Grade point average takes center stage as a means of tracking a student’s performance throughout their academic career.
In a collegiate setting, merit-based scholarships and financial aid heavily rely on a student’s GPA, and their eligibility for these services may be negatively affected by a lower GPA score.
At the University of New Mexico, students who are receiving financial aid are required to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0. Failure to maintain the required GPA may result in the loss of financial aid assistance.
If students wish to receive extra benefits such as internship opportunities, a GPA of 3.0 is often the minimum acceptable score. A 3.0 is also the required GPA for any graduate students seeking to continue their education through an accredited Master’s Degree program. Graduating with Honors requires a minimum GPA of 3.5 — 0.12 points above the UNM average GPA score of 3.38.
If students are not intending to apply to a master’s program or are not receiving financial aid for their education, their GPA could still affect their post-graduation job prospects.
For some companies, GPA is used as a rudimentary screening process for potential candidates. A minimum GPA requirement allows them to weed out unqualified applicants at the very beginning of the hiring process.
Pulakos Certified Public Accountants, an Albuquerque-based accounting firm, requires a minimum GPA of 3.3 for all applicants.
“Once you meet that hurdle, we begin to look at a lot of different things,” Pulakos CPA Brad Steward said. “Some people with higher GPA’s have never experienced failure and how they react to those failures is part of leadership and growth. That’s why we start to look more holistically at their academic experiences, once they’ve met that initial hurdle.”
For students to improve their employment eligibility, they need experience, but work experience is a necessity that not all people have access to during their education.
“We want people who are committed to school, committed to getting good grades and committed to the program.” Steward said, “You don’t want the surgeon who was last in his class, you want people who are striving for excellence.”
Even with high standards of quality, Pulakos CPAs keep an open mind when it comes to the type of experience a student chooses to gain.
Leadership and work ethic can be exhibited by both honor society participation and on-the-job experience, which gives all types of candidates the opportunity to prove their worth as a potential employee.
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At UNM’s College of Liberal Arts, GPA is viewed in a different light.
“It doesn’t necessarily affect their employment eligibility, but it’s certainly something we will look at,” said Robert DelCampo, the associate dean and director of Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies.
GPA says a lot about a potential job candidate’s work ethic, DelCampo said.
“It tells me that they are taking pride in their work, which is a good thing,” he said. “But the first thing I’m going to do if they have a high GPA, is look at what else they were doing. If you’re only focusing on school, it’s a lot easier to get good grades.”
While academic activities are heavily weighted in many professional settings, not all companies pay attention to academic activities when considering a job applicant.
“We look for previous experience,” said Chad McKinney of the McKinney & Associates accounting firm. “Whether it’s an internship or volunteer work, not so much in the honor society. Because we don’t really take that part into consideration, we look more at the experience as well as the GPA.”
Here, candidates with a higher GPA may qualify for higher starting pay than a candidate with a lower grade point average.
“We would start them with lower pay because they don’t exhibit the experience or the knowledge that is required to get the higher wage,” McKinney explained.
McKinney & Associates has a strong desire for candidates with work experience, though they aim to understand the possible struggle that students face when balancing school and work.
Kael Krepfl is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @thelobokael.
