More Friends = Better Grades

Popularity pays off!

I really miss the days of screaming down the stairs, “Mom!  Can I go over to Ashley’s house to eat dinner and watch TGIF tonight!?”

By Alexandra Gehringer

No, I’m not reminiscing about Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Boy Meets World.  I’m talking about the “my dad will drop us off if your mom can pick us up” type of hang outs favored among middle school girls the world over.  In my house there were rules, though: no seeing friends on school nights, no sleepovers if my grades slipped below B’s.  At the time it seemed so unfair.  And you know what, it was unfair!  Mom and dad were totally salting my game.

Turns out, their best intentions may have actually been hurting my school performance more than helping it. A new study out of UCLA is claiming that more friends equals better grades.  While the study focuses on adolescents, I like to think the same principles can be applied to college students as well.  Seriously, think about it:

1. Intro to Geology.  Rocks (ooh!) and glaciers (ah!) and some kid next to you drooling on your shoulder as he snores through another riveting lecture (…ew!).  You know there’s no way you’re going to make it through an entire semester of this snoozefest alone.  Since habitual skipping and boring professors put you on the highway to SeeYouAgainNextYear-ville, I say round up a posse and brave the storm together.  Good friends are always there to poke you when you zone out and cram with you at 2am the night before the exam.

2.  When you’re four tequila shots in, up on the bar shaking what yo mama gave ya, you want a true friend either a) making a fool of themselves right there along with you or b) standing down below holding their purse against your butt to hide the fact that you didn’t wear undies with your minidress. This doesn’t really relate to grades, but it’s still a good case as to why you should have friends.

3. You know how they say the best romances evolve out of friendships?  Well, I think the best grades and the best romances evolve out of being extra-friendly with your TA!  Instant A!

4.  If one keg equals roughly sixty beers and one party consists of thirty friends, how many kegs do you need to get everyone drunk? See, friends encourage you to brush up on math even outside class!

5.  As an alumna of the Greek system, I can speak from personal experience when I say having a whole house of sorority friends saved my grades on more than one occasion. I present to you the two most beautiful words in my undergrad vocabulary: test files.  It was law that after you took a class, you did not recycle those old binders of notes and exams.  Would you throw away an impossible to find designer purse?  No?  Well then why would you throw away Professor Leery’s legendarily brain-twisting psych exam?   Make your own test file system with your circle of friends and you’re destined for success!