5 ms·

This is a really nice analysis, but I'm wondering if GPA is the right metric to optimize for. It's good to have a high GPA, but is it worth it to structure your

by luckyt 10y ago

This is a really nice analysis, but I'm wondering if GPA is the right metric to optimize for. It's good to have a high GPA, but is it worth it to structure your leisure, sleep, and dating patterns around it? I'm doing something similar, but I record at the end of the day how happy I am, and analyze how different things affect my happiness.

CardenB 10y ago
It's also reasonable to sacrifice short term happiness around long term happiness, in some circumstances.
- minimaxir 10y ago
  To an extent. One of the memes often repeated at Carnegie Mellon University was (and still is) "Sleep is temporary. GPA is forever." This causes problems. https://thetartan.org/2012/12/3/forum/mentalhealth https://thetartan.org/2012/12/3/forum/mentalhealth
closeparen 10y ago
Education at this level is a "who can survive the most unpleasantness" competition. High school students work their asses off to get into highly selective colleges. Highly selective college students work their assess off to get into highly selective grad schools or employers (investment banking, consulting, prestigious tech companies). Students of highly selective grad schools work their asses off to get into the vanishingly few secure, living-wage jobs in their fields. At each stage, the purpose is the same - to prove that you are more deserving than your peers of a seat in the next stage, because each stage has fewer seats than the last. If you value your present well-being over advancement (and therefore future well-being), don't put yourself in a competitive educational environment with the goal of "winning" (i.e. high GPA). If you have certain career tracks in mind, sleep deprivation, poor mental health, and low quality of life in the short and medium terms are table stakes. I enjoyed my time at such a place once I had a good relationship with a tech company (now my employer) and no grad school ambitions. My friends headed for the sciences could not have optimized for their present happiness without giving up their dreams.
- theobold 10y ago
  What a shitty system
  - closeparen 10y ago
    That's meritocracy for you. We have to select people for scarce and highly desirable positions somehow; "willing to work the hardest" isn't the worst strategy that's been tried.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- treestompz 10y ago
  > Education at this level is a "who can survive the most unpleasantness" competition. This is brilliant. It sums up my feelings about education so succinctly. I'm stealing this.
- WalterBright 10y ago
  > High school students work their asses off to get into highly selective colleges. Not necessarily true. I never worked hard at anything in high school, and was accepted by several ivy league colleges. My experience was not unusual. I did not work all that hard in college, but was accepted at Stanford for grad school. (I averaged maybe 30-40hrs a week on schoolwork in college, leaving plenty of time for other activities.) There were some who did work their asses off, but they were in the minority and I felt rather sorry for them. Either they were working inefficiently, or just weren't cut out for that career path. It'd be like me trying to be a pro athlete. I could work my ass off, and never get anywhere, as I have worse than no aptitude for it. Some also did no perceptible work and got straight As. I was a bit envious of them :-) they were amazing people.
- douche 10y ago
  One of the best times in my life was when I was in such a college environment, but instead of going through the grad school and corporate recruiting gauntlet, I opted out and planned on joining the military. I ended up in a software job I found on Craigslist instead, but not giving a fuck is still one of my best decisions.
tiffanyqi 10y ago
Author here -- thanks for the comment! I also would agree that GPA isn't necessarily the right metric here. The reason I chose all these factors to compare to grades is because I feel that's the stereotype those in academia (students and professors alike) have, that somehow a lot of sleeping and no fun and studying a lot leads to good grades. I was curious whether that was true. Even though there's a huge negative correlation between activities and grades in my data, doesn't mean that I would sacrifice the time I spent on activities just so that I could get the "better grade". My jobs and student orgs made my experience, and I would still spend time on it again even if my grades suffer. That sounds like a really good project! Would love to compare notes and read about your results if you make it public somewhere!

by luckyt 10y ago

CardenB 10y ago

It's also reasonable to sacrifice short term happiness around long term happiness, in some circumstances.

minimaxir 10y ago
To an extent. One of the memes often repeated at Carnegie Mellon University was (and still is) "Sleep is temporary. GPA is forever." This causes problems. https://thetartan.org/2012/12/3/forum/mentalhealth https://thetartan.org/2012/12/3/forum/mentalhealth

closeparen 10y ago

Education at this level is a "who can survive the most unpleasantness" competition. High school students work their asses off to get into highly selective colleges. Highly selective college students work their assess off to get into highly selective grad schools or employers (investment banking, consulting, prestigious tech companies). Students of highly selective grad schools work their asses off to get into the vanishingly few secure, living-wage jobs in their fields. At each stage, the purpose is the same - to prove that you are more deserving than your peers of a seat in the next stage, because each stage has fewer seats than the last. If you value your present well-being over advancement (and therefore future well-being), don't put yourself in a competitive educational environment with the goal of "winning" (i.e. high GPA). If you have certain career tracks in mind, sleep deprivation, poor mental health, and low quality of life in the short and medium terms are table stakes. I enjoyed my time at such a place once I had a good relationship with a tech company (now my employer) and no grad school ambitions. My friends headed for the sciences could not have optimized for their present happiness without giving up their dreams.

theobold 10y ago
What a shitty system
- closeparen 10y ago
  That's meritocracy for you. We have to select people for scarce and highly desirable positions somehow; "willing to work the hardest" isn't the worst strategy that's been tried.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
treestompz 10y ago
> Education at this level is a "who can survive the most unpleasantness" competition. This is brilliant. It sums up my feelings about education so succinctly. I'm stealing this.
WalterBright 10y ago
> High school students work their asses off to get into highly selective colleges. Not necessarily true. I never worked hard at anything in high school, and was accepted by several ivy league colleges. My experience was not unusual. I did not work all that hard in college, but was accepted at Stanford for grad school. (I averaged maybe 30-40hrs a week on schoolwork in college, leaving plenty of time for other activities.) There were some who did work their asses off, but they were in the minority and I felt rather sorry for them. Either they were working inefficiently, or just weren't cut out for that career path. It'd be like me trying to be a pro athlete. I could work my ass off, and never get anywhere, as I have worse than no aptitude for it. Some also did no perceptible work and got straight As. I was a bit envious of them :-) they were amazing people.
douche 10y ago
One of the best times in my life was when I was in such a college environment, but instead of going through the grad school and corporate recruiting gauntlet, I opted out and planned on joining the military. I ended up in a software job I found on Craigslist instead, but not giving a fuck is still one of my best decisions.

tiffanyqi 10y ago

Author here -- thanks for the comment! I also would agree that GPA isn't necessarily the right metric here. The reason I chose all these factors to compare to grades is because I feel that's the stereotype those in academia (students and professors alike) have, that somehow a lot of sleeping and no fun and studying a lot leads to good grades. I was curious whether that was true. Even though there's a huge negative correlation between activities and grades in my data, doesn't mean that I would sacrifice the time I spent on activities just so that I could get the "better grade". My jobs and student orgs made my experience, and I would still spend time on it again even if my grades suffer. That sounds like a really good project! Would love to compare notes and read about your results if you make it public somewhere!