high GPA vs. good GPA with lots of extra curricular activities?

Question

i'm currently going to a community college and i'm going to apply to transfer next fall. i have a 3.6 gpa, but i'm active in my college. i'm in circle k international which is a community service based club and i do at least 25 hours of community service per month. i'm also the vice president for this year. even though ive only been in the club for little over a year i recieved various awards. i'm also a part of the honors transfer program which i take honors courses and it details that in my transcript. what's bothering me though is if its better to have a great gpa like 3.8+ or an good gpa like 3.4-3.7 with a lot of extra-curricular activities? im afriad that a gpa like 3.4-3.6 wont get me to my dream college ucla, but i know that extra curricular it adds a competitive edge. i want to run for president for the next term, but its a lot of work and it might keep my gpa around 3.5/3.6. i know if all i did was study and hw i can easily get over 3.8. what should i do??

Answer 1

This is where you need to balance everything. It depends on what you really want later on. Have you talked with any advisors at UCLA? I don't think they are going to have a problem taking you in with a GPA over 3.5.

Think about this, when you finally have a chance to get around and write a resume, what all are you going to have on it? True, there are the fast food places you did as a kid and all that, but I am almost positive that most schools put a much greater emphasis not only on extra cirricular activities, but the leadership roles you take on.

I would say that getting leadership roles with extracirricular activities is going to get you further than even having a 4.0 GPA and a lot more scholarships are going to value that.

It is my personal opinion that someone who has a 4.00 has one of two things going for them. Either they are taking really easy classes, or they have nothing but school to do.

Grades are only going to matter to that first internship if you have no previous job history in whatever field you are going into. However, if you have a history of leadership as well as something above a 3.00 GPA, that seems a little more impressive.

Answer 2

The cold hard fact is that some schools will have a firm GPA cutoff for who they will accept while others care more about real life acheivements.
It's good that you still have a high GPA (3.6).

Try and research your schools by talking to other applicants, the school or reading transfer forums.
Based on what you find out, tailor your emphasis on school and extracurricular activities.

Basically you want to think from the admissions committee's perspective and decide what would be more important. It's not an easy answer but you'll make a good decision if you do the research now.

Answer 3

follow your gut with this decision because if you've got decent SATs (1100+) you should get into UCLA either way. my short answer to your question is that good GPA with lots of activities is better than superhigh GPA unless you're looking ivy league in which case you probably need both superhigh gpa and activities as well as 1400+ test scores.

if you really want to be president then go for it because your GPA is good enough. but if it's just to pad your application then I'd say skip it because you've got plenty of activities and one more isn't going to stand out as much as amping up your gpa a bit.

Answer 4

Study and go for a lesser role.

From the looks of things, you have plenty of extracurricular activities. You should remain active, but try for at least a 3.7.

Balance is important in life.

Answer 5

for a career good gpa and curricular activities... but I bet if you list what you did in each activity, you'd get into your dream college... they'll see that you can manage your time pretty well

Answer 6

It's good to have both good grades(+3.8GPA) and extracurriclum at the same time. It's better if you focus on your grades, as colleges look at your GPA first.