<p>Hello,</p>
<p>You probably won't see a case like this most of times but I will try to keep it short and hopefully get some answers.</p>
<p>I am an international student who studied high school in the states and graduated.
High school GPA: 3.73 uw
SAT: 2170
SAT Subject Test: Math 2, Chemistry, Physics 800/710/770
I have graduated in 2009 and was accepted to UC San Diego to study chemistry.
Though, before finishing my first semester I dropped out due to family issues and whatnot, came home then went to Australia on working holiday visa (it's a one year visa with possibility to extend one more year that allows you to work freely)
Haven't really worked in a great firm that I can put on the applications.
Then I came to the UK to do a bachelors (reasons behind it is that UK has a 3 year bachelors instead of 4, just to save some time). I am in the UK at the moment, studying accounting and finance which I hate with passion, finishing up my final exams in 3 days. This is my last semester so will be awarded with a bachelors degree.
The dilemma starts here. As much as my unusual undergrad history, it will be most likely I will not get anywhere near good grades let alone ok grades. I will probably get a third class honours degree which will be somewhere around 2.0 gpa. I presume grad school with this grade is out of question.
I have given a lot of thought and I would rather study in engineering field, specifically electrical engineering following my fathers footstep. </p>
<p>I have thought few options and just wanted to know if any of them may be possible</p>
<ol>
<li>Do a second bachelors. I hope to finish it soon. Though UK bachelors do not have any general education class requirements. Basically I've been studying accounting and finance with a bit of economics and business classes along the way. No math, English or social science classes. So not sure if this will take a long time.</li>
<li>Go into postbaccalaureate program. I am still not sure what this exactly is but it says the program is for people who already finished bachelors degree and working towards grad school. </li>
</ol>
<p>There are some personal extenuating circumstances for my poor undergrad performance (quite serious health issues and family issues)
I mean I certainly would not want to do 4 more years just to do the bachelors. Was hoping for 2 or less than going straight into PhD instead of masters to save some time as I've been thinking of doing phd anyhow.
Getting a good letter of recommendation from university is quite out of questions as my school is top 5 in the UK (not Oxford or Cambridge though) and with so many students, lecturers will not even know who I am and they will basically write one based on my grades in the most ruthless manners.</p>
<p>Eventually I would like to study PhD at UCSD, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Duke or Carnegie Mellon (yeah I know, for someone who ruined his undergrad, I'm asking for too much)</p>
<p>What are my options or any other options you may think would be more suitable please do not hesitate to let me know</p>
<p>Sorry tried to keep it short but kinda hard to do so. Hopefully I posted on the right section, if not let me know I will move it to the appropriate one and delete this one. </p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>You don’t have any of the pre-requisite courses to do engineering in the UK (notably the maths), so you would need to do a foundation year + 3 years of engineering + 1 year for masters + 3 years for a PhD. Note that not many PhD programs will let you in w/out a masters (unless it is a joint masters/PhD course, but then the PhD is just a year longer, so it is the same difference). </p>
<p>Just based on what you have said here, it looks as though you tried to take a short cut by going to the UK, took a course you weren’t interested in and did terribly. Now you want to change directions, and take a short cut to a PhD in an unrelated field. </p>
<p>So, some questions to ask yourself. What has convinced you that you have an aptitude for, and interest in, electrical engineering? Do you have any evidence that you would be better in grad school than in undergrad? What would help an admissions person say to themselves ‘this is a good candidate for our program’? Do you have the kind of perseverance to stick out a long and challenging course of study? </p>
<p>If you are serious about engineering, your best bet (imo) is to go back to the US, take the prerequisite courses at a community college with a good state university that will let you transfer in from the CC (Maryland is a good one, and they are good at international students). You may be able to do your engineering pre-reqs in a term (over the summer even); if so, and if you can transfer enough credits from your UK degree, you may be able to finish your undergrad engineering degree in 2 years. Then, if engineering really is what you are good at and you have been able to sustain some good quality work, you will be in a good position to apply to a good graduate school.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comment!</p>
<p>Are you from the UK? Seems like you are very familiar with the UK university system. I have chosen accounting and finance because I am generally good with numbers and it was the only course which would lead me to second year of undergrad right after one year of foundation course which would eventually get me a bachelors in 3 years despite the difference between 12 year american secondary and 13 year first to sixth form in the UK. </p>
<p>There was no math classes. Mostly finance, accounting, business theories and economics which none of them will help in the field of engineering. I have always been fond of science. My father has a PhD degree in electrical science and I studied chemistry at UC San Diego despite dropping out in less than a semester.</p>
<p>I was suffering from gastric cancer and had to remove 85% of stomach last year. My parents are on the verge of getting divorced and my best friend has killed himself. I don’t usually share my personal circumstances online but was just thinking that clarifying the types of situation I am under might help. I mean I have had a 3.7 uw gpa in high school, relatively high SAT score and 6 APs with all of them more than 4 (took AP calc AB and BC so that would be counted towards college credits?). If I studied for GRE, I am capable of scoring high as I am good at big tests like that. </p>
<p>I was thinking more like getting credits from 4 year school, preferably top 100 school so it helps when I apply to grad school and also I can take upper division classes as I reckon community colleges only have 200s classes which are not upper division classes. I mean I am willing to study and take GRE if necessary just to prove that I am doing second bachelors to work towards masters and phd and to show I am confident in taking challenges.</p>
<p>Hope I cleared things that was a bit ambiguous in the question </p>
<p>I suggested CC b/c you can enroll immediately and knock out the pre-reqs w/out having to wait for admissions cycles (I got the impression that you were in a hurry). </p>
<p>UMd is ranked 15th in the US for electrical engineering (grad schools), but state universities (esp, UC-Berkely, UT Austin, U Ill -Champaign Urbana) are in the top 10 for undergrad engineering. Check each one, but typically CC credits not only transfer to the state uni (and the pre-reqs you need are all 200 level or lower), but guarantee admission from the CC (so faster transfer over). I suggested Maryland b/c I know that they are really used to international qualifications, which might make it easier for you to get your existing credits transferred in- it varies a lot by state- some states get more international students than others, so have more experience.</p>
<p>Engineering is not a grad school that you can go to without doing undergrad in engineering or something similar (comp sci, physics, math, etc), so the GRE won’t help you until you have that (at which point the GRE is usually required, not something you do b/c you are confident in taking challenges). </p>