<p>Hypothetical situation. A person goes to gatech and majors in aerospace engineering. </p>
<p>If he graduates with a 2.75 gpa, will he be saying down the road "Wow my life would be so different and I'd be way better off if I had tried harder to get that 3.25-3.5"?</p>
<p>Down the road? No, not really assuming that he managed to overcome the 2.75 and get a good job after graduation. Once you get out into the workforce and have experience, that trumps just about everything.</p>
<p>Well I mean, if a 3.5 will get a job with Boeing, wouldnt that experience be a lot better than say a job with a company that hired him with the 2.75 which will make him more valuable? </p>
<p>For some reason I have this idea that if I graduate with a lower gpa such as the one mentioned I will get a more boring job (like working on how aerodynamics affect a runway or something) versus a more top end job (like working on the dreamliner).</p>
<p>For engineers, cooping and what special projects/inventions/doohickeys they did at school speak louder than a high GPA. Although a high GPA can be important, it can be a “must” to even be considered for certain top-tier jobs at big companies.</p>
<p>Frankly, I’d rather work for a small company.</p>
<p>Your GPA is just one factor (though an important) factor that will dictate what companies will interview you and eventually give you a job. It isn’t the only factor by any means, relevant internship experience, extracurriculars, research, leadership and networking skills will also play a role.</p>
<p>Once you get your first job and enter the industry your GPA and in most cases the school you went to will be an afterthought and won’t matter at all.</p>
<p>Tomservo, do you think that working in a smaller company is still as fulfilling (esp in aerospace since that involves a lot of money, and less money means smaller projects)?</p>
<p>I guess my point for asking these questions are mainly putting in the effort why I am still pretty early in my college career…I know that sounds bad. If putting in the effort means I get to work on way cooler things with the large companies versus getting an average GPA where I won’t have many options and end up with a less exciting job then I would. Is it accurate that a higher GPA/coop/cool projects will generally mean more non-boring jobs?</p>
<p>Question is, can you learn the material? Can you show that you’ve learned it? If you struggle at the learning phase, someone’s bound to have to hold your hand excessively during the application phase.</p>
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<p>Uhh, if you knew what school I was going to, you would not be saying that. Let’s just say no one “holds your hand” at my school.</p>
<p>"Uhh, if you knew what school I was going to, you would not be saying that. Let’s just say no one “holds your hand” at my school. "
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<p>I think hasuche means is that if you have a low/substandard GPA, it’s hard to convince employers that you have learned the material and can work independently on harder stuff. </p>
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<p>It’s more like a higher GPA/internship/projects will let you compete for a wider range of jobs, including cooler ones. </p>
<p>The point is it doesn’t really matter if you go to GATech, Berkley or some other university, employers want to see top performing candidates regardless of their institution.</p>
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<p>Ohhhh No because I haven’t done that thread yet and I really wanted to. Sowwy</p>
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<p>Is this thread to convince me that a GPA is important in showing your work potential? That is not what I intended it to be. I am very well aware that the more effort you put into something the more you will get out of it.</p>
<p>There is a difference between getting a good gpa at my school and a substandard one, and quite a large one at that. It would be the difference between committing my mind body and soul versus winging it to the best of my ability. </p>
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<p>OK, thanks</p>
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<p>Doesn’t take a genius to tell that you are at Ga Tech considering your location says “Atlanta” and you mentioned GT in the first post.</p>
<p>However, it really doesn’t matter what school you go to if your GPA is below a certain point. Regardless of what school you go to, 2.75 is going to give the impression that you either didn’t know your stuff, or you didn’t work hard (even if that isn’t the case). Regardless of the school, the fundamentals are still the same, and no school is so good that a 2.75 will be hired over a 3.4 without having insane connections. You would need those kind of connections or internships or something in order to compete with the higher GPAs from your school OR another school, and if they have similar experiences and connections, you are probably hosed and will have to work your way up to that point by working a few more boring jobs first.</p>
<p>A 3.4 is better than a 2.75 and my schools prestige doesn’t matter that much. Now tell me something I don’t know.</p>
<p>I guess this is the part that I wanted to know about </p>
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<p>So like do you think the top grads that go here will go to work for say the NASA international space station and the lesser ranked grads might go to say…how aerodynamics affect highway billboards?</p>
<p>Well I don’t think billboard aerodynamics is a very thriving field…</p>
<p>It really is a matter of luck at some point because as bone said, you might have to work boring jobs at NASA before you can make it to the cool stuff. However having a strong application (GPA, internship and etc) will give you the latitude of being able to choose between a wider gamut of jobs.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that relevant experience is very important too. While there is a stark difference between a 3.5 and a 2.75, if you have a 3.5 vs a 3.3 and the lower GPA has aerodynamics experience, he’ll have an edge.</p>
<p>I suppose you could still find yourself working at NASA or something. I will use Lockheed for an example. I would imagine that it would be the difference between getting into the Skunk Works immediately and starting off looking at the drag on the landing gear. One is the super high tech stuff, and one is pretty mundane and not that interesting (at least to me), but I bet with the right experience and a good interview, you could at least still get a job in a company that HAS interesting jobs, you just MAY have to work your way into those.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks a lot</p>
<p>I would rather work for a smaller company because there’s a greater chance of working on designs versus doing tedious grunt work on some senior engineer’s designs, and greater flexibility. But then, I’m going for ECE, not AE. But even the big defense contractors deal with subcontractors.</p>
<p>If you want to be an engineer, and want to do something cool, you have to try hard. period. There’s no excuses. GATech is a good school, but in prestige nothing close to CalTech, MIT, Stanford, Pton. You have to be willing to work hard to be an engineer. And sometimes that requires a lot of sacrifice.</p>
<p>And nobody here is impressed by what school anybody goes to. Studying differential equations or the 4D calculus of fluid dynamics or semiconductor physics is the same at MIT as it is at State U. At the graduate level, it might make more of a difference but it’s still greatly exaggerated even then.</p>
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<p>I don’t understand, I’m definitely not the ideal hard working aspiring-to-be engineer but I thought georgia tech aerospace engineering is a highly regarded program.</p>