<p>Distracted and unmotivated by my major, I messed up college- about a 2.3 CGPA mess up to be precise- although, from a top 5 undergraduate engineering program (not MIT, Stanford or Berkeley :)) I had a decent internship out of college and then another equally decent full-time position for a few months now. I got 760 QR and 600 VR scores on my GRE. I plan on applying for one year masters programs in economics(my true love!). I'm looking at schools like BU, Northeastern, GWU, NYU, USC, UNC, UMich. Realistic?</p>
<p>With a 2.3 CGPA? Honestly, probably not. Lower GPAs are common for engineering students, but your GPA is still substantially lower than expected for graduate students. Most top schools set a baseline of 3.0. Exceptions are possible, but generally to get one, you would need to have a compelling reason why (“I didn’t care” isn’t compelling) and have demonstrated success in jobs, internships or research positions related to your field of interest.</p>
<p>You may have to set your sights to a lower tier of schools.</p>
<p>Your GPA is too low for grad schools. The lowest minimum GPA requirement I’ve found is 2.5 amongst the low tier CSUs. (There are probably others but finding a school with a minimum GPA of 2.75 is already difficult.)</p>
<p>You could always consider a second Bachelor’s.</p>