<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm an ME student that transferred to USC (west coast one) and just completed my sophomore year. Right now, I'm wondering whether or not grad school is going to be even a slight possibility. I have a 2.67 GPA, zero job/internship experience, and have not participated in any on-campus organizations. I could probably join some clubs or whatever next year but it will be really tough to juggle things and also commute. I don't anticipate getting any kind of job or internship anytime soon because I have zero experience or knowledge really of anything to do with ME, along with really bad grades. As for my GPA, I only expect things to get worse with a heavier/more difficult course load in the future. </p>
<p>First, why grad school? You seem to be struggling with undergrad-level material, what makes you think grad school would be a good idea?</p>
<p>Second, you still have a couple of years to go, that is plenty of time to make some big changes and get into a decent grad program… but only if those years go well, and you seem to think that they will be more of the same. If you continue in your present mode, you do not have a real chance at grad school, at least not without spending some time in industry first.</p>
<p>Lower your course load and get your grades right (> 3.0) before you do anything. You either haven’t learned how to study at the university level yet, or your priorities are off. Once you have that settled work towards a summer internship.</p>
<p>well a masters pays more over time, no?</p>
<p>You need to worry about passing your undergraduate degree with a decent GPA long before you consider graduate school. Stop thinking about money and think about what you are doing in school right now. With your current GPA, you have pretty much zero chance at graduate school assuming things stay the same, and if you struggle to even keep that GPA and expect it to get worse, then even if you did get into graduate school, it would eat you alive.</p>
<p>Get your GPA up and try your hardest to get an internship. You’ll need that experience to get a job after you graduate more easily. If you find in a year or two that your GPA is higher and you still want to consider graduate school, get an undergraduate research position at your school.</p>
<p>I could try for internships, but they’ll look at my resume and laugh maniacally. I can’t even get a job at goddamn Taco Bell with that resume. What is the point in even trying if I’ll just get rejected anyway by everyone? How am I supposed to “BUILD” a resume if I’m not even qualified to pick up dog poop? Is a bachelors degree worth anything anymore or do employees only care about your stupid GPA? </p>
<p>Looks like I’ll be living with my mom 'til she dies. Then it’s panhandling at a freeway exit.</p>
<p>
Yes, but not by enough to flip out about. If you are not ready for grad school when you graduate, you can start a few years down the road, part-time while you work.</p>
<p>
GPA is the gateway to everything. Focus on GPA, internships and research opportunities come later. But pick an engineering student group and do that as well, since they will have no entry requirement and can lead to opportunities down the line.</p>
<p>But until you can show that you can handle the academics, no one is going to rush to give you anything else.</p>
<p>Jeez man, suck it up. A GPA is a reflection of your mastery of a degree. This isn’t breaking news or anything. No it is not enough just to obtain a degree. I wouldn’t want people working for me that just simply passed. </p>
<p>You can always find a graduate school that will take you. The problem is it may not be a very good graduate school.</p>
<p>Most of the people I know who have graduate engineering degrees didn’t pursue them right after they got their undergrad degrees. They worked a few years first.</p>
<p>Wow you reek of entitlement OP. </p>
<p>@Fsswim1 and you reek of condescension. </p>
<p>@Shaqfor3
He may have been blunt, but he is not wrong. Think about how you have sounded in this discussion. You basically came in here saying “I could do several things here that I think would help but it wouldn’t be easy so I don’t want to do that. Oh, and I want to take this particular route to make more money.” So, what you are basically saying is that you are unwilling to put in the extra effort to make sure you are competitive and a good engineer and yet that you should get paid extra for taking what you thought might be the easy route. People are willing to help people who want to help themselves, and you sure sound like you aren’t willing to help yourself and that there should be some super easy path just waiting for you. No employer wants an employee with an attitude like that.</p>
<p>That isn’t how the world works. You need to revisit your priorities. Engineering is going to require work, and it sure sounds like there must be something else in your life keeping you from devoting the kind of work to your studies that they deserve, especially since you aren’t in any clubs or extracurricular activities of any sort. Do you go out partying 5 nights a week? Do you spend all night every night playing video games? Do you skip all of your classes? I don’t know what it is specifically that is holding you back, but it sure sounds like the big thing is your attitude.</p>
<p>I’m at an ABET accredited state school and the cutoff for the ME department is 2.5.
