In the post-acceptance euphoria of my senior year of high school, one piece of advice that my father offered still gives me pause for thought today: He told me that the point of college was not to get good grades, it was to get an education. Whether this was a tacit endorsement of academic failure (unlikely) or simply priming my adjustment to much steeper peer competition (more likely) is debatable, but for better or for worse I took this advice to heart. When confronted with the prospect of choosing classes for the first time, I decided to take classes that really piqued my interest, consequences be damned. My enrollment in introductory Chinese was the embodiment of my new focus on "education" (not grades), as I chose to take the most difficult of Princeton language courses despite the fact I knew languages were not my strong suit at all. The same philosophy was invoked when starting the math-intensive finance track — I took it because I thought it would be useful to know, and it was a subject matter that had always interested me. I always held to the belief that Princeton was a great place to get an education, and that by doing so I would automatically secure my place as an attractive candidate for the job market and productive member of society.
However, now reflecting on a Princeton academic career that consisted largely of doing what I pleased academically, I see a great disparity between the reality I am faced with now and the reality that could have been: employers and professional schools care overwhelmingly more about GPA than the substance of your education. I know for a fact that I will never have a chance to attend Harvard Law School or be hired by McKinsey and Company because of choices such as the one to enroll in Chinese, yet my experiences with Chinese (especially my summer in Beijing) have been the most indelible and valuable (yet how does one define value?) of my entire stay here. Conversely, one of my best friends at Princeton entered with the completely opposite philosophy, which was to stay on the most focused academic path towards a particular goal, namely breaking into the top tier of the financial world. Fortunately, all the classes he has taken have meshed with his natural strengths extremely well, ensuring him a spectacular GPA. He wouldn't even consider taking a class that he didn't think he could do well in, unless he was forced to. As a result, he has had the privilege of turning down no less than six premium job opportunities and handpicking the opportunity he liked most, whereas my other friends and I are still looking for something to do next year, almost to a man. The harsh reality is that at least directly after college, the only thing that employers or schools have to judge you as a prospective employee is your GPA, and most don't give a second thought about whether you have gotten an "education" or not. In my friend's paraphrased words, they know they can teach you everything about the job you need to know, and all they have to go on when hiring is GPA.
So which is better: to take the classes you want and take your chances with the "real world," or to do what one of my friends has done and been a completely "rational actor" in the world of Princeton, taking the track which brought him to the height of marketability? I frankly do not have the answer: I asked my friend whether he had ever read Emerson or studied the classical thinkers in depth at Princeton, and he said no — and that he didn't really care to. In my view he has lost something by not doing so, but I'm sure he will cry all the way to the bank next year while I struggle to find work. I suppose it is possible to do both, to take everything your heart desires and at the same time find something that you are good at and can build your life around. I have recently found an overwhelmingly positive experience in Robert George's Constitutional Interpretation class, one of the first at Princeton in which the work does not really seem like work — and is legitimately enjoyable. This course has given me a sense of peace because it has shown me a career field that I can both excel at and (in my view) has intrinsic value. It doesn't really matter which law school I go to, since when I get there I'll have the tools to stand out. As for the Princeton experience, it's most important to make sure you decide on your goals early in your career — whether to streamline yourself for the job market or to take classes regardless of the grade you might get. However, if you compromise your GPA by taking classes at which you aren't necessarily talented, you should go into it with open eyes. One thing is for sure: it does matter what type of grades you get in college, regardless of whether you get an "education" or not.
David Sillers is a politics major from Potomac, Md.
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