Good Morning Everyone.  Today we are discussing (maybe) the most important part of being a college student…our grades.  We go to college to get a good job, but being a recent college graduate can also give us other perks.  Recent college graduates get discounts on several different services such as car insurance.  As recent college graduates have to ask ourselves are our grades as important as our degree?

 

Let My Grades Pay for My College Degree

During our four years of college we may have studied into all hours of the night, we may have tried hard to manage our work schedule with our school schedule, and we may have lost many hours of sleep trying to be the perfect student.  For some of us graduating from college and earning our college degree may be enough of an academic achievement, and having good grades on top of graduation would just be an added bonus.  I know that my grades definitely suffered due to the fact that I had to work during my college career.   But, since I started working in my domain while I was still in college my potential employer didn’t ask to see my college transcript during the interview process.

We strive to have good grades during college in hopes of finding a good job after graduation.  We need a good job after graduation to help repay our student loans.  But how can we get a good job after graduation without having good grades?  Finding a job in our domain while we are still in college is a good idea, and employers may not ask to see our grades since we have not yet graduated.  Working in our domain during college is also a good idea because it gives us work experience.

 

The Importance of our College Academic Results

Since I didn’t live through the experience of having to provide my grades to my employer, I can’t speak from the personal experience of getting hired based upon my grades. However, I can tell you that having good grades during our undergraduate degree is very important if we want to further pursue our education with a graduate degree. Investing the time and effort into getting good grades during college is investing time in yourself.  Professors also check our grades if we apply to become a Teacher’s Assistant.

As the job market gets tougher and tougher for recent graduates so does the competition for the scarce jobs that are available.  Recent graduates are not only competing amongst each other, they are also competing with experienced workers who are re-entering the workforce and seasoned candidates who are currently unemployed. More and more employers are comparing a variety of criteria for potential candidates such as work experience, volunteer experience, personal connections, references, and good grades.

In my bank branch we recently hired two new employees and they were both recent graduates.  One of the candidates was a referral from another employee, and the second candidate applied through our website.  I know that our branch manager asked both of them about their college experience including their ability to multi task, which types of classes they took, and their final GPA upon graduation.  That’s right, which types of classes they took.  If you are like me you took a few “easy” classes to help boost your GPA; however it turns out that “easy” courses, online courses, and courses not directly related to our degree can do more harm than good to our college career.

 

Here are the previous posts in our Going Back to College Savings series:

My College To Do List

My College Check List

Can You Afford To Go To College

The Opportunity Cost of a College Education

Find Free Money For College

College Students Saving Money

Make Smart Money Moves

Tahnya Kristina

Tahnya Kristina

Tahnya is 30 years old and lives in Montreal Quebec. She graduated in 2005 from Concordia University, and she currently works for a major International Financial Institution. She recently launched http://www.mediamadam.ca/. You can follow her on Twitter @TahnyaP.