<p>I was prompted to start this because of another post I read which brings this point to light......</p>
<p>I know we keep hearing that C is average, but is it? </p>
<p>Is maintaining a C average in college really good enough to get into grad school?</p>
<p>It amazes me that people can ask questions like this without giving any context or details.</p>
<p>AT WHAT SCHOOL?!!!</p>
<p>At some schools C may be average, but at many it isn’t. A C average might be good enough for some grad schools, but not for all.</p>
<p>How would a C average in an engineering program at a good university be perceived?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A future sales and marketing person (not a detailed technical person) :-)</p>
<p>It’s not so good, but it’s not fatal. Unlikely to enter a graduate PhD program.</p>
<p>Plus a lot of companies have a 3.0 cut off when reviewing job applications. Some grad schools do as well.</p>
<p>So, not fatal, but limiting.</p>
<p>My son’s school requires a B average (3.0) to stay in the major…less than a B average the student has to petition each semester to stay in the program. So yes C is average but might not be “good enough” for some schools/some programs.</p>
<p>A C in your major courses? not good at all. Maybe acceptable in a couple of electives; it’s understandable that you’re not good at everything, but if you don’t have a B or better in your major courses, you’re in the wrong major.</p>
<p>Falling below a 3.0 would also limit or eliminate options for most MBA programs should he decide to switch gears in that direction. In reference to what is “average” it is important to note that the average person does not graduate from college, let alone the engineering school at said college.</p>
<p>Oh by the way, the C engineering person is a first semester freshman. I don’t know if that matters. He’s down on himself, but it appears that a bunch of kids have actually failed classes and have chosen not to continue in the major.</p>
<p>A straight C average is pretty much going to eliminate any graduate school opportunities. There are some schools (even some pretty good ones) that don’t have hard GPA cutoffs, but any application from a 2.0 student is likely to be uncompetitive barring some compelling rationale for the GPA. Even if they somehow scrape in, they’re not going to be competitive for assistantships and will be paying full freight.</p>
<p>Getting up to even a 2.75 or so, and showing an improvement trend, would make a significant difference.</p>
<p>OP, “maintaining” a C average for all four years is not going to get you into grad school. On the other hand, if you are a first-semester freshman, please, take heart! Almost everybody’s performance improves dramatically after they adjust to the social and academic demands of college life. Moreover as you move through your college career you tend to focus on the things you are best at/most interested in, instead of taking required courses in subjects you may not excel at. So provided you keep working hard, your GPA naturally tends to rise. Most grad admissions committees aren’t very interested in courses way outside your major or in your first year of college. They will look closely at your GPA in your major, your GRE scores, your performance junior and senior year, your experience with research, and your faculty recommendations.</p>
<p>It matters a lot if it is only your freshman average or your average for all 4 years. A friend of mine does admissions for a grad program and told me that if the freshman year is worse than the others they ignore it. So the thing to do is calm down, figure out what went wrong and fix it. Good luck. Don’t despair.</p>
<p>Being a first semester freshman in engineering makes a huge difference. He has many semesters to improve and consider his options - which were the toughest courses and why? Did he seek help when needed? Did he know when he needed help?</p>
<p>I would come up with a plan of attack for improvement second semester and a fall back plan if the major isn’t quite fitting his strengths after that - perhaps a switch to something like supply chain managment or a different engineering discipline that is less demanding in his weakest areas.</p>
<p>zmom-
mother of a 2010 engineering grad here: many engineering students are rocked by the first semester. Many who have never had to break a sweat discover that they have to really work very hard and sometimes learn to study for the first time. So, first semester grades can suffer while the student figures out what is needed. The attrition rate in the first 2 years of engineering programs is often pretty high.</p>
<p>
Yes, it matters. It’s not unusual at all for an engineering freshman at a U with a rigorous program to be somewhat ‘shell shocked’ by the difficulty and harsh grading practices in some of the weeder courses and end up after the first year with a less than 3.0. In fact, at some colleges it’s likely that over half the class will have less than a 3.0. </p>
<p>This will cause some to switch out of engineering to a less difficult major and will cause some to realize the level of difficulty and to focus more on the courses and allocate more time to the work involved. Many/most of the latter end up doing better as they go along and could well end up with a higher average than the freshman year average. </p>
<p>Having above a 3.0 average in engineering/CS isn’t an ‘end-all’ requirement. In some colleges more than half of the students in the major at the very selective (i.e. all students are very bright) college/major have less than a 3.0. This doesn’t mean they don’t know the material or are unintelligent - it means they ‘have less than a 3.0’. It also doesn’t mean they won’t be able to get a decent job. This can happen for many reasons - they might not have been as prepared as some others when entering (ex: a CS major who never wrote a line of code until college vs. the person who’s written basic programs since 9th grade), they might have been more adventurous than some others and taken some other difficult courses, like o-chem, because they wanted to explore it, they might have had illnesses that had an effect on the grade, and the list goes on. It’s not a cookie cutter question/answer. There’s also a difference between something like a 2.8 and a 2.0.</p>
<p>A student who finds his/her self with less than a 3.0 after the first year yet they feel they’re able to understand the material, are focusing on it better, and is still interested in it should take heart that they’ll likely do better as they head into years 2, 3, 4. If in the second year they still find the material very difficult or aren’t willing to do the work required and finds that the grades are not getting higher or worse, are getting lower, should consider switching to a different major.</p>
<p>Edit - It looks like several of us cross-posted with the same info regarding the ‘adjustment’ an engineering freshman can face.</p>
<p>It depends on what your future plans are. If you have medical school or any competitive graduate or professional school aspirations, “C’s” can hurt and even kill your chances of admissions to such programs. Some jobs also want to see your grades and a straight C student is usually not going to get the plum positions if the company takes that heavily into consideration.</p>
<p>1st semester Engineering C average is fine. That probably translates to a B or B+ average in ensuing years. This is the weed-out semester, along with next.</p>
<p>
Did this include Physics I? If not, just wait, the fun has hardly begun - this was just the warm-up.</p>
<p>I’m not sure of the details of the classes, it’s not my kid. It’s my D’s best friend. He is very down on himself, but I told him that he had to be a little more patient because he thinks he’s made improvements in every class as the semester progressed. There doesn’t seem to be any shame in needing to learn how to be a college student.</p>