[tkahn6]

This was generally my philosophy in high school. So I fully understand your point. The honors program I'm in requires a 3.5 but I never realized how fulfilling undergraduate research can be. That's definitely something I will look in to.

[tsally]

I should have qualified. The only reason that might be reasonable to maintain a high GPA is an honors program or some other program with an arbitrary GPA requirement (i.e. 5 years BS/MS http://www.cs.vt.edu/undergraduate/degrees/5yr-BS-MS).

I will say that I started my college career in the honors program and on the 5 year BS/MS track. I just couldn't wait long enough to start doing real work. ;)