<p>Is it ever possible for a student double majoring in engineering + non-engineering majors to obtain a perfect GPA at the end of his senior year, given that the student completely holes himself in his academics when it comes to studying and obtains As in most of the class assignments? Is it rather common or am I just being too overly optimistic? </p>
<p>I think this would apply to a valedictorian and just some selected "few."</p>
<p>Well, anything is possible. Is it a realistic goal? Absolutely not.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It is not in your best interest to focus completely on academics. Employers, grad schools, ect. all want individuals who are not only smart and hard working but also show interest in what they are doing. You are much more likely to get into a good grad school with a 3.7 GPA and excellent recommendations and research experience then you ever will with just a 4.0. Same thing goes with jobs and outside leadership activities. </p></li>
<li><p>A 4.0 is possible, very hard, but doable especially in fields like STEM areas where grading is not subjective. But on the flip side STEM classes are fairly difficult thus a 4.0 is still very hard to attain. Getting a 4.0 in humanities classes is IMO harder just because the grading is dependent greatly on the person actually grading your work, so it ends up being more luck than anything.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Not sure how the double major would work … that is without carrying A LOT of extra classes. As an egineering student I took 5 courses every semester and did not have nearly enough elective spots in my schedule to fulfill a second major’s requirements; especially a non-engineering major.</p>
<p>My degrees were in EE and Music performance. My final GPA was above 3.9. I certainly studied a lot, but didn’t “hole myself up.” It requires you to be fully focused on academics, establish a network of friends who you can turn to, and be able to ask for help early and often when you feel yourself slipping. I came in with a lot of AP credit so I was able to take between 4-6 classes per semester. I wouldn’t say it’s common but definitely do-able. I wasn’t national merit or anything, just focused.</p>
<p>4.00’s are very rare in ANY major - it means that every single course has to be an A, which requires not only a high level of discipline but also a very broad type of talent. You might be able to get close enough to round it out to 4.00, but even that is extremely uncommon. At my school, the highest engineering GPA’s were typically around 3.98-3.99, with an occasional 4.00 in something like Industrial Engineering, but not every year.</p>
<p>Doable and possible but pointless. Engineering firms care about what coursework and internship experience you have and that your GPA is above a cutoff (usually 3.0-3.5). For med school you really want to keep the GPA as high as possible while staying active, but a 4.0 is unnecessary. I think that JHU has high acceptance rates for GPA > 3.5. Although at JHU it is not realistic because there is an A- grade. Even if you’re always a great performer you’ll have a hard time not getting an A- occasionally. </p>
<p>Also being a strong performer in college is nothing like being a standout in high school. At least at my high school, grades were mostly determined by how much time you spent studying. At JHU all of your peers will be top students.</p>
<p>That’s what I was thinking. I mean, if the person wants to further his career or educational goals then it is definitely a BIG plus for him to have an unparalleled 4.0 - IMO, it is actually a guarantee for acceptance at any graduate school given that the student is also well-rounded at the same time. Now, I can’t really see how the student will be well-rounded when he insanely focuses too much on academics. Internships, jobs, ECs, research, and last but not least, social life - are of course very critical and I see no way of balancing them with academics on the other scale of balance. Well, except for supersmart, super-managing student of course.</p>
<p>al6200, yes, JHU’s cutoff for engineering-related opportunities is greater than 3.5. I do not think that any engineering student has ever obtained a 4.0 GPA but I might be wrong as this is purely a huge generalization. Plus, given that someone double majors, it is fairly impossible to even dream of a 4.0.</p>
<p>Some people are just gifted smart, insanely smart, that they can get A in classes.
For most of us, getting 4.0 is not an easy task. Even in your HS career, I am sure not many people can get perfect A+ in every class(I am not comparing HS GPA to college GPA).
Some people are not necessarily gifted students, but they are very good at managing time. They can still pull 4.0 or close to 4.0</p>
<p>Don’t aim for 4.0 just so you won’t be disappointed. Just aim for A. </p>
<p>Double major with 4.0. Hmmm I know a guy… double major + two minors . 3.91. The 2007 valedictorian of the entire CUNY City College. He came to US at age of 16 with little English, and he started out with pre-caluclus. He improved and he switched from EE to Physics + Mathematics. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Eder’s confidence in the quality of a CCNY education grew
exponentially after spending the Summer 2006 at the Centre Europ</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>False. While a 4.0 looks great, it doesn’t always translate to a good engineer, and even a 4.0 could have trouble without accompanying experience and interviewing skills.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Also false. Graduate schools don’t give a rat’s behind about being well rounded. They care about being able to perform research and being very competent in your chosen field. If you are getting a graduate degree in electrical engineering for example, they aren’t going to care that you also are well-versed in Shakespeare. They will care that you have a deep enough general knowledge to interact with people in related fields and a deep enough technical knowledge that you can master your chosen field.</p>
<p>Additionally, a 4.0 doesn’t guarantee you admission to graduate school. Plenty of 4.0 students fail and plenty of 3.3 students make it through to getting their Ph.D. There are many other factors that graduate schools care about, most notably research experience and passion. If you don’t have those, you are at a disadvantage. You need that research experience so that you have a proven track record of being able to do research and you need passion in order to show evidence that you will stick around and push through the many obstacles that await.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You need to get yourself out of the High School mentality before your sink yourself early. College is not about hitting the books constantly and incessantly as much as it isn’t about drinking and partying incessantly. Similarly, graduate school and jobs are not like getting into undergraduate programs in that the people doing the hiring and accepting don’t care how many clubs you were involved with. Double majoring is not going to impress many people, as most of them will just sit there and wonder why you wasted your time when you could have gotten where you are almost certainly with a single major and actually had a life. There are very few situations that call for double majoring.</p>
