<p>I'm currently in undergrad so I know I still have a long ways until I reach grad school, but I would like to plan ahead a bit.</p>
<p>So for now, my plans are to finish my BS in Mechanical Engineering with a 3.5 GPA or greater, then work in industry for a good 2-3 years, then hopefully I can get into a good grad school that the company I'll work for will pay for so that I can get a Masters.</p>
<p>Now the question that I would like to know is: Does your GPA from your Masters really matter? I heard if you plan on getting a PhD or going into research it does, but if I only plan on finishing school with a Masters and working the rest of my life in industry will my Master's GPA even matter? I'm not trying to sound like I plan on slacking off in grad school, I know grad school is hard. I'm just trying to see if getting like a 3.0 GPA is good enough for the situation that I am in.</p>
<p>Yes, it still matters, and in some ways a bit more so! First, most programs have a minimum GPA of 3.0 - go any lower and you get kicked out! Second, recruiters still care about GPA as one of the basic measures of your competency, and since all your courses will be relevant and in your specialty, it serves as a much better measure than it did in undergrad!</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you plan to stay with the same company, then the GPA does not matter for the reasons above but for the fact that often tuition reimbursement depends on getting an A or B in the course. At some point after finishing your M.S. and then working for a while, the GPA is no longer relevant.</p>
<p>Ok, it looks like I got two completely different responses. So just to make it clear, As long as I maintain at least a 3.0 GPA I should pretty much be fine right? </p>
<p>I heard that employers mostly care about the quality of the work that you do in grad school (like what exactly you did: projects, publications, etc.) than quantity (GPA). Is this true?</p>
<p>
Yes and no. You got different responses that correspond to different groups of people:</p>
<p>Universities care about your GPA in determining whether to kick you out (<3.00 GPA) or give you special opportunities or awards (high GPA).</p>
<p>New companies care about your GPA because they honestly don’t have much other objective data to go on. With the focused nature of the coursework, a high GPA is almost always a good thing for them.</p>
<p>If you get a degree with your current company, they won’t care about your GPA so long as you maintain at least a 3.00. Why? Because they aren’t hiring you, and even in promotions they have much more knowledge about than a GPA could ever provide.</p>
<p>Make sense?</p>
<p>
Well, you won’t get kicked out, but if you are looking for funding or research opportunities or anything else that might be even slightly competitive, a 3.0 will make it very hard for you.</p>
<p>
Yes, but GPA is not a quantity factor, it is very much about quality.</p>
<p>The other thing to remember is that many (most?) grad programs practice grade inflation. In those programs, anything below a B is like getting an F - more than one C can get you kicked out of the program. As are expected and Bs are like “you did okay, but you can do better.” For that reason, generally speaking a master’s GPA of less than 3.5 is seen as pretty low.</p>