<p>So I'm currently a senior Mechanical engineering student. I would really like to go to graduate school, but my gpa isn't the best. However, my last 60 graded hours are above a 3.0. My first two years were terrible due to some things going on at home. I really enjoy power and acoustics and structures. Are there any good grad schools out there base admission on the last 60 graded hours instead of my gpa as a whole?</p>
<p>thanks in advance</p>
<p>A few questions:</p>
<p>When do you graduate, and when are you hoping to start grad school?</p>
<p>Do you want a masters or a PhD?</p>
<p>What is your GPA? “Not the best” doesn’t help here, nor does “above a 3.0” - be specific.</p>
<p>Do you have any research experience?</p>
<p>@cosmicfish </p>
<p>I am graduating next may so 2015. I would hope to start fall 2015. I have a 2.55 right now. My last 60 hours are a 3.15. I dont have much research experience other than a project we have done on scramjet fuels. I have done a lot of STEM out reach though. By the time I graduate my gpa should be up to a 2.75.</p>
<p>Okay then:</p>
<p>First, why do you want to go to grad school, and what makes you think you can handle it? You have no research experience, which means you don’t have any way of knowing if you can handle research, and your GPA suggests that grad-level courses will crush you. Do you realize that most grad programs require you to maintain a 3.00 GPA while you are in the program, and despite the fact that the courses themselves will get much, much harder? You don’t seem like a good fit for grad school right now, and would probably be much better served by striking for industry and revisiting the idea of grad school with a few years of experience under your belt.</p>
<p>Second, 3.15 on your last 60 credits with no research experience is a non-starter for “good” grad schools even if they ignore your cumulative GPA. I doubt you could find even top-50 grad programs that would give you serious consideration with your current resume, and your “best case” GPA is not really any better. You really need some research experience to have chance at anything decent, and you have very little time to pull that off.</p>
<p>So I see two on-schedule options for grad school:</p>
<p>(1) Forget about “good” and start thinking about “any”, and be prepared to pay. There are probably a few schools out there that will consider you if you are willing to pay full tuition (and please note that this is NOT a good idea!), but they will not be schools that people will really seek out for their engineering programs.</p>
<p>(2) Do something truly, genuinely amazing with your last year. Get straight A’s in a bunch of top-level courses, do a year’s worth of truly noteworthy research at the same time, think up a plausible reason why they should ignore your earlier performance, and get a couple of highly-regarded researchers to write glowing letters on your behalf. Most schools will still pass you over, but some decent ones might bite.</p>
<p>I am not trying to beat you down, I am not trying to be mean, but you are simply in a terrible position for grad school, and you need to make some realistic plans.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish is absolutely correct. You need to work for a few years and then go back for a M.S. first even if a Ph.D. is what you want eventually. Work experience can provide you the maturity and experience to be able to succeed in a graduate program. i have seen this happen often at my university. More importantly, the GPA is much less important with significant work experience.</p>