engineer stressing about her future..help!!

<p>So, currently I'm a sophomore civil engineering major at a prestigious university. My university is probably top 30 in the US but is not highly ranked for engineering. They were ranked around 60th for their engineering school. I really struggled freshman year in the intro science classes, and after freshman year my gpa was a 2.8. I calculated that this semester I would need to get a 3.6 in order to get my gpa up to a 3.0. I'm scared that even if I do raise my gpa to above a 3 by the end of sophomore year, it will just go back down again during junior year when I have to take all the really intensive engineering classes. But either way, I feel like I just screwed myself going to a "name" school. Would I have been better off at an ok school with a better gpa? Was anyone else in this same situation? With a crappy gpa will my school's reputation get me anywhere? Would it be possible to get an internship? Any advice is very much appreciated!!</p>

<p>Generally, people will do better in their major classes opposed to the pre-reqs.</p>

<p>Why did you struggle in the first year?</p>

<p>I will second the opinion that many people struggle their first year or so in college. It ain’t high school. You are in with people more aligned with your skill set and therefore the classes will faster paced and more is expected of you. </p>

<p>You need to step up your study skills and learn time management. But it should get easier if you do that. Also the upper level classes are (or they should be) more interesting and are building more on your basic skill set. Your grades should go up. As a hiring manager, I would not penalize someone who started slow as long as they finished well.</p>

<p>You are over crediting your ‘prestigious’ school and not giving enough credit to your major here. Many would argue, with some good evidence, that large state schools have tougher grading curves than many private schools. Engineering is tough everywhere you go. </p>

<p>Look at gradeinflation.com to see what I mean. Granted, the students are not all the same at these schools, and it doesn’t break down GPA by major, but it’s hard to argue ‘prestigious’ schools are particularly difficult when the average graduating GPA is 3.5, or say in the case of Tufts, 3.4. </p>

<p>And besides, not much value in worrying about this now…just remember the other reasons you chose this school.</p>

<p>The biggest concern I have with your comments is that you said “civil engineering” which is a field that is really struggling right now. Even at the top schools, the placement rate at graduation is 40-50%. This means that to find employment, you need to make yourself one of the better students at your school.</p>

<p>How do you do that? If your GPA is average or below average, you need several semesters of experience. So you’ll want to get on the co-op track or find several internships over the next few years. Do whatever it takes to get these internships - network at alumni events for your college, apply for jobs in rural North Dakota - whatever it takes. With a couple of internships and a GPA above 3.0, you should be able to find employment at graduation.</p>

<p>You have a lot of things going on.<br>
First off, ignore Mr. civil sucks, because civil is one of the few engineering areas that doesn’t have to worry about being shipped overseas. You also don’t need “several internships.” You need one good one that invites you back and offers you a job when you graduate. Even if you choose to take a different job it looks really good that they invite you back and extend an offer.<br>
You do need to get your gpa up. But don’t compare yourself to Humanities majors. They are two different animals. Your grades are not horrible for an engneer, but they are average.<br>
This is what I have learned from hanging out on CC. Humanities majors go to name schools where they will learn critical thinking and communications from professors who have connections to employers who hire people with a BA in anything. STEM majors can go to any school that has a good rep in their STEM subject and duke it out for top grades, co-op jobs and research spots. In other words State U is fine for STEM but a bad choice for Humanities. You seem to have done the opposite by going to a name school that isn’t known for civil engineering. Plus your grades are average.
What you need to do now is decide if civil is really what you want. If it is you should consider transfering to one of the top engineering schools unless your school can put you into an intership this spring or summer. If you love your school and really want that general name recognition, you should consider switching to a straight science, math, econ or something along those lines that plays off your math skills but is going to put you competing in the area your name school is known for - critical thinking and communications. Recogonize that on average this means a drop in starting salary from 50k for a civil engineer to 35k for a BA. But keep in mind that engineer’s salaries tend to “top out.” More importantly for you it means the difference between being at the top of the pack and getting lost in the middle. 20 years ago I would have told you to finish the engineering degree even if it means graduating at the bottom of your class because companies on government contracts were paying a permium for female engineers. If you love it, go for it! If you are trying to figure out who to blame for this torture consider that a women who can do math and write/sell can set her own destiny. You could be the next Donald Trump still building stuff but be the one making the decisions instead of just doing the calculations if you can leverage those connections at your top name school. If you do love it go for it though. Junior year is hard for every engineer. We all wanted a higher gpa. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could minor in engieering and major in business?</p>

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<p>My post wasn’t defamatory (though yours was - I would appreciate if you refrained from that in the future): my point stands that Civil Engineering right now has very low (below 50%) placement rates at top schools (and I assume it is similar at other schools, as well). This has nothing to do with the quality or value of the degree, but rather the current state of construction and development within the United States. Given current conditions, it is very likely that the market will not have fully recovered in 2 years when this person graduates.</p>

<p>A student in program facing very high levels of competition need to be more proactive than someone in Computer Engineering (or similar), which has an 80-90% placement rate. </p>

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<p>Ideally this us true. But I’m not sure if you’ve seen the market lately. Right now you’re seeing a much larger than usual number of firms hire interns as short-term labor rather than as a 10 week interview.</p>

<p>Coming out of college, someone in a very competitive fields needs to distinguish herself. Several internships does that, as would several semesters with a prestigious firm.</p>

