<p>I have to agree with dtshen that you just need to be highly aggressive in your search. Even if you don't have the GPA that an internship requires, apply to it anyway. The worst thing they can say is No. Apply anywhere and everywhere. </p>
<p>If it makes you feel better, I know a guy who barely graduated in EECS from Berkeley - and I mean barely. He spent quite a bit of time on academic probation with a GPA below a 2.0, and just barely got his head above a 2.0 (which is the bare minimum you need to graduate) by the time graduation rolled around. He still managed to get an engineering tech job in Silicon Valley. It wasn't the greatest job, but it was OK.</p>
<p>This is what scares the hell out of me. What's the point in going to a top engr. college, busting your ass off and graduating with less than a 3.0 when you can have fun in a normal college and graduate with a 3.5+?</p>
<p>It's actually pis.sing me off a LOT. It's also one of the reasons I'm debating getting the hell out of Cooper Union before I get completely screwed. I'm seeing a lot of people here graduate with 2.8, 2.9 averages who end up going to pathetic grad schools like Stony Brook for engineering. In fact, most people in my chemE department end up getting less than a 3.0 GPA and go to mediocre grad. schools and very few people actually even try to get jobs (everybody's interested in graduate study for some reason). It's actually quite scary. All these people are telling me graduating from cooper is going get me top jobs but I can't see that happening. </p>
<p>Like the OP said, what's the point of graduating from Michigan with a 2.8 and get very few to no jobs VS. going to Mich. Tech, having much more fun, graduating with a 3.5+ and getting great jobs.</p>
<p>Matter of fact, I recall that one of my goals was to go get my master's degree at a college like Michigan or Princeton or Cornell (in chemE) but with barely a 3.1 GPA from Cooper, I cannot for the life of me see myself competing against people with 3.8 GPA's from state schools in the same major.</p>
<p>also, another hint of advice. when applying for jobs... always include a cover letter. sure a lot of people wont even bother to read it. but some do.</p>
<p>and also... try to personalize the cover letter. </p>
<p>ex.) one time i read an article by " XXXX XXXXXX" on the company Boeing.</p>
<p>then when searching for jobs, i noticed this name... instead she was recruiting for Intel. so in my cover letter.. i mentioned the article, how much i enjoyed it... etc..</p>
<p>try to make the recruiter have a reason for talkign to you. speak to a few interns who currently work for a company you want to work for...</p>
<p>ask them what the ongoing projects are.. format your cover letter around that. </p>
<p>good luck </p>
<p>and then when you get that interview, make sure you do well.<br>
it would be unfortunate if you got an interview but did not get the job.</p>
<p>you spend 10+ hrs studying for a test, whose purpose is to get you a GPA and get you an interview.</p>
<p>so.. it makes sense to study 10+ hrs for an interview.</p>
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This is what scares the hell out of me. What's the point in going to a top engr. college, busting your ass off and graduating with less than a 3.0 when you can have fun in a normal college and graduate with a 3.5+?
