<p>I'm currently a 1st year Computer Engineering major at University of California, Santa Barbara, which is top 20 in the nation for Computer Engineering. I finished 1st quarter, fall quarter, with a 3.1 GPA. I took the following courses:</p>
<p>CS16 - C Programming Course
Math 3A - Calculus
Chem1A - Chemistry
Chem1AL - Chem Lab
Writing2E - Technical writing for Engineers</p>
<p>This winter quarter, I'm taking the following:</p>
<p>Math 3B - Calculus with Applications
Physics 1 - Physics with Motion (Includes calculus)
ECE 15A - Fundamentals of Circuit Logic Design
Writing50E - Technical Writing for Engineers
ECE1A - Computer Engineering Seminar (Pass / No Pass - No Grade)</p>
<p>My dad is pushing me to get a 4.0. I keep trying to explain that it's ridiculously hard to get, especially with this course load for an engineering student. However, he persists, saying that his friend who works at Oracle says that they only hire interns with a 4.0 GPA and nothing less. </p>
<p>Can anyone please provide some insight into this? It would be appreciated. I'll show my father what you guys say. </p>
<p>You need to do two things. First, tell your dad that if that’s the case then you’re crossing Oracle off your list. Second, stop listening to your dad as a source of internship advice. That’s why they have a career center. Go talk with them. Find out what employers recruit on campus, and how current UCSB students have found jobs at other companies as well. Get an understanding of what the companies are looking for. BTW it is somewhat uncommon for first year students to get internships, or at least used to be. Maybe that’s changed.</p>
<p>Also it’s interesting that dad hasn’t suggested you take part in student run projects. Companies don’t hire interns as a reward for a good GPA. They hire them to accomplish something. Which brings up the age-old conundrum. If you need experience to get a job, how do you get that experience? The answer is student projects. Most engineering programs have a variety of competitions and projects that students run. Taking part in these give you valuable practice actually building something. This is a way to show future internship companies that you will be able to accomplish something when they bring you on board.</p>
<p>A second thing dad and his friend didn’t mention is that co-op positions may be a better option then internships. Internships tend to be part time during school or full-time during summer. Many students want these, so the competition to get them is pretty high. One of the savviest people I knew was just going to a Cal State school, but he had had experience at some of the best engineering companies around. How did he do it? He started with a co-op position. A co-op position usually means taking a quarter or semester off of school. Far fewer students want to do this, so is actually pretty easy to get a co-op position. And you learn more if you spend five or six months there anyway. In the long run graduating a year later is not a big deal in your life. Many engineering students are on the five-year plan anyway. And co-op positions tend to pay pretty well. Once you’ve had a co-op position then you are really going to be a stand out applicant for future internship positions.</p>
<p>Again, stop taking advice from dad and his friend at Oracle. You got a career center… You have engineering advisers. Use those resources!</p>
<p>So let me backpedal a bit from the tone of my previous post. I don’t mean to slam dad. He obviously cares about you and wants you to do well. That’s why he’s asking his friend(s) that work in the hi-tech industry what it takes to get work experience before you graduate, and such experience is indeed a key to being a strong applicant for full-time work. Its just that dad is relaying information that is probably unreliable; maybe dad’s friend is trying to impress him with what a top-notch place Oracle is, and part of that is convincing him how picky Oracle is about who it hires. A made-up “4.0” fits the bill.</p>
<p>That said, a 3.1 is respectable but you should re-examine what you are doing to see how you can improve. I had posted about this when you asked back in December.</p>
<p>Edit: I recognized your screen-name and found my old post. But I also found your post saying this
This</a> is actually pretty common for frosh at good colleges. A lot of students were in the “smart kid” group in HS and got by with little regular studying, just cramming before tests. But as I pointed out in my reply in your other thread about your GPA, students that do well in math/science/engineering courses spend 6-10 hours each week studying for each class. </p>
<p>So at this point you’re well into the 2nd quarter. And my rhetorical question is this: have your study habits changed? If you’re doing the same thing then dad’s remarks are going to mean nothing because you’re unlikely to get far enough in an engineering major to apply for internships. Nationwide, and probably at UCSB too, 1/2 to 2/3 of those starting in engineering majors end up switching. I’d bet for most of them it was because their hearts just weren’t in it. You can cram and maybe salvage a passing grade for a while, but look at the ECE classes you’ll be taking over the 4 years and I promise you that you can’t teach yourself enough in a few hours to pass those classes. I don’t mean this in an accusatory tone, just one of honest information.</p>
<p>I should backpedal to and say that your dad might be telling the truth but his friend is lying. Either way, as bodangles said, if this company really only hires 4.0, they either don’t have any interns or all their interns went to BS engineering programs.</p>
<p>Does he mean 4.0 literally or figuratively? You probably won’t get an internship at a major firm such as Oracle with a 3.1 GPA. If you had a 3.7 to 4.0 then you would have a GREAT chance. Figuratively your GPA is too low for the best internships out there. </p>
<p>Some companies are GPA picky; others are not. But even the GPA-pickiest are not going to expect 4.0 GPA students, who are not that common.</p>
<p>However, it is commonly said that the most common GPA threshold set by employers looking for interns, co-ops, or new graduates is 3.0. At 3.1, you may want to try to do a little better to get yourself some more breathing room.</p>
<p>4.0 You’re pretty much set on any job at any company GPA wise. You’ll get many job offers even before you graduate.
