possibility of going to grad school?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hello guys,</p>

<p>I'm a MIT student but over the past year I took some time off because of depression and am trying to get back to school to next term to finish my mechanical engineering degree (I have about 2 semesters left.) I recently applied though in case MIT decides they still want to walk egg shells around me to UT austin and BYU. I was denied both solely on the fact that my MIT GPA is 2.8/4.0. For MIT that is about average and is in no form comparable to other schools' GPAs. I'm waiting on my appeals to both but it has caused me to think that I won't be able to go to any grad school because I doubt my GPA will be raised by very much. I've taking engineering classes at BYU over the summer and had to help many peers with homework and it all seemed a joke compared to what I did at MIT. I'm also a Texas resident and got scholarships to go to UT when I was going transfer admissions. </p>

<p>I've done a lot out of school too, including an internship at Hewlett Packard and NASA JSC. I hope to work for NASA as an engineer but I hope to complete a masters and doctorate also. Can I get into any decent grad school?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>I don’t really care what school you go to, a 2.8 out of 4.0 is rough. You can talk and talk and talk about how it is so much different because you were at MIT, but to the schools, it isn’t really going to matter when it is sub-3.0. It will just look like you were a smart kid that slacked off at a good school. Really, if you want to have a shot at a good grad school, you will probably need to get that up above 3.0, and that is WITH the MIT factor played in. Even that would be cutting it close.</p>

3

<p>Boneh3ad is right.</p>

<p>Unfortunately it doesn’t really matter where you go, a 2.8/4.0 is not going to look good for any graduate applications. I know that MIT is rigorous but graduate schools, especially top programs, want to see top caliber students regardless of their school. </p>

<p>Do you know if you will be re-admitted to MIT?</p>

<p>If so, I would network AS much as possible with a professor in your field of interest. Try to get some UG research experience and if you can, publish papers. You’ll need to raise your GPA but if you can build up substantial research experience it will help as well. Focus on getting your GPA above a 3.0 and build up research experience. </p>

<p>Alternatively, you can graduate and get a job and then re-apply to graduate school .</p>

4

<p>I just don’t know how to raise my GPA when all classes at MIT are curved to a C+ or B-. And no, I did not slack on when I went to MIT as I fully committed all my college life and sleep to get what I got. I just think its ignorant in general to assume I haven’t worked hard at MIT when I could have easily gotten a 4.0/4.0 at any Texas school without trying and most schools in the country. And yes, I have worked at a MIT lab and plan to work at another when I get back. I personally think I’m overqualified for most graduate programs, but I don’t think people in admissions are that knowledgeable to make appropriate decisions. So unless you go to a really top engineering school, I probably won’t take your opinion because you don’t know my background.</p>

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<p>lol yeah that 2.8 is really impressive.</p>

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<p>Wow. It will be hard to get into any school with that kind of attitude.</p>

<p>Texas gets excellent grad students from all over the country. I went there for undergrad and grad school. I was blown away by all the smart kids who thought UT was plenty good enough for them! Several of them went on to start large firms and are quite successful. I’m not doing so badly myself. The one engineer I worked with who went to MIT got let go because he had such a hard time working with other people.</p>

7

<p>Okay before this turns into a flame-war, girlfriendMB is here for help anyway.</p>

<p>GirlfriendMB, irregardless of MIT’s grading policies you need to get your GPA up and add research experience. Any top engineering program will have an average hovering from a 2.8 to a 3.3. While this is enough to get a job and what not, if you want to attend a top graduate program you need to have a GPA above the average–top graduate schools like any elite employer want the cream of the crop candidates. Looking at the MIT admissions for graduate school, they “highly recommend” seniors with a 4.8/5.0 to apply to their graduate program. I was accepted into top engineering graduate schools and most of the other applicants had 3.75+ GPAs with insane publications. </p>

<p>Now getting said GPA might be difficult/impossible but you should strive to get a 3.0+ at the bare minimum, to avoid any computer cut offs. The reason I asked if you had lab experience is that if you have any publications, you could leverage that into an admissions with your professor. Since you are already at MIT your best shot is with another MIT professor and you could possibly network your way into graduate school. This mode might not work with other graduate schools who know very little about your work and would just see your GPA.</p>

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<p>While I’m sure you’d like to automatically invalidate the opinion of a grad student at a lowly number ten-ranked engineering school, you should know that the three (maybe four…?) MIT grads I know here in grad school at UT for ChemE don’t seem to think it’s exactly a cake walk (none of whom, I can assure you, got in with a 2.8 GPA). Oh, but by all means, be sure to note on your grad school applications that you could’ve “easily made a 4.0 without trying” at Substandard State U and I’m sure they’d welcome you with open arms. Even if your transcript somehow didn’t preclude you from getting an interview, I have a peculiar feeling that an interview is as far as you’d get.</p>

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<p>Apply to Purdue, you’ll definitely get in :stuck_out_tongue: (We accept everyone).</p>

