Experience or GPA

Applying to College
1

<p>I am an undergraduate international student majoring in mechanical engineering at a small college. I have about 9 months of work experience in the field and a 3.4 gpa. I have one more year left to graduate after which i am going to wait one year to get a good GRE score to get into a top Engineering grad school. I have been offered a co-op for the coming semester which thus limits raising my gpa to maybe 3.5 by the time i graduate. However, if ever to spend the next one year concentrating only on my courses, then i could raise my gpa to about 3.5 and above.</p>

<p>My question is should i then go for the co-op or raise my gpa if i were to think of getting into a top grad school.</p>

<p>Any advice would really be appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Please help!!!</p>

3

<p>Raise your GPA if you want to get into a top grad school, although it would be ideal to have a high GPA and do the co-op. you might have to start looking at other grad schools that aren’t extremely selective.</p>

4

<p>But is 9 months of experience and a high gpa good enough for top colleges or possibly more experience and relatively low gpa (about 3.5) good too.</p>

5

<p>why ask here when you could march into the office of any of your engineering professors, all of whom have a PhD and are well acquainted with the admission process to grad school, and getting their counsel?</p>