then, I've had the opportunity to hire a lot of people at Iowa State. The two things I have always focused on when selecting a candidate are work ethic and soft skills. Technical skills were always secondary to me. You can teach technical skills, but after you become an adult, it's pretty difficult to teach soft skills or work ethic.
I paid attention to the candidate's college GPA as it can be reflective of their work ethic, but it wasn't of great importance to me compared to their work ethic or soft skills.
How do you demonstrate work ethic in an interview? Outside of you’re resume/credentials there isn’t much of a way to tell as an applicant can say anything they want right?
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Two things:
1. That was a long time ago.
2. Everyone I've worked with who gave an answer like that about how hard they worked has been an absolute disaster to work with. I hear that and I'm done with somebody.
What’s his game plan for college/beyond? It could legit never become an issue. I never studied till junior year of college, got absolutely rocked on an exam and immediately had to start going to office hours. If he is a smart kid it’s really not hard to find help in college, the professors/TA’s are practically begging people to show up and social media makes arranging study sessions very easy.
I would rather have someone that was smart/capable enough that they didn’t have to work hard.
I did have to defend every C grade I got in high school and college during an interview.
Not sure any employer goes into that much detail today.
Both of my kids are grown now, but when they were small I really encourage them to get A's. Grades started in 3rd grade for us. The encouragement was all positive. Normally in the form of cash rewards for each A on a report card and a bonus for straight A's. In addition, we really celebrated A's and praised them for good grades on papers, tests, .... Both were capable of getting A's so this was not difficult for either of them. After a couple years of this, getting good grades became part of who they were and they pushed themselves to get good grades. I never had to push them or discipline them, they enjoyed school and were always proud of their successes. I'm sure every kid is different, but that is what worked for my kids. I always thought that if they thought they were good at school, they would be more apt to like school.
I'm not trying to discredit getting good grades as the work you put in to get them does add some value. But I'm living proof that in the bigger picture that a lot of careers your grades won't mean crap once you enter the work force and put your skills and knowledge to use. It's not that I slacked off in school either, it's just that I struggled with taking tests and a true test of my abilities and knowledge is when I had classes where the bulk of the grade evaluation was done with projects, papers, labs, and case studies where you weren't given a random set of questions you had answers memorized to but instead had to work through the problem that was not a binary answer. One class my senior year that I got an A in and I would guess was 1 of the top grades in all the class too was one that we did a lot of projects and case studies. The exams we had the professor would post a 120 question exam online 2-3 days before it was due and you were only allowed to answer 100 questions so the trick was finding the 100 questions you felt the most confident in. Everyone just thought that would be easy as you have the internet and everything you got from class at hand but he made a lot of these questions tough enough that it was hard to find 100 you were certain you knew the answer too and this was even after doing what he asked that you don't do which is talk to other classmates about the exam questions which we still did because we're stupid college kids and we still struggled to find correct answers for some of them. That was a sign of a well-written test where even given more questions than points possibly that it was challenging to pick 100 that you were certain you had the correct answer to.
Been out of college for 20 years now and I highly doubt anyone would care about my college GPA on a job application at this point let alone probably even 5 years after I graduated either. I did an IT internship with a guy that told me he was a 3.7 GPA or something and I could run circles around him when it came to what we were tasked with doing on that internship because he had no real skills or ability to learn as he worked through things we were doing on a daily basis. We had a notebook with all the procedures detailed out step by step that we were trained on before we were turned loose and most of us by the end of the summer would barely touch the notebook as we knew the systems that well but he was still having to read them step by step and doing the work at a very slow pace which drove you nuts if you happened to be paired with him when you traveled that week because you could do the work faster solo than having to work with him. Pretty sure he got some job interviews I couldn't just because of his GPA even though I had built up more skills than him and could put them to use in a work environment. He obviously was not the norm for someone with a high GPA probably but over the years I've worked with people with all kinds of different school and work background where GPA is not something you can use with confidence to determine who is going to be the best person for a job.