G.Dub proves it! With a whole lot of money and family connections you can be whatever you want to be.
Too funny. On a serious note, grades do matter. I've found some doctoral programs that require a GPA of 3.5 or higher in the student's masters program.
I think grades matter very little in one's terminal graduate degree. But they probably do matter if one is doing a Master's degree and then planning to apply to a doctoral program at a different school. I lead a departmental recruiting committee. For the most part, we hire scientists with graduate degrees. But we still ask for undergraduate GPA (and largely ignore graduate GPA). This is primarily because we've found that grade inflation, which is bad enough at the undergraduate level, is hopelessly out of control in graduate programs.
My wife finished her AA with a 3.7 GPA. Several schools offer a PTK (http://www.ptk.org/) scholarship, but when we went to UNF and asked about scholarships we were told, "I know they tell you to get good grades and you did, but that really does not matter here." I almost fell out of the chair!
But I wonder why all Grad Schools (DETC or RA or equivalent) require that all grad students maintain a GPA of at least 3.0 in order to graduate.
Grades do matter. At my school if you get below a B average, you get a warning. If your grades continue to fall, you risk getting expelled from the program. Students are expected to maintain a B average throughout the entire MBA or PhD program.
My BS degree got me a GPA of 83.4%, which is above average in the grading system used. Confident that I know my stuff, I did not aim on getting, let say, 90% or higher although my IQ level suggests that it was possible. Being consistently listed on the “Top 10” of the mid-term exams in engineering proved this. One interesting thing was, the campus bulletin boards proudly shows students’ performance. The worst, the posting of exam result ranking were done only during midterms and never on finals. So, my motivation regarding grades was high only on midterms, and down on finals. But then again, I know my stuff thinking that I’ll just get into an engineering job after finishing the degree. And to make the story short, I graduated with 83.4%, which is just above average. Things and circumstances change over time. A BS degree seems no longer sufficient to compete in the work world. Even if the case is not just that, hungry minds always search for knowledge, and the clever ones tend to document what they learned. Now, my experience has it, that it’s quite difficult to get into a Masters program with my 83.4% BS degree average. That’s my experience…so grades might really matter, now in my graduate program.
I wish it doesn't really matter... but I haven't seen any school (as far as their websites info shows) that doesn't require at least a grade of "B" in order to qualify for graduation. In another thread, I’ve read posts of some members who seems not convinced on the merits of grades… I’m quite intrigue of the subject and couldn’t help but wait for the opinion of those in the academic field as well as in industry as to the best way to measure the student’s academic performance that would be closely indicative of their (students) real world performance (e.g., professional practice). Had there been any study on this? It would be great if someone on this board could lead us to certain websites or perhaps printed journals that have handled this issue.
Law school grades matter a LOT, both in academia and in the more expensive levels of the profession. Worse, grades CONTINUE to matter for years and years.