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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Degrees, grades...
Message-ID: <119@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 09:55:46 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.119
Posted: Thu Mar  6 09:55:46 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Mar-86 09:25:26 EST
References: <636@nbires.UUCP> <619@sauron.UUCP>
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Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
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All this talk about 4.0s is really beginning to sound very silly, especially
as it doesn't seem to take any sort of context into account.

There are very, very, very few people who could get the very highest grades
without taking some steps to lighten their load.  I know only a couple of
people who might have been able to get 3.8 or higher taking the load I took
as an undergrad.  I certainly didn't, although I got respectable grades.
Most of the people I know who have very high marks have a very restricted
focus; I went out and took a heavy-duty course of honors seminars,
philosophy, and writing classes, on top of a double major.  When you spread
yourself that thin, it almost has to hurt your grades.

As to the claim that getting a fixation on grades is an absolute necessity
for getting a 4.0, I have mixed feelings about that.  It takes a lot of
discipline to get such high marks; but for perhaps the vast majority of
really bright people, such discipline demands crippling one's interests.  I
chose to cultivate my many interests, and thuse sacrificed my grades to some
extent.

It seems to me to be rather dangerous to spend too much time worshipping at
the shrine of the great God GPA.  He is a jealous and demanding God.

C. Wingate