Would you rather graduate from college with a 4.0 GPA, and study all day long?

If those are my only choices, I have to go with the 4.0 GPA.

Slacking off in school…
That’s a recipe for success right there.

Is the compromise option available? Pay attention in class, do your assignments and study, but still dedicate some time to your hobbies? In my experience, paying attention in class was one of the greatest contributors to academic success.

I would go with the 2.5 GPA. But of course that would depend on my goals post college. If I wanted into a Masters or Ph.D. program then I would of course go for the 4.0. Anything short of that I would prefer to have hobbies, a social life, enjoyment. I have a college degree, with a better GPA than that (lol), and am surprised at well how useless it is. While in college I sincerely enjoyed my involvement in student groups and would not have given that up.

Having said all that the truth is that people involved in extra curriculars actually get better grades because they are forced to have better time management skills and they have larger support systems.

If slacking off had given me a seriously good social life, you bet I’d do that! But I don’t think I would have had a good social life, anyway, so it was just as well to pay some attention to the books, even if I didn’t study all that hard.

Gotta go for the 4.0 otherwise why waste your time in school! You will have plenty of time to goof off after you graduate and have a nicer paycheck to boot if you get that 4.0 grade average!

I got a 4.0 last semester and it didn’t involve me studying all day. So I’ll go with the 4.0 and keep my hobbies as well :)

I’d go with the 4.0. It is an investment in my future.

Atta girl @chels!!

@Cruiser Thank you!

Those aren’t mutually exclusive outcomes. You can have a social life and other hobbies and still have a good GPA. Maybe not perfect (we can’t all be @chels :D) but still good. I have a 3.83 and am very active in extra-curriculars with a decent social life if I may say so. You don’t have to “study all day long” to get a 4.0. You do have to study hard but it doesn’t consume your life.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but it just sounds like you’re trying to excuse slacking off with “hobbies and a social life.” If you manage your time well you can have decent grades and hobbies, social life, etc.

Tough choice, I was always able to balance both in a way that made me happy. If I have to choose, I’ll take the 2.5. Life has always interested me more than my GPA. But then, I have the benefit of hindsight. Though, if it’s advice you’re after – study hard, take advantage of opportunities along the way and life will come regardless. Plus, learning how to balance it now should pay great dividends for you down the line.

You can have a 4.0 and do something besides study all day long. It’s how well you study and not how much that makes the crucial difference.

I think @bob_ is exactly right about paying attention, too. The instructor will give you plenty of clues about what is important to master and remember.

I ended up with a three-point-something, and pursued many hobbies outside of school and had a social life. Really, even in engineering, you have to try pretty hard to be under a 3.0. That’s how bad grade inflation is.

I’d with a 4.0, keep the hobbies that matter, and ditch the social life, which usually revolves around drinking too much. The 4.0s that I know had social lives. Some of them even drank too much. What was it that Thomas Edison said? “Opportunity is missed by most people because it dresses in overalls and looks like work.”

I’m not paying thousands of dollars for a social life. If those were my only two options (which they aren’t), I’d study now and have fun later.

ok so this doesn’t directly answer the question you posed, but it’s just too freakin interesting not to share!

there was a psych study conducted that examined if environmental (“incidental”) factors affect college admission staff’s decision to accept/reject applicants. they found that on sunny days the staff gave higher ratings and accepted more students with a stronger extracurricular background (e.g., clubs, sports, etc.), while on cloudy days they accepted more with a stronger academic background (e.g., GPA, SAT scores, etc.). the idea is that sunny days make people happier and in a more active mindset, while cloudy days make people more pensive and academically minded…so it seems even people who should be experts, and not influenced by such incidental factors as cloud coverage, are affected by their moods.

the moral of the story: if you’re academically strong, apply to washington state. if you’re extracurricularly strong, apply to florida state!

Source: Simonsohn, U. (2007). Clouds make nerds look good: Field evidence of the impact of incidental factors on decision making. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20, 143–152.

Get the grades while you are in school, and then join a social club when you get out for the social life.

Personally, I always enjoyed studying and tried to get the best grades I could. I am not much for the ‘social scene’.

It’s a trap, you see. If you go for the 4.0 option, you get the “why don’t you try living life!” argument. If you go w/2.5, then the response is “why didn’t you invest in your future?” How about you F that crap and start doing what you think is right for you? That’s right, I question the very nature of the question itself. As many have said, it assumes you can’t do both. You can. If you want. It’s totally up to you. Go out there and find what is fulfilling for you. If you find the life, truth and nirvana in the 4.0, then live there.

<rant>Maybe I’m just cranky after a long night of drinking, but I hate binary type questions. This is like the type of BS “creative” question they ask during interviews. You know the type: “If you could be a fruit, what kind of fruit would you be?”</rant>

I did graduate all three university degrees with an average very close to 4.0 in each case. I took my studies seriously and derived great satisfaction from my 20 years of university study. I was a natural born academic and I made my career in academia as well. I still found time to play music, raise children and love and laugh and get involved in social and political action and community volunteering.

Even if I screw up in school, my uncle said he’ll get me a job.