College Grade Point Average as a Predictor of Adult Success: A Reply

The following is a reply to an article which appeared in the Spring 1989 issue of Public Personnel Management, entitled “College Grade Point Average as a Predictor of Adult Success: A Meta-Analytic Review and Some Additional Evidence,” by Robert D. Bretz, Jr. The article that follows suggests that the conclusions made by Bretz about college GPA as a predictor of job success need to be reconsidered. The purposes of this reply article are to suggest why the results presented by Bretz have likely underestimated the potential usefulness of college GPA as a predictor of job success, and to highlight the findings of a recent comprehensive research effort to investigate the effectiveness of measures of education, including college GPA, as predictors of job performance.1