So I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a BSc in Aerospace Eng. My cumulative GPA was a 2.3. This link explains it all(http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16636919/#Comment_16636919). One of my rants when I had no idea where I was going with my career. But anyway, I had an unusual college experience. My cumulative GPA was low but I had a high semester wise standard deviation. In other words, there were semesters where I was pulling a sub 0.5(no kidding here, almost got kicked out twice), and others where I was pulling a high 3, my 8th semester(Senior year) GPA was a 3.6 and placed amongst the top 3% for that semester. Basically, my GPA got better with time, junior year is when I started to get really serious and started to like what I was doing. This untimely spike in my academic performance did help but it wasn’t enough for a significant rise in my GPA, even though I managed to plateau it for a year and a half. However I was determined to make it to grad school.
After graduation, no company or school in the US gave me a second look, for that reason I had to leave, I was/am an international student from Pakistan. So basically I was screwed with no chances of getting a first world education again. However, I was still determined to make it somehow. I managed to get a job at this technical university back home as a research assistant and was paid a measly 440$/month. They hired me because I managed to impress with my technical knowledge during an interview. For that reason, they took a gamble and hired me. I managed to prove myself by supervising projects for a professor at the university, two of these projects received recognition from a few technical companies. In due time, I was leading an entire division of projects. I spent two years doing this. I managed to get some killer recommendation letters from this place. The main theme of my statement of purpose was also based on grit and how I climbed the ladder at the university.
So currently, after a round of applications, I have two offers right now for a fully funded MSc in Electrical(Robotics), one from KTH, Royal Institute of Technology and the other from Technical University of Denmark, both are ranked(33 and 36) in the top 50 in the world, according to QS:
(http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/faculty-rankings/engineering-and-technology/2014#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=). I am still waiting for a reply from ETH Zurich.
So summarizing what I did:
- Be really, really and I mean REALLY dedicated to your field. Do your research, enjoy what you do
- Acquire an interview where GPA is not an issue or impress them with your technical prowess so that they overlook it
- Prove yourself, I’ve mentioned it numerous times above but I’ll say it again, if you like what you do then there is no stopping you. I apologize if I sound like a broken record full of clichés
- Emphasize on grit and determination on your statement of purpose, if you do this right you might just be able to convince schools to give you a chance. Your professional performance should supplement this claim along with your letters of rec
So my situation might not be similar to most of you since I am based outside of the US but the “game changing” model that I presented above should be applicable anywhere.
This post was intended to provide a glimmer of hope for those of you in the predicament I was in two years ago. I hope I have succeeded.
PM me if you have any questions