GPA is Overrated
Recently, I had a conversation with some friends from college about grade inflation. The discussion reinforced something I’ve believed for a long time: GPA is vastly overrated. As someone who hires for my company, I’ve found that GPA is a weak signal for identifying top talent. Employers should care far less about it than they currently do.
From a Hiring Perspective
From an employer’s perspective, all I really need to know about a candidate’s academic performance is whether they were in the top, middle, or bottom of their class. Digging deeper into GPA offers little additional insight. It’s just a number—one that often fails to capture the qualities that actually make someone a great hire.
That’s why we don’t prioritize GPA or even the prestige of a candidate’s school. Instead, we look at real indicators of ability: the quality of their code in a GitHub repo, the creativity in their portfolio, the originality of their research, and the depth of their thinking in conversations. These things matter far more than a GPA ever could.
Studies also back this up. While there is a correlation between college GPA and job performance, it’s not a strong one. A 1996 meta-analysis found an observed correlation of just 0.16 (rising to about 0.30 with adjustments). More recent data shows that fewer companies are using GPA as a screening tool—one survey found that the percentage of employers considering GPA dropped from 73% in 2018-19 to 37% in 2023.
My Own Experience with GPA
When I was in college, I didn’t have a top GPA. My co-founder majored in physics and minored in math—one of the hardest combinations in our school—while I took a wide range of courses out of pure curiosity, even if they weren’t my strongest subjects. But that never held us back. We built things, explored ideas, and gained skills that mattered far more than our GPAs when we entered the job market.
GPA tells only one part of the story. Ideally, it should work for students—helping them open doors, not closing them. As long as employers and grad schools aren’t actively complaining about grade inflation, there’s little reason to worry about it.
Some worry that if grades become too inflated, students won’t push themselves. I disagree. Smart and ambitious people will always find ways to challenge themselves. Colleges will always offer difficult courses for those who seek them out.
The Bigger Picture
The real goal should be broadening access to opportunity. Let grades and credentials serve as tools that help students rather than barriers that exclude them. If that means hack the system, so be it. The focus should always be on building skills, not just optimizing for a number.
From a strategic perspective, grade inflation isn’t a battle worth fighting. If other schools are inflating grades, then you’re at a disadvantage if yours doesn’t. If other schools aren’t inflating grades, there’s still no harm in doing so—higher GPAs give students a small edge without damaging a school’s reputation.
For top students, GPA hardly matters. But for those in the middle, a higher GPA can open more doors. The real priority should be equipping these students with the skills and experiences they need to succeed in the next stage of their careers. The number itself is secondary.
