I know that a good GPA for engineering is a 3.0 to a 3.5, but I plan on going to law school afterwards and top law schools expect a higher GPA from applicants. The only reason I am studying engineering is my parents, and I know that even for people who care about engineering, it is very difficult to get an excellent GPA. I just don’t want my major to ruin my chances at getting into the law school I want to attend. Does anyone know how difficult it would be to get a 3.7 or higher in electrical engineering?
It is difficult, but can be done. Daughter’s friend got a 4.0 in mechE.
This depends completely on where you go to school. Some schools are known for grade inflation, some for grade deflation. Obviously getting a high GPA will be easier at a school known for the former than the latter.
As someone who did it, yes, it is absolutely possible. Typically engineering GPAs average about 0.1-0.2 lower than the school average (there are exceptions!), so an engineering degree will probably lower your GPA, but not by much and not in any meaningful way except in those situations where you are competing against other majors and GPA is unusually important - med school and fellowship applications, for example. And most of those will try to account for the difference anyway.
As an example, at my alma mater (PSU), I think something like 10% of EE grads had a 3.7+ GPA. Definitely possible, just not easy.
“The only reason I am studying engineering is my parents”
I would have answered “yes, it is possible” to your question but the above statement is concerning. While I would assume law school admissions are savvy enough to recognize majors (and schools) that tend to pressure GPA’s lower, you’ll be at a disadvantage to your peers in any program that you are not passionate about.
As far as EE goes, difficulty depends where you specialize, so you could take an easier route (or even non-EE) if your end-goal is something like patent law.
Definately doable. In fact there’s a high demand for patent lawyers and your degree would be a huge asset. You don’t have to have a 3.7 to get into law schools. Law schools are more holistic and they take the difficulty of your major into account. In fact, they love people with engineering and accounting degrees because they get tired of applicants choosing easy majors to pad their grades. If you ace the LSAT, you’ll be fine. A 3.4 might not get you into Stanford, but it could probably get you into SMU.
Oh, I missed the part about just doing it for your parents. Engineering is hard. MANY people who get into it for the wrong reasons (money, parental pressure, as a fall back for another passion, like say medical school) do not fare well. If you are not intrinsically interested, it’s going to be a slog. What a miserable way to spend 4 years!
^Good point. I had over a 3.7 GPA in engineering, but it took a lot of work. I enjoyed my major, though, so I didn’t mind.
Law schools do not care about major. Period. You need a top GPA. As with any major, the cream rises to the top and there will be a certain percentage of students in any engineering program with top GPAs. I know many that graduated with a 4.0. Will you be one of them? Possible, but the odds are not in your favor given your disinterest in the subject matter. Study something you enjoy. Get a great GPA. Then ace the LSAT.
I’ve seen versions of this question before. A question I have: If everyone knows that engineering is a tougher major with lower average GPA, wouldn’t that include grad schools? Or are they completely out of the loop on this? Assume a philosophy major has a 3.8 GPA and 165 LSAT. An electrical engineering major has a 3.4 GPA and 165 LSAT. Are admissions people so numbers oriented as to only look at the GPA without regard to major?
The answer varies tremendously depending on the student and also significantly on the school. For example, I found it easier to get high grades in EE classes with objective answers than can be calculated analytically than in subjective humanities classes graded on papers that cannot be calculated analytically. Most students are probably the other way around, but not necessarily most EEs.
I was an EE major at Stanford. Some documentation about the grade distribution at Stanford is at https://thelittledataset.com/2015/07/31/eduanalytics-101-an-investigation-into-the-stanford-education-space-using-edusalsa-data/ . At the time of the document several years ago, the student reported median GPA in engineering classes was 3.67, with ~70% of students receiving grades of A- or better. The mean engineering GPA was a bit higher that the mean GPA reported by the other schools. This fits with my experience in EE classes as well. The median grade was typically either A- or A . As you’d expect with such a distribution, having GPAs above 3.7 was common. I knew one engineering major who graduated with a ~4.2.
If you aren’t interested in engineering, it does not bode well for getting high grades, law school, your personal happiness, and your life in general. Maybe you could talk to your parents about what majors do interest you, how those majors would better assist with your law school goals, and what you’d do with the major as a backup if law school didn’t work out.
Um, no. Law schools are famously not holistic, especially in the first cut, which is pretty much straight numbers- GPA & LSAT. As @itsgettingreal17 said, they really do not care about major.
With the glut of lawyers in the market, getting into the T14 has never mattered more if you want to earn enough money to pay off law school loans. OP, how much do you know about law as a profession?
Don’t do engineering if you don’t want to do it. EE is one of the hardest engineering majors and you’ll hate undergrad. I go to a school where the average Engineering gpa is a 2.7. We have grade deflation. So my 3.4 is really good compared to my peers but bad for law school. Stick to another major. I would say def do EE of you actually wanna do it and go the patent law route.