There is a school of thought that says journalism students should only worry about clips they receive from internships and not about grades.

Sure that makes sense if a student is going to work for a newspaper but most students won’t. Most journalism students won’t even work in mainstream media. And, honestly, all students will need more than just written clips to succeed in 21st-century journalism.

That’s a given.

Armed with the knowledge that most journalism students won’t be working for the typical journalism organization (the kind that doesn’t care about grades and used to not care about degrees), it’s probably sound advice to prepare for the reality of other fields and endeavors. Plus, the average U.S. worker changes careers 3-5 times. It’s smart to be prepared to work in a variety of careers, which means having a well-rounded education (and it means caring about learning too, not just clips, because those clips won’t help a student out if he changes careers).

First, many fields and companies do look at GPAs, and when they do they usually want at least a 3.0, if not higher (the world of business and finance comes to mind). No, I don’t know of any newspaper that really cares about grades, but the vast majority of journalism students will never work for a newspaper.

Second, many students will graduate and later realize that the traditional journalism world is not doing so well. Many won’t be prepared for new media opportunities, they’ll panic and want to try to go to graduate school. Except, graduate schools care deeply about GPAs.

Graduate schools aren’t looking for students with 2.7s. A GPA is a pretty good indicator of work ethic, and a student shouldn’t close off the opportunity for additional education. And let’s not forget that grants and scholarships are often given to students based on grades.

Newspapers and most journalism companies don’t pay well, and education costs are far outpacing inflation. Scholarships and grants can make a huge difference in the amount of loans a student may have to take out. Trust me, you do not want to have a lot of student loans while making $25,000.

And I, nor anyone else, really knows what future new media companies will look for in candidates. I know, however, those companies will eventually be the bulk of journalism opportunities. A lot of new media is about learning new skills, and new media companies may look at GPAs as an indicator of the ability to, or the desire to, readily learn new skills.

Now, I’m not saying to forsake internships or the ability to get good (multimedia and online) clips, but journalism students need a balance. Journalism student Sean Blanda wrote:

My GPA doesn’t matter. I have been told this by nearly every journalist I have asked. All they want are clips, clips, clips. So what is my incentive to do that absurdly mundane assignment I was just given in class?

Now Sean isn’t your typical journalism student. He has online and new media skills. Written clips probably won’t mean much to his future as a journalist, and I believe he’ll have a brighter future than most of his peers.

So, I think advice aimed at being a writer for a newspaper makes little sense for him. In fact, advice on how to be a writer at a newspaper makes little sense for any journalism student. Ultimately, Sean will probably find himself eventually working for a company other than a newspaper (and maybe even going back to school), and who knows if they’ll care about GPA or not.

I know they probably won’t care about his written clips. It’s hard to predict the future. That’s why it’s best to be prepared for a variety of outcomes and possibilities.