<p>I have a low ug gpa (2.7ish) in EE which severely restricts my options for grad school. I can get into a low ranked state school CSUF for my masters. My question is, if I kick ass as a master's student with good GRE scores what are my chances of making it to a top 10-15 program for a PhD? Is my ug record going to still weigh down heavily even after an MS?
Thanks
Hus</p>
<p>Minimum to apply is 3.0 I believe.</p>
<p>If Penn State is considered top 10 for your standards, I know two people who were rejected with over 3.8’s from Poly. this was for masters degree. I read about a CC member who did get a phd with 2.8ish, you have to search for the thread.</p>
<p>If you are having that much trouble in undergraduate school, what makes you think that you’ll do well in a graduate program? I’m not trying to be mean, but 2.8 kind of tells me that you either:</p>
<p>1) didn’t try (in graduate school, I imagine that you’ll have to work pretty hard!)
2) just aren’t a good fit for a graduate program
3) (possibly) worked on a lot of projects and did some undergrad research, instead of focusing on classes</p>
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<p>That’s just what they say, not what they do.</p>
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<p>No, that’s the assumption you come to when someone has a 2.8 undergrad for business or psychology, not engineering.</p>
<p>I have to agree with silence. Success is driven by ability and effort. If a person has a 2.8 GPA, he either had a problem with one or the other. Either way, there’s a problem.</p>
<p>Now if you can make the case that it was a low level of effort, then follow it up with a very high MS GPA (which needs to be 3.8 or higher, since 3.5 is basically average in an MS program), you can make the argument that the problem has been resolved. The issue is that a Top 10 engineering program gets plenty of applicants with very high undergrad GPAs and GRE scores - so why should they take someone who had a problem in the first place?</p>
<p>CSUF as in Fresno State? I know some mechanical engineers there (it’s my home town) and they are pretty sharp.</p>
<p>What if your transcript shows that you are really good with your major material, though other classes are what pulled you down. Such as if you had a few semesters where you only took EE classes and got 3.8-4.0 gpa, but when compared to other semesters when you took math, english, etc… you got around a 2.8.</p>
<p>CSUF = Cal State Fullerton</p>
<p>And if you get into a low to mid level Masters program and basically ace it the whole way through, I see no reason why you couldn’t get into a good Ph.D. program, since that would have proved that you actually do have the ability, and that whatever problems were there before have been solved. I would be more worried about getting into the Masters program, though. The 2.8 is not a cakewalk to get anywhere with as far as grad school goes. Then again, I had an overall of 3.2 and got into several top 15 schools for masters, though my GPA within my major was 3.5, a bit better.</p>
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<p>You really should have read the rest of my post. And why the disses on other majors? Engineering really isn’t all that. My point was:</p>
<p>If he truly is giving it all he’s got, and getting a 2.8 in undergrad, then entering academia is not a wise decision. If he is talented enough to be able to study advanced topics and do original research, but still is getting a 2.8, then he is lazy and probably not self-motivated enough to do graduate school.</p>
<p>I think if he were just too busy with projects/research and such to focus on classes, then he’d be a good fit for grad school, but it is pretty unlikely. If you are smart enough to be successful with projects/research, etc., then probably you are smart enough to get decent grades in class without much effort.</p>
<p>Just try to apply. You never know what happens. Show them how ur improvement . I believe most of schools only look at ur technical courses for admission</p>
<p>If you do well as a master’s student, it will help you. Cultivate relationships with profs to get good letters of recommendation. Also, try to get good research experience. If you’re going for a PhD, they’ll care about that.</p>
<p>At some point during your master’s, you might want to try working over the summer with a prof at one of your target schools. If you impress said prof, this could be a huge factor in your favor when you apply for a PhD there.</p>