Is academic success important?


It is difficult to put a singular definition to academic success as it can mean different things to different people. For example, for one person, getting an A- is like getting an F. But for another person, getting a C- is like getting an A. A definition that more broadly describes success could be ‘performing to the best of your ability’. Despite this, there are still numerous ways to be successful in life even if you don’t do well academically. Some people argue that academic success is critical and some argue otherwise and say that there are other ways to be successful.

Firstly, many people firmly believe that academic success is vital because it directly influences the jobs you can get. A quote from UK Essays puts this as “Academic success is important because it directly decides the positive outcomes of the student after graduating”. For example, if you get straight A’s at higher or advanced higher then the number of jobs and university options will undoubtedly be greater than if you




only achieve three B’s at National 5.

In addition to this, receiving exceptional grades can greatly boost a person’s confidence. This can lead to a person being more motivated to work hard to achieve good grades again. Being confident can mean that the person is less stressed when it comes to exam time as they know that they are fully capable of attaining acceptable grades.

Thirdly, good grades ultimately lead to students earning more. A quote from The Art Institutes says, “According to averages calculated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), people with a bachelor’s degree earn around 64% more per week with a high school diploma, and around 50% more than those with an associate’s degree. Those with an associate’s degree earn around 17% more than those with a high school diploma”.
This shows that not only is getting respectable grades vital, but also doing well in university.

On the other hand, you could say that some people just aren’t suited for academic success and that success for some people is a failure for others. An argument from debate.org puts this as, “Everyone is expected to be a good student. To some people, getting an A- is like getting an F, while to some people getting a C- is like getting an A”. Some people are better suited to academic success, others are better for trade school or no college at all”.
This goes to show that some people are more suited to arts or sports and don’t need to thrive academically in order to succeed in life.

Furthermore, there are other ways to be successful other than being academic, some of these can lead to you earning more than you ever would if you pursued an academic career. For example, you could set up your own business or pursue a career in sports. An example of this could be Cristiano Ronaldo. He dropped out of school in order to play football and is now worth about £354 million. This goes to show that as long as you are dedicated to what you do, then you don’t need to be academic to succeed.

To elaborate, there are a few people who have made millions or billions who were school dropouts. Some of these people made things that we take for granted. For example, Michael Dell dropped out of school at 19 and went on to found Dell. He is now worth $28.6 billion. Steve Jobs also left school at 19 and proceeded to found Apple. When he died he was worth $10.2 billion. If he was alive today then he would be valued at around $23 billion. Both of these people have made technological innovations that we use every day. This again goes to show that you don’t need to be successful academically in order to succeed in life.

Overall, it could be argued that academic success is important because it directly decides the positive outcomes of the student after graduating, people with good grades earn more on average and that academic success can greatly boost a person’s confidence.
On the other hand, it could be argued that academic success isn’t important because people have different academic standards, there are plenty of other ways to be successful and that lots of school dropouts have gone on to make millions or billions.
Personally, I believe that academic success is important because it can impact the types of jobs that you are able to do. Even if there are dropouts that have made millions or billions, this is a minuscule number of people so it would be a dreadful choice to drop out of school with no grades in order to set up a business as there is an incredibly large change that it will fail.