Finish in four and sacrifice GPA?

TNL executive editor

Sometimes a person can be torn when it comes to school.

You have one side pressuring you to do the “finish in four” or be the “real full time,” and the other side pressuring you to have a great GPA and go for the honor of being Summa Cum Laude or Magna Cum Laude. Add having to work on top of that and many have no choice but to choose one over the other.

I personally chose the route of going for the great GPA and finishing in five instead of four. Taking only four of five classes at a time gave me the ability to get the work done, focus on my extracurricular activities, and stay sane. Now that I am starting my fourth year of school, I am starting to grow weary, my sanity is running out, and I honestly just want to be done already. Looking back I wish that I had focused on completing school as fast as possible instead of keeping a high GPA.

While my GPA has gotten me into honor societies, I haven’t seen
anything else that has benefited the hard work I have done. I currently have no plans for graduate school, journalism jobs don’t care about GPA, and few scholarships look at GPA over other qualifications.  Many students in other disciplines have also wondered out loud as to what is the point of keeping as high of a GPA as possible if it doesn’t do anything for them except add a nifty emblem on their diploma.

So my advice to everyone is to really sit back for a second and think about how important a high GPA is vs. being done with college sooner, out in the work force sooner, and owing less money in the long run. Take as many classes you feel you can handle without breaking, and will be able to complete with at least a B. It will be more worth it in the long run to take 15 credits a semester rather than spend most of your academic career with 12 and then ending up in your junior and senior year with 18+ as I am doing now just so I can be done a semester earlier than planned.

Trust me—your sanity will thank you when it comes time to graduate.