<p>Im a junior at Northwestern studying civil engineering. The problem is that I currently have a very low gpa (~2.5) and I'm starting to get very worried. My gpa is due to a number of factors, laziness, bad professors, etc. Last quarter I failed Structures, which is obviously a very important course. The professor was absolutely horrible, but I am also to blame of course. My gpa has also taken a huge hit due to basic science and engineering requirements that have nothing to do with my major (Electrical Engineering, chemistry, etc). It's also made worse by the fact that I am below average for Northwestern standards (im a minority so i was definitely given a break while applying) and it is very hard to compete. It's made even worse because Northwestern isn't even that amazing when it comes to engineering, and I could have gone to Madison for half the cost and probably would have done much better.</p>
<p>I have been looking for internships for the summer, and it has been downright impossible to find anybody that will even consider me due to my gpa. Career fairs gave been especially useless since most people have 3.0+ or even higher. I am starting to get very worried that i will not even be able to get a job when I graduate and the stress is literally driving me crazy.</p>
<p>I did have an internship last summer overseas, but it wasn't really very helpful in giving me actual experience (it was at an architecture firm and my main job role was teaching the staff English) and I only really got the job because I was lucky and they neglected to ask for gpa.</p>
<p>I am so afraid of graduating, and I honestly have no idea what I even want to do with this major. I do enjoy engineering, and I really don't see any other career options at this point. The stress is killing me though and I am about to get a similar gpa this quarter due to what will probably turn out to be a C- or worse in EE.</p>
<p>Also I've talked to my advisor but he is useless. He is a visiting professor from china and he barely speaks English. I really just want to hear from somebody else in a similar situation. All of my friends have 3.5s and it is really starting to take a toll on my mental state constantly worrying about this. My best friend just went to Goldman Sachs and I know others who have been extremely successful as well. Very difficult for me to watch knowing that I will probably be begging for a job when I graduate. My parents will be dissapointed when they find out they wasted $200K to say the least</p>
<p>Is there any hope of me finding an internship with such a low gpa? How about an actual job when I graduate? Any advice would be great.</p>
<p>If you stay on your current path, you are screwed. Even civil engineering majors with good GPAs and internships are finding it almost impossible to get a job. That’s because civil engineering is strongly linked to construction. The economy may not be good today, but the construction industry is a lot worse.</p>
<p>My advice? Change majors and do something like accounting or computer science. List only your “major GPA” on your resume, which should be quite high if you work hard now. It may take a bit longer to graduate, but when you do, the economy will be better than it is today.</p>
<p>This isn’t helpful, but I’m very curious as to why you chose engineering at Northwestern when you could have gone to UW-Madison for half the price.</p>
<p>As someone said previously, as a CivilE, you are screwed at this point. Most everyone in engineering has had bad professors, and unless you have a legitimate personal reason for doing so badly, you brought this on yourself. Your best shot at a job or internship is changing majors. There are also other opportunities outside of engineering that don’t necessarily care what your GPA is, just that you have a degree. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Good heavens. I strongly disagree with the above quitters. Stick with it, do as well as you can - don’t be lazy anymore! - then interview broadly, meaning don’t be picky, interview with everyone who will have you. The ‘best’ companies can be very picky about GPA but there are many companies who would be happy to have a NW grad working for them. Some employers know that GPA isn’t the only element determining an engineer’s success. Having a good, hardworking attitude, being willing to pay one’s dues, listen and learn from others, etc. etc. can matter quite a lot to some people. You probably won’t get a top job at a top firm, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have an interesting, profitable career. And in engineering at a good school, a 2.5 isn’t really a ‘very low’ GPA.</p>
<p>Wow! Some interesting ideas, thanks for the responses. At this point I’ve decided I’m just going to stick it out. I didn’t make it half way through junior year in engineering to be an accountant the rest of my life! Haha…</p>
<p>Gstein- I was pretty much forced to go to NU by my parents. The tuition isn’t really a big deal but it still seems like a waste (of their money). Also I know that I did bring this upon myself to a certain extent. Freshman year I slacked off A LOT. It’s been getting better, but not much. Graduating with a degree from a near-ivy league school after passing the FE exam (which I WILL do), I really don’t see how I could get at least an entry level position. Maybe I’m just disillusioned though and I’ll end up working at subway the rest of my life, but I find that highly unlikely. I have great people skills (something often not found in this discipline) and I am very creative when it comes to design. I just absolutely hate sitting in lecture and taking tests. (I’ve gotten A’s in all of my design courses so far)</p>
