3.1 GPA: Can I get into an industrial engineering masters?

<p>One of my state flagships has a top 5 industrial engineering programs. I'm actually a junior in college and will graduate by December 2014 since I am ahead of the game. The thing is, though, my GPA is relatively low at 3.1. However, this is in a quantitative major at an Ivy equivalent (think Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Caltech, etc.), and I got a few C/C+ in some of the quantitative classes. If I destroy the quant section of my GRE, will I still have a good chance at getting in?</p>

<p>If you are after a professional Masters degree, the admission requirements are usually a bit less than for a research degree. In addition, you will probably need to self-finance the degree. however, you certainly have a chance to get in depending on the competition. Perhaps you should think about getting some work experience first, however. Professional programs value work experience as much as GPA.</p>

<p>I would say your chances aren’t great at a top program, it’s going to come down to other parts of your application. The quant section of the GRE will not help your application for a field like engineering. The quant section on the GRE contains no math past a highschool level.</p>

<p>If the rest of your app has strong points, I’d say go for it.</p>

<p>GA Tech is my #1 choice for Industrial engineering. I also have some private wealth management internships and also a middle market/boutique investment banking internship under my belt. Say I get a high score on GRE Math and also pull off a high score in the GRE Math subject test. How would my chances be? What about other strong state schools like UMich Ann Arbor or TAMU?</p>

<p>The high GRE is just expected and isn’t going to help you out. Taking the Math GRE may be an interesting strategy. However, at least a small portion is likely to be in topics you won’t likely have taken if you weren’t a mathematics major.</p>

<p>The issue for any program is the gpa. You might get a little weighting for being at such a strong school. They do that in CS so maybe they do that in your area, it looks like it. GT says average gpa for that major is 3.6-3.7. How can you show that you can pass all your classes? </p>

<p>No one can do chances at the top grad school level. I think you’d better talk to your adviser/professors about a strategy.</p>

<p>What math classes have you taken? The math GRE might do something, but that’s also up in the air. Almost no applications will require it, and therefore they won’t be able to compare you to anyone else. However, if you do well, it could make up for a lower gpa.</p>

<p>It depends on how strong you are in math, you’ll be going up against generally all math majors.</p>

<p>What would be some schools I could look into assuming my GPA doesn’t go up? I’ll try to get to 3.3 by the end of graduation, but what can I do?</p>

<p>You might want to delay graduation for a semester and solidify your improved GPA. If you show that your last two years are much stronger than the first two, it will help somewhat. The biggest problem for you is to get past the initial triage in the most selective programs. However, as I said before a professional Masters program may have slightly lsee stringent requirements. They expect you to self fund and they want the tuition.</p>

<p>Another option might be to get some work experience for a couple of years and then go for a Masters. The work experience is usually a plus for engineering graduate programs.</p>

<p>As for which schools to apply to you really have to do the research on different programs and see what they say about admission standards.</p>