<p>My point being that construction will come back. (I hope) The design and production of anything they can stuff into a shipping container will not. It used to be just hair dryers made in China and now it is refrigerators too. Mechanical is doing much worse than civil. Electrical and computer are currently rolling along, but their day will come as they are easily phoned in or stuffing in a box. Civil is like being a plumber. You just have to be there. Which might have something to do with the high competition in that area. Perhaps we both have something to add to this discussion. 10 week interview doesn’t make any sense to me. 10 weeks of grunt work, followed by less training time and another 15 weeks of grunt work is more like it. Perhaps you are refering to the entitled generatio between us.</p>

<p>The actual design of buildings and bridges can be outsourced, but management of the project cannot. However, that’s why there are building construction degrees now.</p>

<p>Virtually every non-service job can be outsourced; but they won’t be. As China increases it’s economy, the salaries in their country are also increasing, which decreases the value of being in China except for labor-intensive processes. Meanwhile the infrastructure and responsiveness of the industrialized economies will keep professional and other non-labor intensive processes in the US and Western Europe.</p>

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<p>When I pull the career surveys from the schools that post them publicly, I see:</p>

<p>Civil - 40-50% placement
Mechanical - 55-65% placement
Aerospace - 55-65% placement
Electrical - 75-85% placement
Chemical - 80-90% placement
Computer - 80-90% placement</p>

<p>The only ones really doing worse than Civil (relative to their normal placement rates) are Architecture majors (who are in really bad shape: 25 -35%). The current projections are for at least another year of the current unemployment rate, followed by a slow recovery. When the civil engineering positions start to open up again, you have a large number of unemployed civil engineers to work through before the graduate employment rate returns to normal. All-in-all, it will probably take 3-5 years before the market fully recovers to the normal 65-75% placement rate for new graduates. </p>

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<p>That’s what most summer internships used to be: a 12 week job interview where the hiring firm courted the student and the student tried to demonstrate the potential to add value. More and more these days, though, internships are turning into a source for cheap labor for 12 weeks: you’re hired to run calculations for 12 weeks with no intention to hire. You can’t bank on an internship company hiring you anymore.</p>

<p>I agree with a lot of your post, but this particular opinion is way too overly simplistic. </p>

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<p>Lots of those in humanities go onto graduate or professional school and this is just fine. I’m a product of non-Stem from State U and I managed to stay in my field and I’m now in the top 1% (probably far more successful than all those who majored in engineering the years I was in Arts). I am just a sample of one but I know so so so many who have made terrific successful careers from non-STEM undergrad at State U. Only those in business and engineering seem to think it’s a crazy path. The fact is most of the great careers are not so linear and predictable from the outset. </p>

<p>All rather moot since I strongly doubt too many are reading this here and care about non-STEM. But what the heck, for those that might be thinking of leaving engineering, I’d like to suggest they not think their lives are over because they didn’t choose a vocational and practical degree (and I say this as someone whose spouse and kid who are in engineering).</p>

<p>I’ve been on this board a few months, since April. And I keep reading about this private LAC and that private LAC and 35-55k a year and I kept scratching my head thinking what the heck is wrong with state U. My first one went to a well respected state school for computer science for about 13k a year. I went to a well respected state U for engineering and that school is still reasonably priced for IST (OOS is a shocker) And yet these parents keep insisting that State U just isn’t good enough for their precious little ones. So I finally came to the conclusion yesterday that since “Humanities degrees (don’t call them Liberal Arts or someone will beat on you about math and biology being both!) are worthless” (I know they aren’t.) It must therefore be about the people you meet and the networking you can do. Therefore State U just isn’t good enough for a humanities degree because all the good professors are at the privates. I guess I will revise my theory. And I’m quite thankful to find one parent who still believes that State U is a reasonable choice.</p>

<p>I totally agree that State U’s are worth it. In fact my kid studies engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and that school’s starting salaries beat out all other State U’s and most of the privates in California. Tuition there is $7,800 a year. Starting salaries for an undergrad engineer is $62K and with a master’s as high as $85K.</p>

<p>Banjo is that list for who had jobs AT graduation? It seems low to me. Maybe I am so used to seeing the reports from those grads who voluntarily report back well after graduation. I’m also use to seeing a % go to grad school. I know it took me 7 month to find my first job. Salaries for BSME are still higher than salaries for Civil. But the ASME mag is about 20% the size it was in the 70’s and 80’s. I’ve watched that shrink, and I’ve seen Automotive, Aerospace and Consumer Products shrink. It is really a sad thing all the way around.</p>

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<p>I’ve been to UC’s and state schools. The quality of education is better at state schools. Smaller classrooms, No TA’s, and better contact with professor. </p>

<p>State schools are actually superior to UC’s in quality of education in the classroom. However since US News says X UC & private school is better than Y State school, it must be true, even though people are US News probably never attended both to actually compare, or even took 1 class in engineering.</p>

<p>I work with USC, UCLA, & LMU, and other CSULB engineers like me. The quality of work we do has no reflection on what school we went to.</p>

<p>Not to completely take over this thread, but a couple of you are missing that my theory is on humanites degrees: “State U might be a perfectly a good place to get a STEM degree (Acording to my payscale list of top engineering schools about 1/2 of them are public.) BUT if you are going for a “worthless” humanities degree you better make sure that you are going to the snootiest school you can possibly afford.” That was my theory as it applied to humanites degrees. My policy on picking an engineering school is to check out several of these lists (USNews, PayScale, etc.) and see if there is a good one fairly close and reasonably priced that is known for its research and its placement rates and salaries. If the degree is in demand and you can get in state tuition why would you go anywhere else? Totally different theory for STEM which can be mearured and compared than for humanities that are all warm and fuzzie and don’t lend themselves to objective measurements.</p>