Do high grades guarantee success in professional life?

A direct quote from another discussion:


A high score will not guarantee you a good job or success in a professional career :).

You do realize that different countries have different marking schemes, for example in our college around 5-7 people get 99.95% score for english... Just saying some systems use comparative scoring instead of standardised scoring systems. Thus allowing some of the "Best" students in the state to get a score above 99.9% so get over you **** and proof before talk.


Actually it will, I will be among the top 1% of the students if I maintain my overall ranking. Gurantee entry to any university in australia with required pre-requisites except medical school which require a test to be passed. And most of the degree needing 99% atar guarantee you a job due to shortage of people doing these degrees.

Right, you may get admitted to top schools. But when you're out of school your potential employer will not care too much about your grades - he/she will be more interested in what you can do to improve their business or how to make them more money.

Still, considering the fact you can now recognize good vs. bad writing services, you may eventually be a good asset to any organization ; ).

Well my goal is to do actuary which requires advanced maths skills. As I am proud of my maths skills, I will clearly excel in my chosen field as maths comes naturally to me. Indeed I will get into a good organisation and I can gurantee you that.

Can I surrender as I see your point Major... But I know I am a good mathematician + I got my dad manager level jobs... (He is bad at making resumes) so yeah. I agree with you grades is not all but grades do help you get a good degree that you want to actually do without taking long boring patways.

And how did you manage to shift this form. Are you a moderator?

Why do you study then - you'll land a good-paying job, no matter what ;)


I assume there is a moderator here who can do such tricks.

not exactly I need to study hard and try my best to get a good job after I get a a good degree its that simple nothing complicated

Why do you use example research services then? Why don't you write your essays yourself? (considering the fact you CAN do it well)

The thing is that there is a time space i have to complete it in i am so packed and the fear of failure is too high for me to do bad anyways just got my essay back and it is epic. p.s. my parents will kill me if I fail in any aspect of education but you won't understand :(

Bad parenting ;)

Seriously dude

You study for yourself, not for your parents (they can motivate you to work harder but ultimately it is to your own benefit).

I know that my evidence is anecdotal, but I have seen plenty of students with top marks who have failed horribly when it came time to do self-directed work. Generally speaking, yes, high marks will translate into success, however it seem to be only one piece of the puzzle.

I think you have the answer to that question dude.

By far the dont. The thing about life (for me at least) is to do what you love. Sooner or later the money will come with it if you're not stupid

Here's a clue: you are stupid. Are you going to do something about that or what? Let me be the first to suggest a couple of English lessons.

I aced uni entrance exams -- and ended up selling carrots and rotting fish at a market in Pakistan. If that's not success I don't know what is.

Don't worry, you can be a big deal on the internet.

As a person who just did well enough in school, I managed to create a pretty decent professional life for myself, I would have to say that high grades do not guarantee success professionally. I have seen classmates and friends of mine who graduated With Honors, *** Laude, Summa ***, and even Magna *** Laude recognition for their degrees who ended up in blue collar jobs because they could not hack the demands of professional life. Sometimes, the world of academics just prepares a student theoretically for a career.

Even with all the internships and training that a course can provide, actually taking on the responsibilities of a real job turns out to be totally different from the temporary work experiences. They were still not properly prepared for the demands of their jobs because they only excelled in theory rather than in practice.

In my case, my closest relatives graduated with some sort of honors from college, whereas I graduated with none. I was an average student. Yet they now envy me because they have to punch the clock and work on weekends while I have a regular job to speak of even though I simply sit in front of the computer, type away, and make an income that can pay my bills and allow me to enjoy my life in the manner that I want.

Adding insult to injury in reference to them, is the fact that, due to today's work and business climate, they often find out that their jobs are "temporary" when they thought it was permanent. The company get sold, closes shop, or is integrated into a sister company.

There is no more security of tenure in regular companies these days. It is that security of tenure that used to indicate the success of a person in his profession. That is no longer the case.

