Interesting article on the importance of one's law school grades throughout one's career: www.infirmation.com/articles/one-article.tcl?article_id=3713
In software engineering I seem to see similar things going on. For junior engineers the school and the GPA is very important. The importance of academic accomplishments compared to professional experience and success becomes more important as the years go on. For more experienced engineers the importance of GPA seems to drop off very rapidly. However, graduating from a top tier school seems to carry some weight even far into one's career.
In my case, I have never ever been asked my GPA by a employer, but I live in a decadent continent so..... Nevertheless, it isn´t the same a 3.5 GPA from Harvard than a 3.5 from XXX State University which as just a couple of thousand students, and has no name or prestige. GPA measures professional ability and potential to a very limited extent.
GPA is a weighted factor in applications for US Government positions, even for experienced candidates.
And both graduated from college decades ago. I don't think a C student today has anywhere close to the same opportunities.
Au contraire. Bush attained his success through family contacts, Powell through a combination of combat success and affirmative action in the Army. Both of these support nets trump grades. The rest of us C students are kinda screwed.
So, election to Governor in Texas is a "family contact"? And reelection to same is the same? Sorry, but your pointed oversimplification reveals more about you than it does "W." -Orson
Don't be coy. The details of Dubya's failed bizness career have been extensively documented - I'll list if ya insist, but you can read them for yourself in the archives of Texas Monthly. That Dubya somehow rose above a perfect record of failure to the Guvnuh's mansion and POTUS says much about the oligarchy of which he's a member. Don't take my word for it, just ask Scooter Libby, Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, etc. etc.
Do grades matter? I guess it depends...if you're just interested in working for a top law firm; perhaps. But, If you interested in being wealthy, almost certainly not. According to <a href=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740718584/qid=1138406793/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-8465948-0528614?n=507846&s=books&v=glance>The Millionaire Mind<a>, almost 80% of the millionaires said that 'Hard work was more important than intellect..." (P.106) Moreover, on P. 120 Stanley states that there is ZERO correlation between Net Worth and SAT/Rankings/GPA. Great read btw...
The fact that W is a Bush certainly had something to do with his political success. It's not the only thing as he is one of the schrewdest politicians in American history which I say as a compliment. I don't think he's dumb by any means in fact he's quite intelligent but his academic prowess certainly was not one of the factors that got him elected.
