Considering going to graduate school - Thoughts?

Graduate School
1

Hey all,

I graduated from Clemson last year with a degree in Industrial Engineering. I had a job right out of school as an Industrial Engineer for a fortune 50 company. I can’t stand it and it’s clear that this is not the right field for me. One option that I’m looking at is going to grad school for another field and I’m trying to gauge my chances/options.

The main problem is that my undergrad GPA was pretty low at 2.9. I messed around a lot in undergrad and didn’t take my classes seriously. I realize that grad schools will have no sympathy for this, but it is not an honest reflection of how I will do given the chance in grad school. Working for the last year has woken me up and I will be extremely motivated if I do go down this path.

So my questions are this:

  • Will my low undergrad GPA keep me out of all reasonable grad schools? I would not be interested if I wasn't able to go to at least a mid tier school that I think gives me a good opportunity once I'm done.
  • Would there be any problems applying to a program that is not Industrial Engineering? The impression that I've got is that there wouldn't be, but I'd like to make sure.
  • Is there anything I can do to help my chances? I see that you can try taking non-degree courses (either undergrad to "boost" GPA or grad to prove you can handle it), but I would want to work until I was accepted so I'm not interested in actually physically taking these classes at a university.

I’m confident that I’ll be able to get a good score on the GRE and I’m hoping that having 2 years of work experience in a respectable job (I would be applying to start in fall of 2017) would help as well.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

2

What other field? Which university? Those will determine your options.

If you do know the field you want to move into, and you have a university or two in mind, read through their graduate catalogues carefully, and then contact the department(s) that interest you and ask them your questions.

Depending on the field of study, it might not be hard at all to pick up a couple of non-degree courses part-time. Check the courses that are offered nights/weekends and online.

3

Some subjects require you to take a subject matter GRE in addition to the regular GRE. Also, are you looking at masters or PhD programs?

4

Don’t run back to graduate school just because you don’t like your job, or even your career field.

With a highly quantitative, in-demand major like industrial engineering, you can reinvent yourself in a lot of ways. Have you considered trying to apply for lateral/related positions at other companies? An industrial engineer from a Fortune 50 company would be a whiz kid at consulting, for example. (Are you even sure that the entire field isn’t for you? Do you think you might like it at a different kind of company?) IMO it’s always better to try to work a different job and launch yourself on the market than go back go graduate school. Graduate school is only good if you are very sure about what you want to do next, and you need the graduate degree to actually do that thing.

But to answer your questions:

-Maybe, but probably not. You wouldn’t be competitive for PhD programs, but there are some MS programs that might admit you, especially if you get a few more years of work experience. However, top programs are usually pretty competitive and a 2.9 might be a bit too low unless you did some extra legwork (worked more years and maybe took some graduate classes and aced them).

-Maybe. It depends on what kind of program we’re talking about. Applied math or operations research? Of course not. Chemistry, English literature or political science? Yes. The farther afield the program is from your major, the harder it becomes. The exception is professional programs - MBA, MPA, MPH, MPP, stuff like that - because those programs don’t really care about your major. Also, some other engineering fields may be more or less hard to transition into depending on how much prerequisite coursework you’re missing. (Like maybe mechanical engineering is relatively easy but chemical engineering takes some legwork.)

-Well, that’s one of the top things that you can do - take some graduate-level classes and ace them. You don’t have to stop working; take them in the evenings or on the weekends (many universities offer this).

Also, 2 years is good, but more years between your low GPA and grad school are better. (And really, there would only be one-ish years between when you graduated and when you applied, so you can’t make the argument that the grades happened in your youth and you’re a different person now.)