<p>I am glad to say by the end of second semester at Cornell Engineering, my D is on Dean’s List! (GPA 3.5 and above for their College of Engineering students)</p>
<p>There is no doubt that Cornell Engineering has many many bright and hard-working students, my D who had always been top of the top in her schools now has many more intellectually competitive peers.</p>
<p>As she was waitlisted MIT and Cornell when she applied for college (essay’s the problem for not been admitted in the first place not her stats or EC’s), maybe these two universities are similar in academic rigor on Engineering classes. I heard a lot about MIT’s before and also some family friend’s experience in Cornell for taking Engineering classes. But I always think D could continue to pull 4.0 even in Cornell until she’s there having her hard time being curved on grades the first semester.</p>
<p>Top schools are tough, with brightest students who can easily do well in other lower tier schools they still curve them all.</p>
<p>I want to chime in but I’m looking to get into an MS program and have a 3.45 overall/3.7 major gpa in ChemE @ UT Austin. Does anyone know if I have shot at top 15 or top 20 graduate schools? I have a solid experience (two interns and year research plus TA/grading).</p>
<p>It really matters today whether or not you have experience as far as internships/co-ops go, good networking skills, good people skills, and can use your engineering brain to adapt to certain problems and job training provided. For my internship that I currently have (first one), I interviewed with the president and vice-president of the phosphate and nitrogen facilities of the company PotashCorp and they did not even ask me about my college GPA. I was pretty nervous about that because at the time I had a 2.73 (I have raised it since, lol) but talking and asking intelligent questions after answering their interview questions was enough to get me the job. Turns out that I am the first undergraduate intern from University of Iowa to work for PCS! All it took was some good networking and a sense of humor and relaxed conversation while interviewing. However, GPA is great to get an internship fast. Forgot to mention that I filled out about 30 applications before getting a call back, but persistence pays off; good luck.</p>
<p>The GPA definitely goes down as you get into the higher level courses. Son was thrilled to get a C+ in a class others were taking the third time last semester.</p>
<p>Where he got half and half, As and Bs last semester, this semester looks like it’s going to be a mostly B, perhaps even half C. But they’re higher level courses, and while he’s contemplating dropping the highest level one to take next year, I’m discouraging him because he’s got one year to go and it’s a required class. Do not want to stay an extra semester or go to summer school after next spring just to get one class in. Been there, done that.</p>
<p>Problem is, getting an internship with lower GPA is tougher, especially if you don’t have a lot of other job/research experience. Like above poster, son has put in over 100 applications, and gotten one bite. That’s it. This is with a 3.83 GPA.</p>
<p>If one cannot get into their choice of grad school because of a lower GPA, would it be worth their while to go out into the work force, even for a company they have no interest in the work, just to get experience to help with grad school admission?</p>
<p>Or should you just settle for any grad school that accepts you, get the master’s, and then try to get into a field you’re truly interested in?</p>
<p>“By far the most prolific undergrad program that produces future MIT grad students is, unsurprisingly, the undergrad program at MIT.” - Interesting. I once read that some of the grad depts at MIT prefer to cross-polinate and NOT accept too many MIT applicants. </p>
<p>For some student, engineering GPA decreases as the years go by. (That was th case for me, since I had good AP prep). However, many start with a low freshman GPA and improve it as the learn to improve study habits. </p>
<p>“essay’s the problem for not been admitted in the first place not her stats or EC’s” - Truly, it’s just a case of supply vs demand. MIT has a lot of hoops, so most applicants are highly qualified. Over 90% are rejected, many with stellar qualifications.</p>
<p>Regardless of your college and whether or not there was inflation, a 2.8 is not enough for many of the larger or even mid sized companies. When screening job applications, they frequently screen for a certain minimum GPA such as 3.0 or 3.5 and throw out applications that don’t cut it.</p>
<p>Yes, GPA isn’t all that matters and internship and research experience also matters but if you can’t handle the concepts and theories, you probably won’t be able to effectively apply them in the real world where you do not have solid guidelines in projects.</p>
<p>Try to get your GPA up to at least a 3.0 or you are going to lose a number of opportunities in the future.</p>
<p>A gpa of 2.8 to 3.2 at a highly ranked engineering school produces a hard working high quality engineer. It tires me to read many cc posters claiming a sub 3 engineer at a top school will find it difficult to find employment. Just hogwash. The material is difficult and one must have analytical skill in order to pass these courses. Simple memorization will not cut it. These students at top programs are very intelligent.</p>