Google, which hires a lot of college grads, has decided that GPA's are worthless criteria for hiring, according to a New York Times columnist. A lot of other companies, and people like me, agree.  If you spend most of your college career worrying about your GPA and complaining to professors that you should have gotten a higher grade in their courses, stop it!  Instead, become a better problem solver and a better communicator. Work hard, but to learn, not to get an A.  Here's the link: GPA's are worthless

Is your GPA really important at all?

Well, sure.  But read this article http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130604184748-4421225-getting-things-done-grade-point-average
The author says, among other things, "I'm an employer and I don't really care where you went to school or what your GPA was -- I want to know what you've done."  A lot of interviewers have the same view, so don't think school is just a matter of getting a high GPA.  It isn't.

Good advice if you're ever going to graduate

Here's some blunt advice every college student who's going to enter the workforce should read. Your degree doesn't mean squat  I agree with the author.  I see too many students who slack their way through college thinking, "I just need that degree, then I'll get a good job."  I also see some who think "I've got to get as high a GPA as I can so I can get a good job."  I'm not sure which is worse.

if you go away this summer

I like to post this link to a sad, beautiful song about that special person leaving you in the summer.  if you go away  Hopefully he or she will return to you in the fall.

Why do I hate Facebook?

I'm not sure why I hated Facebook so much I closed my account.  Maybe because it's a big time suck, devouring hours like m&m's.  Or maybe it's because I see mostly childish--ok, let's be fair: juvenile--posts from people I don't remember ever knowing. (Company pages have freebies, contests, etc., which are the exceptions.) Where do people find the time to waste on Facebook!?  I truly don't understand the fanatical loyalty many of my students seem to have to this social medium.  Don't they know that they need to prepare for the hard reality of the adult world and should be putting every minute they have into studies, internships, volunteeering with local nonprofits, and meaningful extra-curricular activities?

Where are you, advisee?

Where are you, my advisee?  Each semester, the 75 or so students I advise are supposed to stop by to discuss their program and get the PIN they need (personal ID number) to register for the coming semester. I send them all an email each semester inviting them to contact me. But only about half ever do.  How they get the information and PIN they need, I don't know!  Probably from the department chair or other professors who happen to be available when I'm not.  I worry a little bit about these phantom advisees.  But only a little.  I assume they know what they're doing.

Facebook's Timeline makes business history fun and easy to read

No doubt you're aware of Facebook's new Timeline for business pages.  Here's an interesting article about it with examples of some of the new content it makes possible (do you  know where the name for Tide detergent came from?): http://adage.com/article/digital/meet-coolest-facebook-brand-timelines-coke-espn-ford/233015/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage