<p>So I am thinking about applying to a PhD program for material engineering.</p>
<p>I did not do well in undergrad, graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering and a minor in management, ended up with a 2.48 GPA (major GPA 2.62) at UC Irvine. My GPA towards the end of my undergrad degree was slightly better than the beginning. </p>
<p>This led me go out in industry to work for a year as a service engineer for a biomedical company. While working, I took classes at a local community college working towards an A.S. in computer aided design. I never finished this degree, but ended with a 3.71 GPA. This was used in conjunction with my undergrad GPA to apply for San Jose State University's material science program because they only looked at the last 90 units for graduate application purposes.</p>
<p>This has culminated to my current situation. I will be finishing my MS in material engineering next fall semester. I will most likely be graduating with a 3.4-3.5 GPA, but I can retake one class (took a class as an open enrollment student so it's not officially on my graduate transcript) to bump it to 3.5-3.6 if I choose to. I am currently doing my thesis work at IBM, and the work will most likely be published in at least 1 paper, if not 2. On top of IBM, I have also been a lab instructor at San Jose State and run my own eBay business to pay the bills.</p>
<p>How much will my undergrad GPA influence my ability to get accepted into a respectable PhD program for material engineering?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I thought if you have gotten a Masters, they tend to care about grades for that degree and not your undergrad as you apply for a PhD? I don’t know for sure, but I thought this is what I have heard.</p>
<p>That is true aerokid, and I hope that’s how they perceive it during the application process. I will need to take GREs during the spring semester to better gauge what schools are attainable.</p>
<p>Your MS GPA will be more important, as you have proven that you can handle college-level work. However, a 3.4 MS GPA is a little low particularly if you are in a program in which A is the standard and B means your work needs help/is somewhat unsatisfactory (and a C is failing). Perhaps your program is not like that, and your field is aware of that fact; but if it is, I would retake that class and get your GPA up to a 3.5.</p>
<p>Also, if you are finishing your MS next fall and are currently writing your thesis, most likely your work won’t be published yet when you apply for PhD programs in the fall. If you move quickly, you can get a paper under review. You should also be doing other research besides your thesis work. The eBay business won’t matter to admissions.</p>
<p>We need a 3.0 in the program to stay in, but by no means do the teachers give out an A easily or is it the standard. I typically see curving to be around a B+/B throughout the classes I’ve taken.</p>
<p>I can not speed up research as I already put in 20 hours into my research a week on top of all the aforementioned activities. I will be dedicating winter/spring/summer breaks into the project, so that will definitely speed up the research a bit. I have already been on the project for 3 months already, and will be on the project until at least the end of summer. I will inform my advisor of my intentions and see what he thinks I can do.</p>
<p>Anybody still applying for PhD in Materials Science? I just graduated with a MS and looking for top schools @ Fall 2014.
I also have a low gap in MS. Please any guidance with the application?</p>