Looking for recommendations for any colleges offering a Masters program in mechanical engineering that will consider a student with a 2.7 GPA (and a ME undergrad from an accredited college)? All of them seem to want a 3.0 minimum. Few things happened and our son’s grades slipped a little but hey, it was stressful and there was a pandemic and they went virtual and so grades, etc. are not 4.0s. We haven’t found a college yet that doesn’t say 3.0 min. He gets auto-rejected when he submits because the colleges come back within less 5 days saying rejected. He took the GRE and has solid scores so we think it’s the lack of a 3.0 GPA. His team won a presitigious award in ME and his faculty advisor has filed for a patent on their design so he’s got some good things going for him but he never gets to the next statge.
Any ideas / recommendations?
Why doesn’t he work for a bit, gain a track record and then go back for a MS? Then his GPA will matter less.
How long do you think he needs to work to get the track record? 1 year, 2…? Thanks
That’s hard to say. Generally 3 years is the number that conveys gravitas in the working world. Or, he could wait until the company he works for wants him to have a MS.
Maybe more importantly, why does he want a Masters?
He wants to design mechanical hands for prosthetics and he thinks that he needs even more skills than a BS in ME with a minor in math and stats.
Even if he can’t get directly into that, he can get skills that he can parlay into a job doing that. He’s smart enough to reverse engineer a way in. There are multiple paths and some luck involved in landing desired jobs. It will just take time and a little grind. Best of luck to him.
(1) It might be the 2.7. I know one school, not highly ranked, where it is easier to hire new faculty than to get a grad student admitted with under a 3.0. That takes the signature of the provost, the other only a signature of the dean.
(2) It might not be the 2.7. There are only two ways to get a 2.7. One is that he was always marginal (3.0 is a minimum, but they really like to see higher numbers than that) and this year pushed that down. OR he was doing OK but really, really tanked the last year. Unfortunately these classes are foundational for grad school. In short, the problem might not be the aggregate grades, but the individual grades.
(3) I presume you mean the general GRE? A really, really low score might keep you out, but no score will get you in.
Has he reached out to individual engineering schools? Perhaps the head of some of the programs might be able to give some real guidance on ways to circumvent the auto-reject from admissions.
I think many schools appreciate how difficult the last two years have been on students and might want to help.
What is his core engineering gpa?
What does the faculty member who worked with him say? What does his advisor say? This is a problem for the “big guns” to help with! They will either know of programs where their recommendations can overcome the GPA, or will counsel him to get a job and put the GPA in the rear view mirror and may have some suggestions of where those jobs could be.