We are worth more than our grades

A final exam diatribe.

I should be studying right now. I have three exams and two essays next week. To keep my GPA at the pre-law standard, I can’t afford less than an A on any of them — and yet, here I am at 10:20 PM on a Saturday night, writing this.

I am not alone in my fate. In the coming days, or weeks, or months, sixteen million students in the United States alone will take their final exams. In what can only be described as a whirlwind of coffee, anxiety, and flashcards, they will attempt to achieve the ever-unreachable standard of hireability. I doubt anyone reading this is surprised by our bi-annual flurry. Why would you be? In a world where one professor’s opinion can mean and has meant the difference between law school and last resort, what choice do we have but to sacrifice our wellbeing to Our Blessed Father: GPA.

Though that image edges on the melodramatic, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of these tests, and the toll that they take. In the past few years, we have seen the ever worsening job markets matched by a more anxious and mental unwell student population. A 2014 article published by the American Psychological Association put data behind the truth every student already knew — that more and more students view suicide as just as likely as graduation. Disappointingly, if tellingly, the article goes on to explore whether university counseling services are “cost effective.”