<p>I definitely agree with Treetopleaf, sticking with it is the right decision. I teach at an engineering school, and many of our most successful alums graduated with crummy GPAs. Follow Treetopleaf’s advice about getting your first job, work hard and use your people skills to make a good impression, and after that no one cares what your GPA was.</p>
<p>Huh? Subways (with trains) are one of the kinds of things that civil engineers design. Not everything civil engineers do is related to the housing bust (although the housing bust did impact civil engineers’ employment prospects worse than those of other engineers).</p>
<p>Treetopleaf, I strongly disagree. Changing majors is no where near “quitting”, it’s realizing what your best route to success is. I, as well as the others, are not recommending that the OP should drop out of school or even necessarily leave engineering for that matter, so I have no idea why you assume leaving CivilE behind means the OP is quitting.</p>
<p>My recommendation is personally based off my own experiences, as well as from other engineering majors I know (some civils) who are having an incredibly difficult time finding internships or full-time opportunities with a 3.0+, let alone a 2.5. The fact of the matter is, even for engineering companies and firms that aren’t looking for the most competitive students, most companies have a “cutoff GPA”. The lowest “cutoff GPA” I’ve seen recently is a ~2.8. Thus, if you have a 2.5, your Resume will be automatically filtered out of eligibility (e.g. you won’t be able to showcase your interpersonal skills). Plus, even with that 2.8, you still have to overcome a great deal of adversity to get an interview. </p>
<p>Statistically, OP’s chances are best elsewhere.</p>
<p>What major(s) would you suggest that the OP switch in to? A different engineering major or something like physics or chemistry would likely share most of the same courses with the 2.5 GPA that the OP has already taken, so that would not help in terms of being able to show a better “in major” GPA.</p>
Whoa! I think you might have misinterpreted his post. He was talking about working at Subway the sandwich place, not a subway with trains.</p>
<p>
Yes there are some exceptions, but most civil engineering work is related to the housing market. There are worse majors out there, though. One airhead at my school seriously considered switching majors from civil engineering to construction management. Ouch! That’s like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.</p>
If that’s your decision, I’d suggest that you stretch things out. You’ll be taking a lighter course load, which will let you focus more on your classes and bring that GPA up. Also, your graduation will be postponed, which will allow time for the economy and housing market to get back to normal.</p>
<p>The unusually large number of 2010 civil engineering graduates going to graduate school may be due to some trying to delay entering the job market when prospects are poor.</p>
<p>OK, the job market at present is poor. Engineering is cyclical - there will always be good times and bad times. If CE is what you were meant to do, then stick with it, show your passion, and eventually you’ll get hired. The ‘airhead’ who considered switching majors from civil engineering to construction management might be very happy, eventually, in construction management, once he or she is hired. It’s not like construction is going to end forever.</p>
<p>OP, you need to make regular appearances at the career center, starting now, to get your resume in shape, to learn which companies recruit through your school, and to learn what other companies might be interested in kids like you but who don’t actually appear at your school. Maybe a low-glamor company only needs one or two people - are they going to set up multiple interviews at Northwestern?? Get some books from the library to get ideas about how to interview people - that way you’ll learn their tricks (and probably find out most people can’t interview very well).</p>
<p>My head isn’t completely in the sand on this issue. My relative with a new CE degree got hired by the state DOT this past fall, no doubt over many, many other grads with better GPAs from better schools. Why? I think because he was dying to do road work, it showed, and they knew he’d be a keeper if hired. He had a successful internship the previous year but so did 40 other kids. He spent the summer before that out on the lot of a big box home improvement store hauling stuff. I told him to put that on his resume - let them know he doesn’t mind getting dirty and hot.</p>
<p>Do whatever you have to do, quit worrying, work hard. You might get lucky.</p>
<p>Since OP is a junior, those common engineering courses you are referring to should be out of the way by now. OP can switch to any engineering major where he/she has a fresh in-major start. If OP is not interested in switching, as I said previously, there are also certain trades that appreciate just the fact that the individual has a degree… a police officer or the military come to mind. Point is, there are plenty of opportunities out there, IMHO, that would fare better than him staying in Civil.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why people are suggesting he switch to Computer Science or some other major. If he has a 2.5 in CivE, then switching to a major that typically has harder material doesn’t help. </p>
<p>Assuming you’ve passed all of your math courses, I’d try and get some sort of math teaching certification. That’s one realistic path of getting a decent job out of your education.</p>
<p>Really? I don’t have any statistics, but it has always seemed to me that there is more civil engineering work in other areas, particularly infrastructure. Water resources, environmental engineering have little to no connection to the housing market. There is plenty of structural and geotechnical work in non-residential areas.</p>
<p>EDIT: When I say “plenty,” I mean relative to other areas in civil engineering.</p>