Correlation between GPA and likelihood of success?
My first inclination would be to say that there is no real correlation between a student entrepreneur's GPA and that student's likelihood of business success. But that's a knee-jerk reaction, and I teach at a school where there is no significant support offered to student entrepreneurs. (Even that could be a chicken-v-egg thing. Does the College offer no support because there are few entrepreneurs, and even fewer of them are doing well in school? Or are there few entrepreneurs because the College does so little for them?)I don't mean to complain. We do have an office of the Small Business Development Center here (although it's not listed on their Web site), and Lorraine Allen, who runs that office, has a good heart and loves student entrepreneurs. But there is no incubator, and no partnership with any company or other college who HAS one. There is one other course on entrepreneurship offered by the College of Business... and then there's me.
What you find, however, when you look at schools who really support student entrepreneurs, is that they need some performance out of those kids to justify that support. For instance, at the University of Maryland,
Applicants to the program face a rigorous selection process. The acceptance ratio is 3:1, and the number of applicants increases every year [...]. Acceptance criteria include a 3.0 GPA, a personal essay and an application.Not all schools appear to require that high of a GPA, but if they are in the business of giving degrees they have a right to expect some return on their own investment.
Some of my own former students who are starting businesses are admittedly struggling with grades. They tell me it's because their minds are elsewhere. Guess where?
posted by Ron @ 12:57 PM
Site Feed
1 Comments:
Hey Ron,
Interesting entry. I recently graduated the undergrad Stern School of Business at NYU with a 2.9 or so GPA and ran a business my whole way through.
Best,
Michael
http://www.successmanifesto.com
Post a Comment
<< Home