<p>My son, who is a first semester junior in Mechanical Engineering is not very enamored with it. He claims he can't think of anything he would like to do any better, so he is sticking with it. His GPA is marginal - 2.6. I don't know how to advise him... any ideas?</p>
<p>A lot of engineering students have “low” gpas. Classes are hard, grading is hard.
He should ask his profs if he is “on track.” 2.6 doesn’t sound so “marginal” to me. (Several engineers in the family.) Is he taking advantage of all academic help available at his school (study groups, tutors, TA’s, profs)?</p>
<p>2.6 is not bad. He’ll probably like being an engineer far more than being an engineering student. I’d tell him to hang in there!</p>
<p>It’s his first semester. And a lot of engineering students get low GPAs, as someone above noted, even much much lower GPAs than they were used to getting in high school. </p>
<p>Instead of trying to get him to switch, focus on ways you can support his goals. Try to help him identify where his study weaknesses might be, to make sure that he is performing at the peak of his potential. Is he disorganized? does he not use his study time efficiently? could he be getting more help from profs or peers? Where does he think he struggles the most and why? </p>
<p>Encourage him to explore tutoring options at his school. Ask if he is going to office hours to get professors’ assistance with projects BEFORE he gets overwhelmed. Suggest that he form a study group with other majors, both to make friends and to improve his work. Most of all, remind him that while he doesn’t have to get straight A’s, he should be doing everything he can to get the best grades he is capable of. The better his grades, the easier things will be when applying for internships, jobs, and graduate school. </p>
<p>But as things stand, he’s doing okay. Could be better of course, but certain not bad.</p>
<p>Since you say your son is a junior…how have his grades been before this year? Is the 2.6 his overall GPA for 5 semesters?</p>
<p>Has he been getting B’s and C’s since freshman year?</p>
<p>Are the C’s in engineering and the B’s in other classes?</p>
<p>Does he like his major? Can he see himself doing the work?</p>
<p>when I saw the title I somehow thought it stood for Middle English. Shows what I know.</p>
<p>^You’re not alone, DonnaL. I thought the same thing.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that your son talk to one of his professors, his official academic adviser, or a staff member in the College of Engineering (maybe the Dean’s Office), and ask about:
- Internship options available to him with his current GPA or slightly higher
- Success rate of students from that college on the Professional Engineering exams.
Most places, engineering GPA’s are low.
In fact, my niece is a member of a Facebook group, “My GPA is lower than yours, because I’m in engineering.”
If your son likes designing and building things, or inventing things, and if he is reasonably creative and hard-working, then his GPA should not be a real obstacle, even in these times. His options will be significantly better, I think, if he passes the certification exams (see Wikipedia or just use Google, if you are unfamiliar with the exams). They are usually taken after graduation with a B.S.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many who graduate with degrees in engineering go on to work in other fields. The Eng degree indicates that the student is capable of working hard and has analytical abilities. Before the banking crisis, many eng grads went into investment banking, for example. I don’t think that having the engineering credentials will ever hurt him, unless what he wants to do requires another specific specialty.</p>
<p>DH was an ME major. He (now) laughingly recalls that he made the maximum allowed D’s but still managed to hang in there. He had five job offers when he graduated and has been employed in the power generation industry for twenty-nine years. The poster who said the work is way different from the schooling was right.</p>
<p>Before he got to Jr. year he must have taken Calc. Physics, espcially mechanics. And depending on school, he could have taken statics, dynamics, even thermodynamics or fluid mechanics. If the majority of those are C’s and B’s, the prospect won’t look brighter. I know engineering is hard, but that GPA need to be worked on a bit.</p>
<p>That is not a low engineering GPA. In fact, I think a couple of years people at my school were getting into Eta Kappa Nu (EE) or Tau Beta Pi (general engineering) honor societies with under 3.0 GPA. My GPA was around 3.0 I think. I had little problem on the PE exams, which I took many years after graduating. And in many states, MEs don’t even need to pass those tests.</p>
<p>If he hates it so much that he doesn’t feel he can finish then he needs major reevaluation and I really have no suggestions. But I will say that as an engineer with 25 years experience there are lots of angles you can pursue when you get that degree, and it really helps you to get a foot in the door. In my career I have done test, design (this is an art you learn on the job mainly -and there is software to help you), international customer interace, and currently work at a public agency setting regulatory policy and get to do a fair amount of writing. THere are traveling engineers, sales engineers, and managerial engineers. I know very few engineers who utilitze the hard math they learned in school in day-to day work. Although that exists if you are so inclined.</p>
<p>He could get a career assessment and counseling at his university’s counseling center. Typically such things are offered for free or very low cost to students.</p>