Is a 3.8 gpa good?

Don’t compare yourself to others. Just don’t.

Do the best you can do for as long as you can do it; be appreciative of what you have and what you can do, and enjoy your own accomplishments and your own life. Envy will eat you alive.

You should also talk to a school counselor or professor about how GPAs are calculated.

3.8 GPA is good, and good enough to get in top schools. The difference is how much other stuff you do. A 4.4. who does nothing but study will not necessarily get into Harvard, Stanford, Cal, or Princeton. One needs to have a well rounded life.

What do you do for fun? What are you involved in? Do you do adventurous things? Play sports? Do service work? Focus on being a well rounded individual.

Be aware that once you are out of school, no one will ever want to know what your grade point average was.

I was “that girl” in high school. Let me tell you what my life was like, though. I was a compulsive perfectionist, regularly made myself direly ill with stress, and hardly even backed off on my perfectionism when I was ill, and my life was all about school. I barely had fun.

I ended up going to a college that would have accepted me even if my GPA would have been a lot lower. I regret being so intense in high school.

My point being, a high GPA isn’t always something to be jealous of, moderation in all things, and it sounds like you’re going about things just right. Your GPA is very good, and you’re recognizing your limits and not making yourself miserable by obsessively taking every AP class available.

I’m taking a gap year because I have a job lined up. Oh and the girl is involved in 4 different school activities. I’m just involved in 1. When I did more I used to be up so late doing homewoork. I couldn’t take not having any sleep, so I cut back.

A 3.8 GPA is inefficient. If you can graduate with a 2.0, then you’re wasting your time studying too much. If I got a B in a class, I was bummed out. I could have had more fun and studied less.

@emeraldisles And she is probably miserable and has no time to relax. Seriously, moderation in all things is a good thing.

I’ll be a senior after this next semester and I have a 3.82 cumulative GPA at university, but I also overload. A 3.82 GPA is perfectly respectable, it’s honor roll and all. My family is happy and proud for me and my GPA will qualify me for future opportunities. The only reason I care about my GPA is the opportunities that a reasonable GPA will afford me later on. School is really about learning, not about getting great grades. Are you an egghead or are you an egg? You have to decide that, I suppose like many others I’m a bit of both.

Set your own path, choose your own goals, and use focus, intensity and perseverance to reach them. Learn to be your own best basis for comparison. I can virtually guarantee that you’ll never go wrong. There’s always going to be someone better, so just be the best “you” you can be.

@emeraldisles I was like @Mariah, too. I had a lot to prove and would hyperventilate if I got a A- on a test, and had to be the among the first 5 finished with a test. At the end of my junior year, I had a 3.9 and was 6th out of a class of about 650, was on the swim team, in 3 clubs, competed in theater, and I was not satisfied. Failure wasn’t an option. I seriously should’ve been put into therapy.

I switched to a smaller school with 55 kids in the senior class and did it all over again- about 8 different activities and was valedictorian. I upped the activities but relaxed on the grade front because there was much less competition, but still graduated with a 3.85.

I went to college 2 months after I turned 17. My first semester in college, I finished with an 0.96. You read that right. 0.96: 3 F’s, 1 D and 1 B+. Long story, but I couldn’t keep up with myself anymore and when I couldn’t, I went to the other extreme. Now in my MA program, I’m a happy A-/B+ student—I do the work, but I have a life. The only people who care about my GPA are those who want to see if theirs is better than mine.

When I was stressing out about grades, I felt I had to prove to the world I was capable. I had a lot, lot invested into my image and upholding that image. I thrived only on external praise and approval. How do you think things went when I no longer had external approval and realized that a perfect image was 1. transparent and 2. the most fragile thing in the world? Keeee-rash!

The best thing I’ve ever learned (and am still learning) is that external approval is appreciated, but fleeting—and internal approval is permanent. I have to feel that I did a good job for myself, not others. And image is best created by being true to yourself—anything else is an exhausting show and will eventually break.

Yes, a 3.8 GPA is terrific, but not if you’re losing sleep.

You’re going to fit in here just fine, @city_data_forum. Just fine.

Oh, and “a 3.8 GPA is good.”

AP has always counted as “much heavier” in correlation to GPA. 3.8 is phenomenal in my opinion. It demonstrates discipline and a high work ethic. I know this because I had none of this in high school. My best piece of advice for you is not worrying where you are placed amongst your class, top 10% bottom any percent. My advice is seek out your passion now, so when you go to college, you’ll know your major, and have your goals ahead of you, and have your overall work cut out for you. I’ve known plenty of kids with high GPA’s transfer to college and drop out. Even when you get to college don’t think of it as competition, but at the same time do have your best foot forward. I feel this is the most genuine and honest way you can achieve the best out of an individual, when it’s them versus themselves.

Some really good advice here!

Yes, while a good GPA will help you along, the most important thing to remeber in life is that your “worth” is about WHO YOU ARE, not what you DO!

The only thing you’ll take with you and leave behind when you die will be your good character and the memories of those that experienced it.

Never, ever, EVER, confuse who you are with what you do on an external performance level.

Strive for your goals but don’t base your self worth on the externals of life.

Ha! I have like a 2.9 GPA. High school gpa is nothing. Some teachers were specifically discriminating against me, etc. So I’m a senior now, and instead of being all angry, I’m chill. I don’t care. Those teachers are losers in life who can only rule against a bunch of silly high schoolers and if one of them tries to argue with them in one issue they get annoyed by them and give them bad grades. Peh. Who cares about high school, seriously. Just learn. Grades aren’t that important unless you are failing.

Yeah thanks. I just hate feeling like I’m judged solely on my grades instead of who I am as a person or for having integrity.By the way there’s 274 kids in my class.

@Earthflag No teachers although they aren’t on your good side doesn’t mean they don’t abide by a points system. Get good grades get higher points. The only thing they can control is your citizen ship grade, which should just be a monitor of your overall interaction with class, whether you are a positive influence or negative influence.

This is a Great GPA. You should be ashamed of your thinking. That you are so much better than those kids who aren’t in AP classes because they can’t qualify and it’s not good enough for you?!! Pulease!. Drop AP and get some real community service under your belt so that you understand what it is you actually have.

“How can I stop comparing myself so I can just be proud that I’m in the top 10% of my class.” Think of this way. Some kid who’s going to drop out of college in the future isn’t even going to have a GPA. History tells us the great radical minded geniuses compare themselves to no body. They have a strong sense of who they are and what they want done already. See, Mozart, Jobs, Warhol (art school), Gates…

@DaphneT I don’t think the OP ever said he thinks he’s better than other kids taking easier classes.

It’s good.
Understand that the system is structured in a way where you may just be unable to do better w/o changing the way you do things now.
(Meh,.. I could’ve typed that better.)

I would say that you have little to worry about.

V.

Many colleges don’t look at GPA but rather how “well rounded” you are, so involvement in clubs, sports, volunteer work, etc. could be argued to be just about as important as academics. Of course, excelling at certain things do tend to help tremendously. And yes 3.8 is good, I got into West Point with a GPA of roughly 3.6 unweighted.

Depends on the school you’re attending.

3.8 at a sucky school is a joke.
3.8 at a good school is respectable.

And, yeah. GPA isn’t everything. Extracurriculars and SATs will definitely weigh in.