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<p>The assumption you are making is that you will actually get that higher GPA at a normal college. This is not a safe assumption. In fact, you may actually end up with LOWER grades at a lesser college. It mostly has to do with sociology. Let's face it. Human beings are social creatures and tend to copy what they see around them. When you surround yourself with hard-working students, you will tend to be harder working, but when you go to a school that has lots of lazy, mediocre students, then you will tend to become lazy yourself. </p>
<p>And besides, if it makes you feel better, I would say that relatively few engineering grad students at MIT come from no-name schools.</p>
<p>i agree with sakky, when you surround yourself with lazy people you also become lazy.</p>
<p>keep applying to every job you see on your career center. also, go down the fortune 500 list and visit their website and apply to every intern that fits you hehe. you should hurry, it seems like a lot of deadlines are approaching.</p>
<p>I took summer classes at a lower ranked university and found the class only covered about 2/3 of the material, without much of the homework and less in depth test questions on what was covered. And yes I got a 4.0 that term. </p>
<p>Now we've all had statistics and anecdotal evidence is not proof, but from my perpective there are a lot easier ways to get an engineering degree while achieving a higher GPA. </p>
<p>I will say however that I've worked with a lot of engineers from "lesser" universities and found them to be a lot more practical than a lot of people from my alma-mater (once again anecdotal) </p>
<p>As for getting interviews, if you don't have the grades a lot of your interviews will end in the first 5 minutes. (I don't have my GPA on my resume) </p>
<p>I know i'm painting a pretty bleak picture and a lot of people will beg to differ. And of course I can only blame myself, but for those of you who are still a few years from graduation take note of my situation because it is definately somewhere you don't want to be.</p>
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As for getting interviews, if you don't have the grades a lot of your interviews will end in the first 5 minutes. (I don't have my GPA on my resume)
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<p>I think what you mean to say is that without the grades, you won't even get the interview at all.</p>
<p>However, let me point out that grades only matter for getting your first job, and then they don't matter as much as some people think they do. I agree that grades may matter for certain employers. But you don't have to work for those employers, at least not for your first job. I see nothing wrong with working for an unprestigious company for a couple of years. And after those couple of years are over, nobody is going to care about what grades you had in undergrad, all they're going to care about is how well you've been doing your job. </p>
<p>I'll give you an example. I know a guy who almost flunked out of Berkeley chemical engineering, and graduated with a terrible GPA. Not only that, but he was not an American citizen (he was from India), so he had to find an employer who was willing to sponsor his work visa. So poor grades coupled with needing a visa - looks bleak, doesn't it? Nevertheless, he got into a quite prestigious financial firm in San Francisco doing equity research for biotech companies. Sure, he had to do a lot of legwork to find that job. But he got it.</p>
<p>Was searching google and ran across this thread. I was in the exact same position as OP a couple of years ago when I graduated. Only a top 20 Cpr Engr department. My GPA was garbage, around 2.6 when it was all said and done. I struggled year after year for a internship or co-op or just any related summer job and NEVER had luck, only plenty of interviews. Once graduation time came, I literally applied to hundreds of jobs across the country weekly. HUNDREDS, bagged a few interviews but no offers.</p>
<p>NEVER GIVE UP!</p>
<p>I settled with the first thing that walked in front of me. A quik cash company, sad I know and the customers asked about my background and was shocked like deer in headlights. "You work here and have what from where!" The job was dead end as a bill collector and I was fueled to get out. From there, I only listed my 'major'GPA and talked my way into a position at a research center of a university, (probably bottom 20 Cpr Engr department). Took classes while I was there, took advantage of the ease of a unranked school, bagged a high GPA for a M.S (only took 16mo) and re-flared my search at career fairs. Now I'm work for a Fortune 100/Dow Industrial company with a significant salary since I got that M.S from the sorry school. Of course, planning on another graduate degree, MBA probably.</p>
<p>Having a high GPA in engineering only provides the luxury of being able to click on a few websites or print off a few resumes and sit back while the offers roll in. Anything under a 3.0 and most likely you're have to hustle hard. </p>
<p>What did I learn after all of this. School Ranks DO NOT MATTER in INDUSTRY. I know what we all think and what is perceived but from my experience, GA Tech = Kennesaw college. I do, however, have some of the best interview and resume skills, I perfect every aspect of an interview and know immediately (from the handshake) if they're interested or not. Now, grad school is a different story. Doing my repeat season earlier, I also applied to PhD programs and was accepted based on my undergrad experience I believe.</p>
<p>Another quick truth--which has little to do with the GPA side of discussion--to throw into this thread is from a handout my school's career center gives with a packet of information for finding internships/jobs. The handout is entitled "The A,B,C's of Job Hunting", and the very first tip reads"Always assume a job hunt will take months, not days or weeks, and plan accordingly."</p>
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what was ur major GPA? Also you got into PhD program straight from undergrad with a 2.6?
