<p>I have around 70 more credits to go. Next semester I'm gonna try my hardest after not going to school for a year. I'm 23 years old. I can't waste anymore time. 2.56 gpa bad? I think I pull it up to a 3.0 by the time I graduate. Im majoring in Petroleum Engineering btw. I'm scared I won't get any internships because of my gpa. </p>
<p>(2.56)<em>63+x(70) = 3.0</em>(133)</p>
<p>x= ~3.40 GPA required for your final 70 credits to get a 3.0. That’s a pretty big jump from a 2.56 average. </p>
<p>A 2.56 is pretty bad. Most GPA cutoffs are between a 2.8 to a 3.2 (from what I’ve seen). You probably won’t be able to get work with big companies, your resume will just be trashed by the application software most likely. </p>
<p>Well depends on how many credits constitute a full time student. For instance in the CA CC environment a full time student has 12 units per semester. Some schools won’t accept transfers if you have over 60 unit or won’t count them.<br>
I dont wanna discourage you but i’m not sure how far a 3.0 GPA would get you in engineering. UCLA Samueli has a cut off of 3.3 GPA Min. Realistically i think you’d need a 3.7-3.8 to even be competitive.</p>
<p>Think you could pull off straight As?</p>
<p>wow, talk about getting straight to the point. ANd yes, I think I can pull it off. I mean, your gpa is only for your first job right out of college. Am I right? </p>
<p>My son graduated as a computer engineer this past June, he had a college gpa of 2.8, he got a very good job offer on his third interview, three weeks after graduating, what got his foot in the door was a very impressive senior project, he said the question of gpa never came up. He now has been on the job for four months, and has had very good reviews. So yes, gpa is important, but it’s not everything.</p>
<p>@dakota927 thank you so much for you reply. It has really given me hope. I do have time to pull my gpa up to a 3.0 which is my goal…and to know that the gpa is not always what employers look at is quite a weight lifter. </p>
<p>GPA isn’t the only thing, but it is important. In general, the better your GPA, the more and better job offers you will receive. There are people with 2.5 GPA’s getting professional jobs, but not many getting good ones - the ones I knew got mediocre jobs with bad pay, and the exceptions I have heard of all have something (connections, stellar interviews, knowledge that belied GPA, luck, etc) that moved them up. Part of this is due to the simple fact that things like internships and other opportunities are usually awarded based in part on GPA!</p>
<p>Your GPA typically is most important right out of school, and fades to irrelevance by year 5. But remember that each job builds off the one before it, and the kinds of jobs you can get with a 2.56 will not typically offer you much opportunity for advancement. Try hard to bring those grades up to at least the 2.8 level if you can, 3.0 if at all possible.</p>
<p>" your gpa is only for your first job right out of college. Am I right?" - Usually … but you need that first job in order to get the others. Try hard to find good internships and an interesting senior project. </p>
<p>Your job opportunities will certainly be affected by your GPA early in your career. But a low GPA is indicative of a more major problem; you just aren’t understanding the material. Your performance in your job (and future job opportunities) will be dictated by how well you understand the problems you are facing. As an engineer you must constantly be learning new ideas and concepts, otherwise your career will stall and so will your pay. It is not too late to turn things around, but it will require a lot of effort on your part. Good luck.</p>
<p>@Hpuck35 @colorado_mom @cosmicfish thanks so much for your input! Im taking time in reading what you are posting to this question. It means a lot. </p>
<p>You say you worry about wasting time, but the real waste of time would be continuing to get poor grades. You have to be honest with yourself and ask if your grades are a product of bad time management or the limits of your ability (or combination). </p>
<p>I had a 1.67 gpa with 83 credits before dropping out of school at 24. I too would make grand plans off turning it all around each time I went back (off and on between 21-24). Now your grades aren’t that bad, but they still warrant a word of caution.</p>
<p>You say you took time off from school, how did you spend your time? I found holding a real job (read salaried) and supporting myself completely for a few years forced me to grow up quite a bit. Is it possible to go from being a B/C student to A/B in your time frame, I can’t say for sure. I can say I went from being a C/D student to straight A’s, but it took long term life altering events before that was possible.</p>
<p>I’d think seriously about changing majors because with the crash in oil prices, job opportunities for petroleum engineers will probably be very limited for the next few years. This isn’t a good time to try and get into that industry. Petroleum engineering isn’t a flexible engineering major like mechanical or chemical engineering. It’s tied to one industry known for spectacular booms (the past few years) and spectacular busts (1980s and now).</p>
Here’s real world talk. I have an associates degree in computer electronics technology. I graduated with a 2.999, sleeping everyday in class. After college I’ve never had anyone verify my GPA or even care. Nobody has ever verified my education. I started working at Best Buy (in 1998) making $31,000 a year. I left there to work for Micron Technologies to work as a maintenance tech on Semiconductor machines (vacuum technology, conputers, robotics, chemical/electrical/mechanical engineering). They paid, my first year in $52,000. 16 years later I’m now a Molecular Diffusion Engineer making $130,000 a year, still with the same piddly associates degree. I work with people with PhD’s and Masters Degrees and I make more money. One thing I learned…it’s not what you know, it’s who you know in being confident in doing the job, even if you were clueless. Kids right out of college are making $75,000 a year…most have $60,000 in student loans. Don’t sweat the GPA…it’s just school and your real world career might not have you learned in school. I learned how to build a computer…a 12 year old can do that in his sleep. It was a waste of my time but I wouldn’t be an engineer today without it. And that’s real world talk for ya
Here’ real real world talk. That thread has been dead for over a year. Just sayin’.
@Magneticfusion thank you for your comment !!!
@Justabe1020 - Are thing going any better for you this year?
@colorado_mom i had thought so, but now I can’t find internships, I’m planning on going to different companies in person in texas and oklahoma, to ask for interviews and tours of the different companies. thanks for asking how i am!!
Good luck @Justabe1020 . Hope you find a good opportunity!