Grades at many universities are going up, and their relevance to employers may be dropping as a result.
As grade inflation makes stellar transcripts more common, Penn's Career Services, which offers career counseling and information, says students can land impressive jobs by showcasing assets other than their grades.
"The GPA is not the be-all and end-all," said Patricia Rose, director of Career Services.
But with GPAs at Penn higher than ever -- 54 percent of all College of Arts and Sciences grades are A-minuses or higher-- employers realize that even a 4.0 might have some strings attached.
"Grade inflation ... does a disservice to the candidate," JPMorgan Chase & Co. recruiter Shawntee Reed said.
To detect an inflated GPA, Reed often asks for a list of classes taken or a summary of work experience to validate high marks.
And employers do notice if a student has stuck to comfortable classes no higher than the 200 level, Rose said.
"It might be hard to take someone seriously if [he or she] had a 4.0 but ... had been studying basket weaving and volleyball," said Hyla Crane, who helps hire new staff for the Westport Country Playhouse, a theater in Westport, Conn.
But many companies, especially prestigious ones like Reed's, who turn down thousands of applicants each year, still have GPA cutoffs.
For example, Morgan Stanley, a prominent investment bank, demands at least a 3.5 GPA for potential investment bankers, and CBS News draws the line at a 3.0. IBM doesn't specify a required GPA but insists that applicants include it on their resumes.
Some employers are less stringent, however.
JPMorgan, for example, "expects students to find a balance among work, school activities and their grades," Reed said.
But for undergraduates who have had few opportunities to find internships, solid grades make a difference, Reed said.
But even a firm like JPMorgan, which mostly hires students with at least a 3.2 GPA according to Reed, makes exceptions. She added that extracurricular activities can help compensate for weaker marks.
Employers who weigh grades less heavily often look more closely at an applicants' professional histories than the grades they earned in the classroom.
For example, the Westport Country Playhouse values job history more than a transcript.
"I will look more closely at someone with ... experience [than] I will at some with a 4.0," said Crane, the theater company's director of education. "Prove that you have the ability to do the job."
And a poor grade isn't the end of the world.
"There are a lot of students at Penn who have C's" Rose said. "Sure they get jobs."
To conceal poorer grades, some students provide GPAs in only specific subjects or starting from a specific time, depending on their academic strong points.
And for some employers, that is no problem at all.
Joannie Danielides, president of New York-based public-relations firm Danielides Communications Inc., said that "a student can excel in English but not be a math whiz, and that's fine for a job at a public-relations agency."