3.5 Still really good. You’ll have numerous opportunities and companies may fight for you.
3.0 Opportunities are there for you but you’ll have to look for them. Try to reach out to your network.
-3.0 It’ll be tricky. Look to non-class experience in your jobs or research if any to show competence. Reach out to your professional network to see if anyone can help you out.</p>
<p>First off, companies don’t mail out job offers without interviews. A good GPA means a promising candidate. They next want to talk to the candidate to see if the person is a fit for their company. Someone that happens to test well but has no real understanding of what she/he is doing – not so good. Someone with an abrasive or arrogant personality – who wants to hire them? Someone with unrealistic expectations about pay or advancement – let someone else handle them. And so on.</p>
<p>Second, in the real working world engineers understand that GPA is not everything. Engineers I know would hire a candidate with a good GPA and a real love for the field (shown in part by things like student engineering activities, the ability to talk about what they’ve done and how they did it at interviews) in a heartbeat over a 4.0 lacking those things.</p>
<p>Sorry, the world is not as simple as you see it, reducible to a single number. I’d bet a fair sum you’re a student and not in the workforce, nor have you had an internship yet.</p>
<p>GPA is a great way to do an initial filtering of candidates. Too many applications to read? Drop everyone who doesn’t have above a 3.5 or a 3.7 or whatever. You’ll still have plenty of candidates, and then from a smaller more manageable pool, you can consider things like project experience, social skills, etc. The GPA gets you in the door, especially for your first internship. After that it’s far more about experience than anything else.</p>
<p>Probably the simplest way to say it is that a “good” GPA is necessary, but not sufficient, to get an internship or job at graduation. A “bad” GPA may get you rejected immediately, but a “good” GPA will only get you to the next step of the selection process.</p>
<p>What is a “good” GPA depends on the employer. Employers that do not look at GPA at all implicitly define a “good” GPA as whatever it takes to avoid dismissal by your college (usually 2.0). But others may define “good” GPA as something higher, like 3.0. GPA-pickier employers may have a higher threshold like 3.5.</p>
<p>It IS helpful to have the highest GPA you can to have the most options for internships. S had a 3.5+ At a very competitive EE program, and was able to get internships and campus research positions, as well as excellent job offers. All you can do is your best, and see how things evolve. </p>
<p>Have heard that some firms have varying GPA minimums before they will even consider a candidate, but your campus placement office should be able to help clear this up for you. Very few firms that I am aware of hire students for internships who have only completed one year of engineering anyway. </p>
<p>S was happy to take a break from engineering after his first year and work with kids as a teaching assistant over the summer. He did intern the next two years. </p>
<p>Thanks for all of your advice guys. I think I’ll be getting a GPA between 3.40 and 3.68 this quarter, so that should definitely raise my overall GPA. </p>
<p>^That’s also a good point as well. Regardless of what companies may or may not want with regards to GPA, this was only your first quarter. You have lots of time to raise your GPA. So just work hard, do your best, and it’ll all work out in the end.</p>
<p>I jsut checked the Oracle website. They do not list credentials for their interns but do have 4 student intern profiles (again without stats). The 4 students listed were from MIT, Stanford, and Brown. Enough said. I agree with the posted above who suggested you speak with someone at your school regarding summer internships and recruitment. </p>