Can You Score a 4.0 College GPA? Ultrinsic Says Bet on It!

A new company called Ultrinsic Motivator Inc. has an interesting proposition for students: place bets on your grades.

The website, which currently allows students at 36 campuses to place wagers on their academic performance, could help keep students motivated during college -- and, with any luck, help them graduate with less or even no debt.

Here's how it works: A freshman who bets $20 that he will graduate from college with a 4.0 grade point average will win $2,000 if he pulls off the feat. Theoretically, at that 100-1 payoff rate, a student could bet $2,000 that he'll graduate from Harvard with a 4.0 GPA -- and use the winnings to pay for the degree (as a practical matter, the site doesn't allow bets that large). A winning bet of just $600 on a 4.0 GPA would be enough to pay for tuition, fees, and room and board at the average four-year public college.

And the site is not just for optimists and high achievers. Students can also bet on their own failure. According to The Associated Press, "You can also wager you'll fail a class by buying what Ultrinsic calls 'grade insurance.'" Bets can even be placed on such things as a bad GPA for a single semester.

Schools currently participating in Ultrinsic's plan include Harvard, Princeton, UCLA, and Boston College. So if you're planning for this fall to be a non-stop booze-fueled orgy -- not that we are suggesting it should be! -- now is the time to place a bet so you can at least potentially cash in on your own decadence.