<p>Also, let me tell you, being valedictorian doesn’t mean squat. The valedictorian of my high school went on to a small, average college, got into ecstasy and is a total loser, meanwhile I know a guy who was ranked somewhere around 40 who is now in medical school. High school is not a perfect indicator of later success just like an SAT/ACT score isn’t. You will learn all of this in time, but I figure I should warn you now and save you the trouble.</p>
<p>Possible, but not probable (especially at the really tough engineering colleges).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m curious what your input is on this, but from what I’ve seen, this is how engineering firms compare applicants, in order from most to least important. </p>
<ol>
<li> Internship/Co-op experience directly related to job/internship.<br></li>
<li> Having the most relevant major</li>
<li> GPA above a threshold (usually >3.0)</li>
<li> Soft social factors. Is the person fun and pleasant to talk to? Would they balance out the team?<br></li>
<li> Specific coursework directly related to job/internship.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>From what I’ve seen, if the cutoff is a 3.0, than any GPA substantially above the cutoff isn’t dissected or discussed. A 3.8 is no worse than a 4.0. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I disagree. There are a lot of double majors that make sense. For example, east asian studies + engineering makes sense if one wants to do do engineering sort of work in east asia. Computer Science can also be a nice compliment to another major. Two separate engineering fields, however, is probably a poor choice unless they somehow run together.</p>
<p>You don’t need to “major” in East Asian Studies to be able to efficiently live in Asia. You could learn all you need by doing a bit of reading and buying Rosetta Stone. Am I exaggerating? Perhaps, but you definitely can self teach most of that. Unless you want to be an East Asia Historian you probably don’t need that kind of depth.</p>
<p>Computer science is, for most majors, not a necessary double major complement. Unless you are specifically a computer scientist or in some instances an ECE, the most you will need to know or find useful is programming and writing simple to moderately complex algorithms. You don’t ever need those other theory courses. You don’t need a double major. If anything, you can just minor in it and be as proficient as you need to be. I have yet to run into anyone who double majored and honestly uses both in an engineering field.</p>
<p>To me, a 4.0 implies you are not challenged enough. Which means you are not learning enough. There is no point in having that as a goal. If your school can’t offer enough challenge, or you do not take the harder classes, then there’s no real point in being there.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sorry I skipped this part last night. Hard to quote via iPhone.</p>
<p>Anyway, I can’t say for a given company what their criteria for evaluation is, but GPA is far from the whole story. The way I understand it is that they usually have a cutoff GPA somewhere (usually between 3.0 and 3.5 depending on the company) and they basically toss out resumes below their cutoff and then go through the rest looking at relevant experience first.</p>
<p>Perhaps someone with a little bit of recruiting experience can further clarify this though.</p>
<p>
I find that odd because it isn’t extremly rare to find 4.0 in top schools like MIT, Yale, Stanford, just to name a few. Striving for a goal is never a bad thing, if and only if the person can accept imperfection. What is bad is to expect a 4.0 and won’t settle anything less than a 4.0. A student’s primary job is to be a student, and striving for a 4.0 is basically taking the advantage of education to its fullest extend. In another word, we all have the potential to earn A in every single class (even the hardest course). If you work hard, to the best of your ability, and you still can’t earn A in every class, then you have already earn an A for yourself (being a hard worker), even though you receive a B+ on your transcript. The fact that we earn a B+ can lead us to find out what to improve. Is it because we are careless? or because we didn’t take the advantage of the office hours? or because I didn’t join the study group? or because I let some topics slipped away? or because of personal issues?</p>
<p>
True, and I do think that it is not the best goal to have. However, if you have a 4.00 at a “lesser” school, I do think it implies that perhaps you should have picked a harder program. If you have a 4.00 at a “top” school, then more power to you - you have done the best you could at one of the best possible programs, and there was no higher you could have reached.</p>
<p>“True, and I do think that it is not the best goal to have. However, if you have a 4.00 at a “lesser” school, I do think it implies that perhaps you should have picked a harder program.”</p>
<p>This is more towards what I meant, but nonetheless, how many students at MIT or Yale or Standford with 4.00’s sacrifice taking harder classes in order to maintain a ‘pretty’ gpa for their transcripts? Maybe some really are experiencing their education to their fullest and still surpassing the hardship through determination, but I doubt those people are the majority?</p>
<p>I hear people all the time talk about finding the easier class that fills the same requirements if it means they can keep their gpa high.</p>
<p>I’m just saying, a 3.00-3.50 is a practical goal. 3.8 is practical even if requiring a good amount of effort. What will a 4.0 achieve that a 3.8 won’t, when you get past the superficiality?</p>
<p>I knew a guy that made a 4.0 in MechE in 4 years. Got 1 of 3 jobs for the Air Force in research. With that said, he’s lacking in the social area.</p>
<p>I have a very good friend who got a 4.0 in four years in computer science at UIUC. He was the only person that graduated that highly that wasn’t going to grad school and instead took a pretty sweet job in his eyes and is not lacking at all in the social department.</p>
<p>Some people have it and some people don’t. For me to be able to get a 4.0 in undergrad I would have had to sacrifice more social time than I did and I would have to actually give a crap about my gen ed classes. I had quite a bit less than 4.0 but turned out just fine. You don’t need a 4.0. Your goal should just to do the best you can do while also growing as a person during college. Yes you need to learn academically, but there is a lot about life to be learned as well when you aren’t in class. Find that happy medium.</p>