I don’t know if I can agree with this kind of broad statement. I will agree that this is the perception, I don’t know if there is evidence (other than anecdotal) to support it!
I remember that in my last years at PSU, 3.98 was the top 0.5% of the university, and the highest GPA in my engineering college graduating class was a 3.99. I knew some of these students and while they didn’t bowl me over as the most outgoing people, I didn’t notice anything they had sacrificed - they were in clubs, they had friends, they did research, etc.
My son is far from superhuman, but he is an officer of IEEE, captain of club volleyball, practice member of varsity volleyball, plus other activities, and has a 4.0 in electrical engineering. Also had a girlfriend until recently. He doesn’t sacrifice any area of his life. Some people are just smart enough and organized enough to do it all.
Were you hanging around a lot of pre-med or pre-law students? (The GPA focus of medical and law school creates incentive for pre-med and pre-law students to grade-grub.)
It wasn’t the case from what I observed among engineering students (but with a sample size of one 4.0 student). Also, engineering curricula tend to have less leeway for finding a lot of “easy A” courses.
@da60net-haven’t been on this thread for a while but just saw this and read your comment about
“I did a rough head count of people who garnered summa cum laude (top 2% ) in last year’s graduating engineers (yes I played the video for an hour while eating lunch). I was surprised that the majority were electrical or computer engineering majors, and usually those who also doubled in math. My conclusion is that in fact those with the highest gpa’s are actually those who study the hard stuff, not project management…”
One thing you need to understand that you may not be factoring in is that prior to 2012 there was no +/- system so that it was far easier to get a 4.0. Those graduates had 2 years of “easier” 4.0’s. As u have just experienced, one A- makes a big difference and I would bet there were a lot of A- over the course of two years for those graduates. So, I want to see what happens after everyone has had to deal with the +/- for 8 semesters…
I work for a large corporation (Fortune 50) and many departments typically use 3.0 GPA (engineering degree) as a cut off line for a phone interview. I can speak for my department, but typically that’s how it’s done. We receive hundreds of resumes and it’s nearly impossible to give everyone an equal chance…
Interesting twist I’m seeing here. Sounds to me like if a kid goes to a school that allows one low grade to be dropped from the gpa, and if dropping that grade gives them a 4.0, then he better off keeping that low grade even if the rest of the resume shows a well rounded individual with field experience, it is better to show a less than 4.0 . Counterintuitive but interesting.
What do you guys think about Macromolecular Science Engineering with Biomaterials track? Is it worth the hassle given that I would probably have to get at least a MS to land a job?