Need a little advice

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, I am starting to get geared up to apply to grad schools, and I need a little bit of advice.</p>

<p>I am looking to go into grad school for either Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering. I plan on focusing on fluid mechanics or heat transfer, but I am not sure which one yet, which I why I haven't decided ME or AE yet.</p>

<p>Currently I am about to start my senior year at the University of Illinois, and have a GPA of 3.15 with my GPA in the ME department of about 3.36.</p>

<p>I realize that is fairly low, despite the fact that a large portion of that is from my gen eds.</p>

<p>So far I have been an Undergraduate Lab Assistant in Heat Transfer for the past two semesters, had two internships, one with Halliburton and currently will Rolls-Royce, and have geared my advanced courses towards my interests mentioned earlier.</p>

<p>My question is what else can I do to help strengthen my application and help make up for that low GPA? It has been a dream of mine to go to a grad school, and if possible, I would really like to go to a school with similar or better quality as UIUC.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Not be antagonistic, but if you only got a 3.15 at UIUC, why do you think you deserve to go somewhere with "better quality" than UIUC?</p>

3

<p>Well like I said, it was mostly my gen eds, and my grades have been going up rather than down. Plus, I realize that it might not matter to admissions committees but my single worst semester was a result of taking finals with a 103 fever that came on too late for me to either get better or get my finals rescheduled. It was hard enough to stand up straight, let alone think straight. That doesn't change my GPA or really much of anything as far as grad schools care, but it does mean that my GPA is deceptively low.</p>