How to keep my grades up?

How do I get back on track for great grades to keep my chances up for honor societies/grad schools/competitive job apps?

• I am a rising a Junior at a Top US School with an overhyped "grade deflation" policy. I had a nice freshman year and thought I was safe (all A's), only to get kind of crushed my sophomore year(Mostly A-'s). My total GPA is still kind of OK thanks to freshman year, though. My question is driven by 3 things: A desire to get into an honor society (Phi Beta Kappa or Tau Beta Pi), A desire to keep myself competitive in case I wanted to go into a Top Grad School (even though I know that Research/Rec Letters matter more) and stay competitive for Jobs such as Consulting. I had a false feeling of security my freshman year but then for some reason I lost my edge. What adds more to the confusion is how several companies when looking for internships totally overlooked the GPA, thus making me look to reinforce several other aspects (Extra-Curriculars and side-projects) and distracted me from courses. Finally, I think this question can be boiled down to how to restore my final touch and keep a focus on courses/grades (to get back to A's from A-'s) while trying to work on the other aspects of one's education and Professional development.

• Answer:

  A2A.  Addressing the main issues: Membership in honor societies doesn't matter, period.  I was a member of five, and no one ever cared in school or outside of school.  TBP mattered only as an extracurricular activity. A few A-'s aren't going to hurt much if you get mostly A's the rest of the way out.  No problem for grad school or management consulting.  So find and focus on what you're good at and master everything you take. Extracurriculars and side projects serve a few purposes: 1) proof that you can do something other than get good grades, 2) proof that you can work in teams, 3) extending your skill set to softer and less tangible skills.  The payoff is fuzzy, since not everyone benefits the same way, but it's there and it contributes significantly to your post-undergraduate career.  So you should do them, and balance them against your coursework.  Giving them up entirely for an extra 0.05 on your GPA is something I would not do, for example. My primary piece of advice to you is focus and be brutally efficient with your time.  The operative work is brutal: you should budget your time down to 10 minute intervals.  Possibly 5.  With that you should have time for everything you need to do. Some additional thoughts: Berkeley is the primary school that comes to mind with grade deflation: the GPA of their EECS program is 2.7, whereas certain schools in the top 15 EE or CS programs are nearly a point higher.  It also happens to be #1 much of the time.  If you're not from Berkeley and not from a top 5 school, then any perceived grade deflation is inconsequential to outsiders.  If your grades drop, deflation or not, it will affect your chances for grad school or consulting. There are several grammar errors and structural issues in the question details.  It's enough that if that's the question asker's writing, I would advise working on your writing.  As is, it will hurt your chances of getting into graduate school. Decide on consulting versus grad school this year.  You will need to do undergraduate research with the appropriate professor senior year if you want a good shot at getting into graduate school. Good luck.