The Bioengineering department I’m in is a 2.75.</p>
<p><em>shrug</em> you came here asking about the viability of grad school and you have been getting answers, just not the answers you wanna hear. You wanna hear that everything is gonna be ok, well if you keep going the way you are it won’t. Ppl here are genuinely trying to help and telling you to focus on the problem in front of you, not the one you might have 2 years from now. There are some smart, well informed and well lived ppl in these forums ( no i’m not one of them) and you can ignore their advice at your own peril.</p>
<p>If you truly believe you won’t even qualify to pick up dog poop you should stop wasting time and money at a $48k/years university and start thinking about which intersection you’ll be working on.</p>
<p>No, I don’t party or anything like that. When I’m not in class, I’m at home 99% of the time. I do actually try in school. I’m just mediocre and have a defeatist complex. I shouldn’t have brought that mindset here and for that, I apologize. </p>
<p>Your negative attitude is your worst enemy. At least in my opinion, the most important aspect of getting a job or internship is your ability to sell yourself.</p>
<p>If you go to an interview with this negative attitude or don’t even try applying for any jobs because you know you will not get it, guess what? You are never going to get it!</p>
<p>Change your attitude, don’t put your GPA on your resume and keep trying till you get it.</p>
<p>Not for that GPA. My daughter 's best friend also graduate from USC with slightly less than 3.0, was not admitted to USC graduate program. Luckily for her, her sorority friend has a dad that is a VP at a defense company and he hired her as an intern, he also was a USC grad, so there is something about the Alumni connection. She is working but her job might be going in 2 years when they close the plant.</p>
<p>This is interesting. I always assumed graduate schools only look at the senior level courses and a few may require a cGPA of 3.0 at minimum. I personally know quite a few people who were did much worse in their first two years than OP that are now starting graduate school in the fall at top schools in physics and engineering. Majority of the schools only looked at the last two years, which is where they excelled. There are many engineering schools that only require a final year GPA of a 3.0 as a hard cutoff.</p>
<p>The advice in this thread is good, but OP’s case is not exactly unique. There have been so many students who have done terrible their first or second year that then manage to turn it around that it has become a cliche. Of course, this does not mean OP will be successful, but there’s a reason why the freshmen and sophomore level classes are considered “weed out” classes and have D class averages where the upper level classes tend have class averages of a B. I have definitely found upper year classes to be a lot more reasonable and manageable than many first and second year classes. </p>
<p>If you want to graduate school, OP, then don’t look for an internship but rather try to get to work in one of your professor’s labs to do research. You will need plenty of research experience and good letters of recommendation, as even having a great GPA is simply not enough. I think a lot of the people in this thread are confusing professional school with graduate school. Graduate schools tend to be a lot more forgiving in the GPA department if they see promising research potential in you. That’s at least been my experience with graduate school admissions process so far. </p>
<p>I know it seems like a lot of people are bashing on you right now (They don’t realize that you barely finished your 2nd year in Engineering) but here is some helpful advice that will hopefully get you up to speed:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Focus on increasing your GPA. Even if you’re studying “hard” you may not be studying “smart”. Studying is like a skill. If you can develop stronger studying habits you will do much better in school. In class try to see what you know and don’t know and focus on the sections you don’t know.</p></li>
<li><p>Once you get your GPA higher than 3.0 and you can maintain it with your strong study skills, try to see if you can get involved in a club. One club should be enough assuming you get involved in some of their activities. There is no point in joining a bunch of clubs if you can’t get involved in any of them.</p></li>
<li><p>Then apply to internships. I’ll admit they’re competitive, but if you apply to at least 20 of them, I’m sure you will get one of them. Once you complete 1 internship experience, applying for others will be a piece of cake now that you have that experience on your resume.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Note: It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to finish college (As long as you can afford it somehow) Just as long as you can finish it. To be honest, I wouldn’t worry about Grad School right now. Most Engineers usually go to Grad school after working for a couple of years.</p>
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<p>I’m pretty sure everyone realized the OP just finished their 2nd year in Engineering. The “bashing”, aka tough love, was due to the entitled attitude which has nothing to do with school year.</p>