<p>I am an admitted student at Tamu for Mechanical engineering, and a national merit scholar. I was named mechanical engineering scholar, and one of the requirements for this is that I keep a 3.5 GPA. How attainable is this,and what is the average GPA for a mechanical engineer? What percentile is a 3.5?</p>
<p>I am also in the honors college. Do students often have a hard time maintaining the necessary GPA to stay in the honors program?</p>
<p>Jason, my son is in a similar situation (admitted to EE). I asked the same question on CC a few months ago and got the impression that the average is probably below a 3.0. However, to get into graduate schools one does need a 3.5. So, think of your scholarship as something A&M is willing to give you, as long as you appear to be Graduate School material.</p>
<p>Here is a link the grade reports and you can see the average for each college, and even by classification. What I can tell you is that it will be a challenge to maintain your 3.5, but it is very possible with excellent study skills and hard work. </p>
<p>[Registrar:</a> Report](<a href=“http://registrar.tamu.edu/FacultyStaff/Report/Default.aspx]Registrar:”>http://registrar.tamu.edu/FacultyStaff/Report/Default.aspx)</p>
<p>The cumulative GPR report will be of most interest to you since that is what is required to retain your scholarships. The mean GPA for the College of Engineering was a 2.982 for the Fall 2012 semester, with 11% of the students earning above a 3.5. This is comparable to the rest of the university. </p>
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<p>I’ve been hesitant to answer this question for privacy reasons. It just seems so personal to me for some reason. But I asked the exact same question on my son’s behalf several years ago. People weren’t initially forthcoming, probably for the same reasons that few have given you direct answers here. But eventually, a few pitched in and gave me some specific figures. And so, I feel like its time to pay that back. :)</p>
<p>My son was also an NMF and is an engineering major. Only for the purposes of allowing you some comparison value, I’ll say that he had extremely high stats as an entering freshman, in all categories (class rank, GPA, test scores, etc). He has had no trouble at all maintaining a 3.5 GPA. He does work harder and for longer than he ever did in high school, but he tells me he could work far less and have much more free time if he were willing to accept less than an A in a class. His impression is that there’s a big difference between the work required to pull off an A and the work required to pull off a B. he hasn’t gotten a B yet. </p>
<p>He has several hours of free time each day and ample free time each weekend, though he also always does some homework on the weekends and meets with his small groups at least once each weekend. He does some sort of homework on every school break as well. So, he does have to do a lot of work for his A’s … but they’re not hard to achieve for him, if that makes sense. And he still has time for all sorts of other things each week (clubs, the gym, friends). As I said, if he wanted to settle for a few B’s, he’d have much more free time and he’d still be able to maintain a 3.5 overall. </p>
<p>I sure hope that helps you in some way! I’m not sure about average GPA’s or percentiles. </p>
<p>All my best! :)</p>
<p>Oh. I also meant to say, the honors program GPA is not problematic at all, nor are the honors requirements.</p>
<p>Good luck! :)</p>
<p>I should elaborate a bit more on my response above. National Merits do quite well for themselves and the vast majority of them are able to maintain the 3.5 cumulative GPA required of them for their scholarships. I’ve personally seen the data of this particular sub-group and they are well above the curve when compared to their peers. </p>
<p>It is not easy, but it can be done. Engineering is so difficult because you are not eased into the curriculum like most majors. Instead, you dive in the deep end of the pool from the start and you either sink or swim. There are many support services to help you along, but the key is to understand that you need assistance and seek it out. Often, many of the students are too stubborn to do so until the damage has been done.</p>