A high GPA is futile to people who believes that their GPA is the deciding factor of their self-worth.

While a high GPA is indeed important, I do not agree with the conclusion of the “Employers should honor a student’s GPA,” letter to the editor in the Nov. 8 edition of The News. The letter claimed that, “we students have been shafted,” on the basis that the power of a high GPA has been diminished. I think a high GPA is nice and, naturally, I, too, would like to make mine higher. Nonetheless, it is not the deciding factor in life.

I am speaking from anecdotal experience when I say that I have met many so-called geniuses who have amounted to nothing in their lives. Their high GPA and straight-A record could only get them as far as they were willing. In their minds, a 3.97 GPA was sufficient to get anything they wanted, because they were under the impression that they were intellectually superior.

A high GPA becomes a lost cause when its owner values it over everything and anything. A kid I went to high school with had a perfect GPA and perfect SAT score, and was accepted to Princeton. However, this kid also was the captain of the tennis team, in the debate club, was gregarious and easy-going and was a great trumpet player. These factors combined, I believe, are the determinants of success.

This kid utilized his talent for success and was able to spread it all throughout his life, not just his studies, not just his tests. I guess what I am trying to say is: Yes, a high GPA won’t matter as much if its owner only excels at studying, writing, and test taking, because the high GPA illustrates the limited nature of that individual.

If you are a well-rounded individual with a good GPA, there is nothing to worry about. It is the student who overvalues their GPA to the point of compulsive perfection that should be concerned.

– Jamie Waller is a junior political science major.