Junior civil engineering major, low GPA, no internship experience. Any hope for me?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I'm a junior civil engineering major at the University of Maryland, College Park. I have had a very rough college career where I started out as a bioengineering major, changed to chemical, then to electrical, and finally decided on civil. I started off college very well with getting a 4.0 GPA my whole freshman year. But then in sophomore year I changed my major to electrical engineering. I started doing horribly in my classes, getting all C's in most of my physics/math/EE classes and failing my circuit theory class. The immense difficulty of the coursework, coupled with several family/personal/abuse problems, made me fall into clinical depression that I have to this day. During the summer of 2009 I took a few poli sci classes because I thought I would become a poli sci major but I was so depressed that I just barely passed them and decided to forget taking that route. After being hospitalized in august 2009, I was put on antidepressants. In the beginning of Fall 2009, I decided to do civil engineering. I did a lot better in my civil classes (2 A's and 4 B's) and decided to stick with it. I am doing better mentally than anytime in the past year but I still struggle with depression.</p>

<p>Anyway, my current GPA is 3.21 and because I was so caught up in my depression and changing majors practically every semester I have no internship experience. I do have some work experience as a office/desk rep but it's entirely unrelated to engineering. Is there any hope for to get a good job after I get out of school? Is there any hope for grad school? Is there any hope to get any internship this summer at all with no experience whatsoever? What do I do? I'm so lost? How do I go about getting an internship? Is my GPA too low? Am I too old to get an internship? Will anyone ever take me? How do I explain my poor performance on my academic record? </p>

<p>I'm a good, hard-working person. I just have had a really hard time during college with a whole host of issues. Is there any hope for me to be successful?</p>

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<p>3.21 is fine for getting a job. I do not recommend going to grad school without working in the field at least one summer. If you really want an internship, there are so many local companies without the manpower to go to universities and hire. My first internship was with a tiny manufacturing company that I sought out, and it turned out to be a good experience.</p>

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<p>3.2 is not low; it’s just average or above average. and i bet you’ll raise it too; that’s typically what happens junior&senior year, gpa’s ‘recover’ a bit from freshman and sophomore years : )</p>

<p>With an above average 3.2 GPA in Civil E. from a very reputable engineering school like College Park, I’d say your definitely on you way to being successfully. And if you wanted to work for a ‘blue chip’ company or a prestigious r&d position you could always just go to grad school and get a super high gpa. But honestly your going to have a lot of opportunities either way just knock on them doors at the Career Fair.</p>

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<p>A 3.2 is not average, it’s definitely above average for engineering – and by no means is it a “low GPA” as OP has put it.</p>

<p>OP, most spring engineering career fairs are occurring now. Why don’t you go to your school’s career fair and seriously pursue an internship for this summer? Or go find a summer research job at your school? Both are very attainable with a 3.2</p>