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<p>My major GPA was 3.10. No, not accepted right after undergrad. I mentioned that I worked for a university and grabed a M.S with a 3.7(probably ~3.2 to a good school), then applied/accepted to PhD programs.</p>
<p>But don't assume it's not possible. I have friends in the physical sciences who have been accepted to graduate programs straight out of undergrad with less than steller GPAs and GRE scores. If you have a firm research plan and pick the right people for reconmmedations (maybe an alumnus for the particular school) with the strength of a well writter personal statement, miracles can happen.</p>
<p>I completely agree with what u guys said. However I am currently in my sophomore year and i have 3.2. I do have a decent internship lined up though. I am a chemical engineering major. The pay in my internship is great ( about $21/hour) and chemEs in my University get paid a lot. The thing is gpa is falling and i am getting straight B and Cs throughout in my core courses. Do u guys think I'll have a decent chance of gettting a job after i graduate. I go to drexel university by the way. Not the top 20. but its consistently ranked as one of the most stressful engineering colleges in the country due to the extra hard course work.</p>
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School Ranks DO NOT MATTER in INDUSTRY. I know what we all think and what is perceived but from my experience, GA Tech = Kennesaw college.
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<p>Well, no, I can't agree that school ranks do not matter in industry. There really are engineering companies out there who place a tremendous premium on the school you went to - Google perhaps being the preeminent example. </p>
<p>"For the most part, it takes a degree from an Ivy League school, or MIT, Stanford, CalTech, or Carnegie Mellon--America's top engineering schools--even to get invited to interview. Brin and Page still keep a hand in all the hiring, from executives to administrative assistants. And to them, work experience counts far less than where you went to school, how you did on your SATs, and your grade-point average. "If you've been at Cisco for 20 years, they don't want you," says an employee. "</p>
<p>The truth is, schools like MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley and the like really do get an edge when it comes to engineering recruiting. Schools like that really do give you some instant credibility both in the interview and while you're on the job. Furthermore, there are some companies out there that really will only recruit at the very best schools. You can still get into these companies if you don't go to these schools, but it's harder because you have to fight just to get the interview, whereas if you go to one of those schools, you just sign up for the interview. </p>
<p>However, I also agree that school prestige is far from decisive, and personal skills and knowledge matter more, especially in the long run. School prestige gets your foot in the door. But it won't land you the job by itself.</p>
<p>From my own experience, the school prestige helps most during the first few years of your career, especially that first job. Beyond that, what count most is the most recent professional experience, i.e. what have you done for me lately. </p>
<p>I have been on the recruiter side myself. From my perspective, the GPA is the <em>only</em> indicator of how well one can master technical subjects. Given that most engineers have to constantly keep up with latest development in their respective fields, recruiters are more inclined to hire those who have already demonstrated that ability. I personally view "3.0" as the middle ground. The yard stick is also frequently used as the cutoff point for campus interview.</p>
<p>Reputable programs tend to attract more recruiters to campus. Ask yourself: if you were to recruit in Texas for a day, where would you most likely go to maximize your yield?</p>
<p>My advise for those don't have the minimum GPA: Develop and focus on your speciality skills. Some recruiters look for a specific skill/experience and are willing to look past the GPA.</p>
<p>Me too, Im from UMich with a 2.6 GPA in my junior year. I am a computer engineering major and really had no solid internship. I was thinking about getting into financial analysis from here but it looks reall bleak. The only thing I can look to do now is pray for a decent software company t hire me.</p>
<p>Tier I Opps: Google, Microsoft, Video game design, I-Banking, MG Consulting, etc. "Dream Jobs"
Tier II Opps: GE, Boeing, Raytheon, UTC, Govt. Labs, etc. Solid pay, good career aspects..just not quite a "dream" job
Tier III Opps: "Lesser" Fortune 500's, engineering roles.<br>
Tier IV Opps: Entry-level opps in business etc with other college grads or engineering work at Joe's Engineering outfit down the st.</p>
<p>4.0 level, T1 School: Good chance at Tier I opps
3.5 level T1=4.0 T2 School: Small chance at Tier I, Good chance at Tier II
3.0 level T1=3.5 T2 School: Small chance at Tier II, Good chance at Tier III
2.5 level T1=3.0 T2 School: Small chance at Tier III, Good chance at Tier IV
<2.5 at T1, <3 at T2: Very tough chance of a job</p>
<p>so it seems. I would say its alot easier to score a 3.5 at a T2 school than a 3.0 at a T1 school though, so choose carefully!</p>
<p>For a reasonably smart student I think T2 is the better option. If you truly excel, you can still have a chance (albeit a small one) at the "dream" jobs and definitely will get a good job.</p>