In a word, yes! It is often attitude - not ability - that determines success in college. Learn to approach your academic experience at Lehigh with a growth mindset1
Know that you can cultivate your basic qualities; believe in your ability to grow and develop! Try to see every class, every exam, and every experience on campus as an opportunity to learn and not as a test of your ability. Understand that success is about effort, hard work, and perseverance; it is not about an outcome or earning the highest grades or establishing superiority over others. Realize that in order to be successful, you often have to stretch, work outside your comfort zone, and take risks. Be ready to ask others for support and assistance along the way. Try to see failure as an opportunity to learn. Do not place blame, make excuses or let failure define you. Let failure motivate you. More tips for improving your attitude Be positive and practice positive self-talk. The most successful students choose to have an “I can do it”, “I’ll give it a try” or “I’ll do what it takes” attitude. Focus on the positives and on your successes. Use a journal to record these and to track your attitude too. Make adjustments if you discover you are being too negative. Let go of negativity. Avoid making negative comments about your academics. Making and repeating comments will actually begin to program your thinking. (And how you think impacts what you do!) When you start down this negative path it's pretty hard to get back. Associate with “positive” people in your classes and on campus. Look to develop friendships with people who have similar interests and who have a positive attitude about school. Enjoy your studies. Focus on interesting ideas or concepts in every class. Look for something positive in your work, and avoid calling it dreadful, painful, or awful. Get excited! Explain interesting ideas or concepts to your friends and share your passion and positivity with those around you.
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To start off, let's think about this from the recruiter's perspective. You're right--recruiters do care about GPA when considering undergrads for several reasons:
Once you reflect (and really take the time here to do so) about how you got here, think about how you've grown from this experience and ways you will apply the lessons in the future. For example: Did this show you the value of time management? Did you learn to put your pride aside and ask for help? What did you glean about your academic interests/capabilities? How do you prioritize the various demands in your life moving forward? How does this experience impact the way you confront obstacles? Just some food for thought. Once you develop a forward-thinking perspective on your academic career, focus on communicating your story. Lastly, know that 5-10 years down the road, no one will care about your GPA. Therefore, don't let the number define you. Rather, define yourself through your own story. Schools want you to challenge yourself. Admissions officers look for students who push their intellectual horizons, take demanding classes, and have rigorous course loads. As we mentioned earlier, at their core, universities are academic institutions. As such, they want students who are truly excited by academics, which can be communicated by the rigor of a student’s class schedule. Additionally, colleges want students who enjoy learning for the sake of learning. They aren’t looking to admit those who only go through the motions and simply take what is absolutely required of them. They want students who are passionate about their education. Thus, colleges prefer students who are willing to step out of their comfort zone and take courses that they know will push them. As such, weighted GPA tends to be more important in the admissions reason for the simple reason that they can help communicate how challenging a student’s course load is. Weighted GPAs demonstrate how many advanced classes you’ve taken, and your performance in them. Unweighted GPAs simply do not capture that aspect of your course load.
Weighted GPA is especially important for extremely competitive schools. For these kinds of universities, it is imperative that you take a rigorous course load with advanced classes if they are available to you. What’s more, you not only need to take these classes, but you must also do well in them. Keep in mind that the middle 50% of the weighted GPAs for top schools is usually between 4.0 and 5.0, meaning that applicants to these schools are taking difficult classes and earning top grades. In order to compete in such a pool, you need to ensure that you are taking a healthy number of difficult classes and are succeeding in them. Generally, college admissions officers pay more attention to a student’s weighted GPA. This is especially true if you are aspiring to go to a top school. Additionally, for these kinds of universities, your weighted GPA should be between 4.0 and 5.0 in order to be competitive. |