These people / students tend to be less successful in their professional life in that sense. They may have had the grades, but that did not mean they would have a smooth and guaranteed successful professional life for themselves.

I'd like to revive this discussion as it is interesting.

I have personally graduated both high school and college with honors. Despite this, I have peers who were not able to acquire the same level of academic achievement - and yet, some of them are now earning a lot more than I am. I still believe that high grades do not determine the level of success - not unless, of course, you are planning to work for the academia. Only then will it matter. Nonetheless, having a degree is certainly pivotal. At least that would be considered as the bare minimum.

I was also sucked into this false belief while I was growing up. When I was applying for work opportunities, I found that companies tend to prefer individuals who have more experience over those who simply look good on paper. Having a balance of both, of course, would be ideal in all situations.

According to all of the research, the main correlation between schooling and future economic success over a lifetime relates to the highest level of education achieved, not grades. Generally, college grads have much greater earning potential than high school grads, and people with graduate school degrees have greater earning potential than college grads.

I agree, fully. I know many people who didn't earn a degree, but are hard workers and earn a very good income. It really depends on the individual and his/her work ethic and determination. Consider, for example, those who never attended college yet went on to launch what would later become multi-million dollar corporations.

Of course, I am all for college and do believe that having a degree is preferable. However, just because someone doesn't have the highest grades or a college degree does not mean he/she is not fully capable of achieving success in their lives. ;)

I play hockey with a guy like that: He never went to college but started a moving company that eventually became pretty big. He also became a licensed pilot, sold the moving company, and now runs a drone aviation company that takes aerial footage for realtors and outside events such as weddings and stuff like that. At the other end of the spectrum, Starbucks has plenty of college graduates and people with advanced Humanities degrees serving coffee these days.

"You study for yourself, not for your parents" - totally agree! Every person should understand it

That's an easy enough thing to say, but the fact of the matter is that many college students are motivated to succeed (and/or to select specific majors) substantially to satisfy their parents' expectations of them.

@FreelanceWriter
This is a sad reality that can also be tied to a lot of culture-based expectations that people have. I would have never reached where I am in life without the external pressure my parents' expectations.

Generally speaking, I feel as though there are base subjects that serve as the foundation of all of the other streams of knowledge for people. When these subjects are fulfilled, they serve as an essentially impeccable platform to develop other technical skills that a person would need in their professional lives. All the other forms of knowledge are what I would consider as supplementary information (things you do not need to know but can be interesting at the very least).

I have never been impressed by college graduates. I know of several college graduates who never could do their jobs properly. They always buckled under the pressure of the job. They were excellent in college, even had honors throughout. However, when theory had to be turned into practical applications, they just forgot everything they learned in school. The result? Lost promotions, lost projects, lost success. Unless a college student hones his practical skills at the same pace as his theoretical prowess, I doubt that he can actually succeed in his professional life.

Reading your comment sort of sends me some 25 years back because today things are far more different (I maybe wrong). Global competition among major economies is getting incrementally more lethal by the day, and on an average, even kids are being taught the importance of the combo theory+practice has in real life. Even governments are pushing the boundaries of traditional education. Take for instance, Bangladesh, the fastest growing economy in its region now (faster than China and India! - pre-COVID-19), was among the poorest a few decades ago. It has the largest pool of freelance professionals (most in their 20s) in the whole world, and one of the few countries where youth are tech-savvy (I don't remember exactly but as many as 50% of their pop is below 25). US still has the highest skill set share in global human resource index, and China, Korea, India, my own country, many EU countries, etc. are getting aggressive in skills of their youth who will decide the future.

No one should forget the Greta Thunberg-led global mobilization against global warming. She is being followed by kids around the world who are far more aware of these issues than some other guy.

Then comes the legendary Islamist conservative country in the whole world, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The enlightened people in my country would laugh at their outlook to the world. Now, KSA is among the countries spending the most on their education. Their neighboring country, Qatar, another Islamist conservative member, has educational institutes ranked among the top globally.