<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I'm finishing up my last year as a mechanical engineering undergrad at Cal Poly, SLO this spring and I'm finishing up applying for an MSME program at UC Davis, Irvine, and Santa Barbara, as well as U of Colorado Boulder. I'm applyng to my own school too, think I'll have a good chance here at Poly. I have two summers as a technical intern at a national lab, pi tau sigma secretary, and (I think/hope) good recommendations. My GRE general scores are 550V, 770Q and 4/6 analytical writing. Could have done better there, but I did not sleep the night before due to stress and now it's too late to take again in time for next fall :p. I think I have a strong statement of purpose, I'm looking to get into fuel cell, fuels processing maybe bio- or hydrogen reformation research. Mainly I would want to study a lot of fluids and thermo, and hopefully use my mechatronics/controls background to aid R&D in this area. </p>
<p>My GPA is 3.28. Altough it's averaged around 3.5-3.6 for the last year and a half. This is the main thing I'm wondering about- on one of my applications they only leave room for a tenth of a grade point. Would it not be appropriate to round to 3.3?</p>
<p>More generally, is this difference in reported GPA enough to matter? Could 3.3 be a cutoff below which I might not be in the "considering" pile of applications? Like a preliminary screening before they even start calculating the GPAs from transcripts.</p>
<p>Also just wondering what some people (who've been to engineering or science grad school maybe) think my chances are for these schools with my stats and background? Any other schools I should consider maybe in the future if I don't get in to any of these school? I was originally considering Florida (UF and UCF) but ran out of time in the application process...</p>
<p>Thanks for any input!</p>