I'm worried that my freshman grades will pull me down! I need some serious advice...

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>I've been following this forum for a long time, and it's been quite helpful so far. You guys actually guided me very well, so I owe you all a big thanks! However, I can't find an answer to a specific question, which is unique to my case I guess. I will be very happy if you can give me some suggestions.</p>

<p>So I'm an international student (Kuwait) studying civil engineering in a well respected school in Canada. My first year was quite rough, and I did very bad. My freshman GPA was 2.5 (no excuses, I partied too much). Then in second year, I increased it to 3.4 (which is deans list in my school). Then in third year, my GPA jumped to 3.85. </p>

<p>I really want to get into to some top-10 engineering schools in States, for my masters. Quite a while ago, someone in this forum suggested that I get some research experience. So I applied to Nserc-USRA, which is a highly competitive and prestegious summer research award given to undergrad students in Canada. I will also be doing senior year thesis, which was optional. </p>

<p>I will be taking GRE in september, and I haven't started studying for it yet (research keeps me very busy in these days).</p>

<p>Despite the increasing trend in my GPA, I kind of feel like I'm not a strong candidate because my cumulative is 3.2. (Without freshman year, it's 3.57!) :) </p>

<hr>

<p>So here are some very important questions that can help me choose a path!</p>

<p>a) I realized that I don't want to do research-based master, and want to do MEng instead. Will my research still count as a valuable experience? Is it easier to get into MEng although my current experiences are more research focused? Or will I have more chance if I applied for M.Sc (research based)?</p>

<p>b) If I apply for fall admissions, I will not be able to send my senior year grades. Only some schools will be able to view my 4th year first semester grades since their deadlines are a bit late. So admission officers will not have a chance to see more of my upward trend, and will only see my CGPA as 3.2...! So, should I take a gap year and apply for Fall 2014? Note that my research papers will be published about a year from now too... So there won't be any publications in my application if I apply this fall. </p>

<p>c) I know people in this forum don't like to rate chances but I really want to know if my list is too competitive for my profile. I want to apply to universities such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, CMU, Cornell, Toronto, Cambridge, Oxford (yes, UK too), Northwestern, GA Tech, MIT. The reason why I have so many schools in my list is because I'm scared of too many rejections. </p>

<p>I know it's a long post, but if you took the time to read it, please throw an opinion and you will be rewarded with lots of appreciation! Thank you for being helpful guys...</p>

2

<p>A 3.2 is a respectable GPA in engineering. That said, if I were applying to a non-research based Masters program, I wouldn’t apply to any of these schools, with the exception of maybe Georgia Tech. The non-research students usually end up having to pay out-of-pocket for their education, and many of these schools charge a gargantuan tuition. Georgia Tech is a little more reasonable – about $25-27,000, but to me, even that is still not a good deal.</p>

<p>I’d recommend you take a look at Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, as well as San Jose State University. These are two upper-mid-tier public universities in California that have highly respected engineering programs and they place a much bigger emphasis on instruction and job preparation, rather than research. Plus, their out-of-state tuitions are far more reasonable than tuition at say, $tanford.</p>

<p>If you decide to apply to Cal Poly and San Jose State, the applications open up on October 1, and close on November 30. The application can be found here: [url=&lt;a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”&gt;http://www.csumentor.edu/]CSUMentor[/url</a>]</p>

<p>Finally, go ahead and apply to the schools you’re interested in. If the school’s deadline for fall transcripts happens before fall transcripts are scheduled to be published from your current school, make sure you call the admissions office of the school you’re applying to and tell them of the situation. They’re usually lenient as long as you let them know in advance. If you don’t tell them beforehand, they’ll likely assume that you changed your mind and do not intend to continue the application process.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the advice, I will definetely look into Cal Poly. But let’s put the tuition aside, if money was not a concern would I be eligible for these schools? Just wondering…</p>

<p>I’m up for any other advices and opinions. Please tell me if I would have a better chance of getting accepted to these schools if I applied for MEng over M.S? Thanks…</p>

4

<p>It’s very hard to tell. I got accepted at GA Tech without funding, and my GPA was around a 3.2 when I applied. I also got into Cal Poly and SJSU as well. I didn’t have any research experience, but I did serve six years in the military, and I held an internship at Sandia, which may have helped out. It’s very hard to say what your chances are at any grad school. You’re definitely eligible, though.</p>

5

<p>Hey, </p>

<p>I am also a Canadian student studying 3rd year mech engineering. I am not sure if your university allows to repeat the course to consider the best score. If it does my suggestion to you is repeat courses you got C+ or below in first year. That way, you can prove to admissions office that you have improved and can actually perform well in the course. If you do this I think you have a good chance for most of the universities you listed. You have research experience which adds great value for your application. </p>

<p>Dont worry about the money for repeating a course; I am sure you will earn all of it back when you are working. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>I dont want to confuse the readers by posting my question here, but I got one of my own. Please search for “Low GPA 3rd Year Mechanical Engineering” in google or Graduate School in College Confidential. Your help will be much appreciated.</p>

<p>Cheers,</p>

<p>collegeomega</p>

6

<p>Interesting suggestion, but I have to say that the courses I took have nothing to do with civil engineering. It was heck of a waste of time and I really don’t want to go through all the c**ppy mandatory courses that my school offered in first year. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any clue if I stand a chance in any of the schools I listed above?</p>