Students in college to learn, not party

Jorge Magdaleno’s Nov. 14 Viewpoint submission, “GPA
mania sucks fun out of college” initially caught my interest
because of its title and potential to be humorous.

Upon reading the article, however, I found myself reeling from
what appeared to be serious conclusions arrived at by a multitude
of sweeping generalizations and non sequiturs. I broke into a cold
sweat at the thought of a member of the general public reading
Magdaleno’s submission and assuming that his reasoning
ability (or lack thereof) is representative of UCLA students in
general.

Let’s examine the first sweeping generalization (referred
to hereinafter as “SG” to save space) that opens
Magdaleno’s submission: “Each student at UCLA is
connected through … the need to study until our eyes
bleed.” Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but
I’ve known plenty of students in my time at UCLA who cared
more about getting drunk than getting good grades.

To a lot of students who don’t plan on attending
professional or graduate school, there is little motivation to be
at the top of the class. If you think that all 25,328
undergraduates at UCLA study until the wee hours of the morning,
you’ve got another thing coming.

As for Magdaleno’s lament that the GPA has become more
important than “the wackiness and mayhem you see in movies
like National Lampoon’s “˜Van Wilder,'” (SG
#2), I can only say the following: I seriously hope you’re
joking. Has it ever been otherwise? If anything, the GPA used to be
emphasized less because the focus was on the genuine search for
knowledge, not the search for sex and beer.

And how about SG #3: “We all want high GPAs so we can get
out of here ASAP?” I wasn’t aware that earning a high
GPA somehow speeds up the educational process. No, I’m afraid
Einstein’s special theory of relativity applies better to
high velocities than it does to satisfying degree requirements. I
don’t recall ever being told “If you have a GPA above
3.8, you can graduate early.”

Instead of identifying the rest of the SGs in Magdaleno’s
column (believe me, there are plenty), I will simply summarize why
I disagree with Magdaleno’s conclusions. Life is full of
choices, and often the consequences of our choices end up
constraining what we can and cannot do. The people who choose as
wisely as possible and deal maturely with the consequences are
smart. The people who make a choice and then complain about the
consequences are called whiners.

For example, if you have unprotected sex with several girls and
then go ballistic when one of them becomes pregnant, you fall under
the whiner category. Likewise, if you make the important decision
to attend college (and are lucky enough to get into UCLA, to boot),
complaining about your study time impinging on your party time
makes you a whiner. It’s as simple as that.

For those of you who chose to attend college because you desire
to make a lot of money or have a prestigious career, at least have
the maturity to acknowledge that until you get that dream job, your
goal largely dictates what you can and can’t do.

Beer, sex and football games are nice, but if you really want to
party you generally won’t be able to pull off a 4.0 GPA
(unless, of course, you go to USC or Cal State Chico). It’s
the nature of the game. Hey, I’m not happy about it either
““ but instead of complaining, I get my work done.

So to Jorge Magdaleno and all other students who see hard work
and long hours of studying at UCLA as a punishment inflicted upon
them, grow up and learn to live with your choices. Do us all a
favor and either stop whining or transfer to an easier college so
someone who actually wants to learn can take your place here.