Overall GPA vs Major GPA

<p>I'm taking this gen ed course right now and I know I'm not going to do well because the readings are too hard for me. I spent a tremendous amount of hours this first week of school reading 60 pages, went to lectures, and watched videos and I still did bad on the quiz (professor said if we did all that, we should be able to get 100 but I was no where close to that). I was wondering if I should spend more time on my engineering courses since its more interesting and feels easier and just try to pull C's in my remaining gen ed courses? Also, do a lot of people put their major gpa's on their resume instead of their over gpa? Will anyone ask for your over gpa?</p>

<p>Every company will ask for your overall GPA, and many have HR-imposed GPA cutoffs (for example, no one with a sub 3.0 GPA can be hired).</p>

<p>As for your major GPA vs. overall GPA: it depends on the manager. Some people just care about technical skills, but an increasing number of managers are looking for a more “well rounded” engineer that has both technical and soft skills.</p>

<p>Try to talk to the professor and ask him/her questions you don’t understand about the class. </p>

<p>Also, try taking easier gen ed courses (that is, look up the professor on ratemyprofessors.com or ask friends for recommendations on those classes). </p>

<p>My engineering professor said if your overall gpa is low, just put your major gpa (Most schools will take that into consideration). Of course, they like a well rounded individual but the major gpa is important too.</p>

<p>This is probably the easiest gen ed course for US/IL cultures. I’m just not that good of a reader and the quiz questions are too specific for my liking (and it accounts for 30% of our grade). I don’t think this class will hurt my gpa to below a 3.0. I just don’t want to put a 3.1 gpa on my resume. As a junior, I have a 3.79 overall and 3.80 major. With all the history and art gen eds I still have to take, I’m projecting a huge drop in my overall gpa by a lot.</p>

<p>What engineering schools requires you to take 1-2 years of history and art courses?</p>

<p>My school requires 6 credits in arts, 6 in history, and 6 in social behavioral sciences. It also requires 3 credits in US and 3 in IL cultures. I didn’t take much gen ed courses during my first two years of college. I had to late drop some, because they were harder than I had expected.</p>

<p>8 courses would drop you from a 3.8 to a 3.1 after 3 years of college?</p>

<p>I know, for instance, that Auburn has a fairly weighty core, and even engineers have to do it. The following is a list of core courses that you have to take (or AP out of):

  • English Composition I & II (6 hrs)
  • English Literature I & II (6 hrs)
  • Fine Arts (3 hrs)
  • Social Sciences 2x (6 hrs)
  • Philosophy (3 hrs)</p>

<ul>
<li>Science sequence (8 hrs)</li>
<li>Math course (4 hrs)</li>
</ul>

<p>And maybe some more. If you just count the humanities in that list, that’s almost a year.</p>

<p>8 courses in the humanities/social sciences appears to be the norm from what I’ve seen.</p>