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<p>HOLY SUPERIORITY COMPLEX BATMAN!!!</p>

<p>Seriously man, get a grip on reality! MIT is a great school, but it isn’t to the point where a 2.8 there = 4.0 somewhere else. The fact is, it is still the same material being taught. The biggest difference is who is teaching it and what kind of money is put into it, as well as the high school qualifications of all the people around you. The guys at MIT learned the same basic subjects as all the guys at UIUC and then the grad students at MIT use those basics to do similar things as those of us here at TAMU. Trust us when we tell you that the name of your school is not going to count for crap when you have a 2.8 GPA. You need to raise it.</p>

<p>And I never said you slacked off, I said that the adcoms are going to view it that way since you clearly were smart enough to get into MIT but didn’t make the grades.</p>

<p>Still, you need to seriously reexamine your outlook on life. If you have any of that condescending attitude come through in your personal statement or anything of that sort, you aren’t going to get accepted anywhere, let alone a top school. Fact: people don’t like jerks who think they are better than anyone. Fact: people like to work with people who are extremely competent and intelligent, and despite that fact, go out of their way not to flaunt it and make others feel bad. You might be a genius, but if you are a jerk about it, you are going to have a hard time making friends, and thus a hard time making money.</p>

<p>And nshah is absolutely right. Your best bet without raising your GPA is to network your way into having one of your MIT profs sponsoring you for grad school with the assumption that they will take you on as their student. However, if you don’t cut out this “holier than thou” crap, you will have a hard time even finding that.</p>

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<p>From my experience in Texas AND Maine, the MIT degree can be more of a handicap than a help. More than once, I heard other engineers say, “Oh, he went to M. I. T.” emphasizing each letter and rolling their eyes. You might want to keep that in mind - you’ll have to work hard to overcome the stereotype of the MIT engineer.</p>

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<p>Well, I don’t think MIT is a handicap with upper management, but it won’t win you any coworker friends. That is where its going to hurt the most I would imagine, especially coupled with the attitude we have seen here.</p>

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<p>IMO. For DS data points, 2006: CMU dual BS in ME and HCI. High Honors GPA. LOR from advisor who phD MIT ME, and US President recognized; Work experienced. </p>

<p>Target MIT for Media Lab for MS. </p>

<p>Results for MIT: Nope. But got in at Toronto on full scholarship. </p>

<p>Today: Researcher at Udub, computer science/robotics</p>

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<p>I’m trying to decipher this post. DS = ?</p>

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<p>What the hell does that have to do with anything, LongPrime? haha</p>

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<p>I’m sorry you guys have such an attitude towards me. I’m just looking for some help. If you want to make fun of me, that really sad. It almost makes me wonder from all these negativity who got rejected from MIT or was too scared to apply. : ) Don’t be jealous, be happy where you are.</p>

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<p>The idea is that a 2.8 looks bad no matter where it’s from. It also means your classmates are kicking your ass. So don’t be getting mad at us. If you’re as smart as you think you are, it shouldn’t matter in the long run.</p>

18

<p>And you wonder why no one is helping you out…</p>

<p>Good luck with life. With an attitude like that, you will need it. One day reality is going to slap you in the face and you are going to realize that the name “MIT” isn’t going to do everything for you. That is what we have been trying to HELP you understand. Regardless of what school you go to, you HAVE to get your GPA up. You can keep telling us how much better you are because you went to MIT and how much lower level you think every other school is, but (1) that doesn’t change your GPA and (2) that doesn’t help you down the road when you will be working with people from all different schools. I am trying to help you. You HAVE to get over this superiority thing, and you have to raise your GPA.</p>

<p>I mean, I am a doctoral student at TAMU, but what I do here I couldn’t do at any other school, which would mean this is the top school for the exact research I am doing. MIT doesn’t have a Mach 6 Quiet Flow facility. Stanford doesn’t. Caltech doesn’t, and uses ours some. Berkeley doesn’t. Ga Tech doesn’t. And so on and so on. The only school that has anything even close is Purdue, which I am sure you consider inferior as well, yet I couldn’t be doing what I am doing here if I were at MIT.</p>

<p>Despite the fact that I don’t go to MIT, I am still working in a research group that is run off of a $10 million grant from NASA, and I still have access to a supercomputer for running CFD code, and I still get to work with world class faculty in my field of interest. If you confine yourself into thinking that MIT is the only place to be; the end, be all, then you are going to potentially miss out on some great opportunities, and if you continue to belittle anything that isn’t called MIT, you are going to put off so many people that you will find it hard to get promoted in the future and hard to make friends at work or even in your personal life.</p>

<p>And if you don’t consider this help, then fine, but I am 100% serious in what I say, and am trying to help you now before you figure it out the hard way. If you insist on belittling those that would help you, however, then you are going to be on your own.</p>

<p>If you really are here for help, then change your attitude, because people will not be very receptive to that kind of closed-mindedness. If you are just a ■■■■■ trying to stir the pot, then I would politely ask you to ■■■■.</p>

19

<p>“I’m a MIT student but over the past year I took some time off because of depression and am trying to get back to school to next term to finish my mechanical engineering degree (I have about 2 semesters left.)”

