<p>Im majoring in Electrical/computer engineering.
I think I would finish my first degree in 2 years and a half. My GPA is quite low about 3.0 right now and I haven't taken any upper division courses( I have done all the supporting courses and General Education). I hope I could pull up</p>
<p>I would like to ask In order to get a job like in Silicon Valley or any big companies like Microsoft, Sony, Intel, Apple.... How high GPA do u need to get? </p>
<p>Also Im planning to get in to apply for grad school( MS engineering or MBA) after getting my engineering degree. </p>
<p>Which school do u guys recommend me to apply in order to get admitted in case I only have 3.0 at the time I graduated ( I think I have no chance for top school like MIT, Cal Tech, UCBerkley, etc....). I want a known school .
Also what should I need to prepare before I apply.</p>
<p>Your GPA is not that bad.</p>
<p>I don't know what sort of undergrad program you're in. But a 3.0 coming out of a very strong program will be somewhat more impressive to both employers and grad schools than a 3.0 coming out of a run-of-the-mill program. Your skills will be as important or more important than your GPA in many cases.</p>
<p>As for an MS program...even if you do not get in the first time, you can work and try again. I have a friend, an EE (coming out of a top program), who had a very low undergrad GPA. She worked at Intel for two years, and is now a master's student at Stanford. Another EE friend with a low GPA worked for a while and took individual classes as a special student at Columbia in order to compensate for her low GPA and get admitted to their master's program (she is doing extremely well there).</p>
<p>What about a GPA of 3.5 from a lesser known small engineering school combined with summer internships/research? What schools is this in range of? Do I have any shot at schools like MIT, Caltech, CMU? Looking for a PhD in EECS?</p>
<p>nasreddin: Definitely apply (though apply to other schools as well, of course). PhD admissions at the top schools tend to be driven more by research experience, recommendations, SOP, and fit, as long as your grades are adequate (and they are).</p>
<p>Thank you. Is it common for people to be admitted at top schools with only summer research experience? (as in nothing too exciting during the school year)</p>
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Is it common for people to be admitted at top schools with only summer research experience? (as in nothing too exciting during the school year)
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<p>It is more important that you have good experience than when it is (though it can help to have sustained experience with a lab). The reason for this is that the PhD is a research degree, and they want to know that you have some idea of what is involved in research. There's an essay by a CMU CS prof about grad school applications which says that for their PhD program, anyone without prior research experience was rejected, regardless of how good their stats were.</p>