  • I can honestly sympathize with that. My girlfriend has been dealing with some depression… I understand it’s fairly common among college students.</p>

<p>“I recently applied though in case MIT decides they still want to walk egg shells around me to UT austin and BYU. I was denied both solely on the fact that my MIT GPA is 2.8/4.0. For MIT that is about average and is in no form comparable to other schools’ GPAs. I’m waiting on my appeals to both but it has caused me to think that I won’t be able to go to any grad school because I doubt my GPA will be raised by very much.”

  • That’s a tough break. That being said, if the difference were really that marked, why wouldn’t these schools take that into account? If they disregard it on purpose or are ignorant of it, are they the kinds of places you’d want to go anyway? If they do take it into account, then I don’t see the problem… you just didn’t make the cut. Life isn’t always fair. There are plenty of other places you can try.</p>

<p>"I’ve taking engineering classes at BYU over the summer and had to help many peers with homework and it all seemed a joke compared to what I did at MIT. I’m also a Texas resident and got scholarships to go to UT when I was going transfer admissions. "

  • I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the BYU people also thought the material was “a joke”. It’s easy to think we’re smart when we’re used to harder work, but a lot of people feel more comfortable being a “big fish” in a “little pond”, so to speak. It’s less stress and has its benefits.</p>

<p>“I’ve done a lot out of school too, including an internship at Hewlett Packard and NASA JSC. I hope to work for NASA as an engineer but I hope to complete a masters and doctorate also. Can I get into any decent grad school?”

  • I wonder what you define a decent grad school to be. Do you have a list of grad schools for your intended specialization? Are we talking top 10 for your field, or top 20? Maybe you should lower your standards a little bit. </p>

<p>“I just don’t know how to raise my GPA when all classes at MIT are curved to a C+ or B-.”

  • Most of my classes are curved to C+ or B-, although I imagine the coursework here is a good deal easier than the coursework at MIT. That being said, the way I have maintained a high GPA is to do better than the rest of the class… by a combination of natural ability and some light studying on the side.</p>

<p>“And no, I did not slack on when I went to MIT as I fully committed all my college life and sleep to get what I got. I just think its ignorant in general to assume I haven’t worked hard at MIT when I could have easily gotten a 4.0/4.0 at any Texas school without trying and most schools in the country.”

  • I agree it’s not fair to assume you slacked. However, it’s not fair to assume you could have gotten a 4.0 at any other school in the country without trying. If anything, it sounds like another school may have been a better fit for you. Something less stressful, more relaxed, maybe less competition… and it does come off as a little snobbish when you hold your alma mater so high above every other school, even if it is deserved.</p>

<p>“And yes, I have worked at a MIT lab and plan to work at another when I get back. I personally think I’m overqualified for most graduate programs, but I don’t think people in admissions are that knowledgeable to make appropriate decisions.”

  • Like it or not, you have to be able to convince the admissions people that you are good enough for the program. With a GPA of 2.8, you’ll need to make a convincing argument. Why do you feel like you deserve to go to graduate school more than, say, somebody from UMich with a 3.9 GPA and similar accomplishments? Do you really feel like you’re that much more qualified than them based on where you went to school?</p>

<p>“So unless you go to a really top engineering school, I probably won’t take your opinion because you don’t know my background.”

  • You’re being very hostile to us. It sounds like you have a lot of pent up anger and a toxic sense of entitlement. I think you’re approaching the graduate school thing wrong. You should approach it as an opportunity to learn more about something you enjoy. If you think there is a single university that deals with your specialization which has nothing to teach you, you’re lying to yourself.</p>

<p>What’s your deal?</p>

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<p>lol MORAL POLICE. I really don’t see why you guys are so judgy towards me. No I don’t speak to people like I do you cause I really don’t care and its the internet. And no my classmates are beating my ass, as a lot of people fail out of my major. thats why I have a 3.8/5.0 and most people will just say 3.8 to other people because its not comparable. So no, the stereotype that MIT people have a hurdle isn’t that big, and has helped me very much in getting the internships I want. I’m getting email from jobs everyday actually : ). And I think I’m allowed to be a little prideful after the stuff MIT put me through and you would be the same. </p>

<p>UT was my last safety school when I was applying to school, its overrated in my opinion. people only buff up their own school because its all they know which is understandable. I have some choice words about TAM I won’t say because thats mean and I’m was only looking for help. Whoever says hehe 2.8, thats really mean because you have no idea what college life is like for MIT. And anyone who said I know someone from MIT who didn’t live up your standard or were the best at MIT, well they don’t represent the whole school so please stop being so stupid. MIT isn’t me, like UT isn’t you(even if its the bad part of youlol) You aren’t your school so stop trying to pretend you are helping me when you are actually just making me feel crappy and anxious about school.</p>