<p>Hello everyone, I have some questions concerning my GPA</p>
<p>I am a Mechanical Engineer at University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and I just turned Junior and still has about 1.5~2 years left before I graduate.</p>
<p>Looking at my GPA and general trend of my grades, I feel like in two years I'll graduate with about 2.8~3.2 GPA (currently 3.0 which is about average here I think) depending on how much I try.</p>
<p>I was wondering how my GPA would play role in terms of getting a job or going to graduate school after I graduate. Lastly, is there a huge difference between 2.97 and 3.0? (I am currently taking spring classes and if I do bad on the finals, I might end up with 2.97) and is 2.8~3.2 a respectable GPA for a graduate from Michigan? </p>
<p>To begin with, I must say we all make mistake. I dropped from nearly perfect to something that is kind of low and bad. I did bad in two classes and they were important.</p>
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<p>I am a lower sophomore right now, but I can still give you my understanding.
I don’t know about UM-AA. I know in our school we have GPA and QPA. QPA is the quality point average of your major. One gets kicked out if his or her QPA is too low. Obviously, a 2.8~3.2 GPA should reflect an average QPA, and I am not very worried about that in your case.</p>
<p>However, speaking of graduate school, there are at least 5 things to consider:
(1) your GPA (2) Your research experience (3) Recommendation letters (4)GRE score, and (5) your undergraduate life</p>
<p>There are more people pursing graduate studies in the recent years, and this makes good graduate school even more competitive.
Speaking of your GPA, a 2.8 - 3.2 is probably a bad GPA if you want to attend good graduate school (just any of the top 30 engineering schools in USA). The reason being that there are more graduate applicants with 3.5 or above.</p>
<p>This is where (2) and (3) comes in. Your GPA only gets you a ticket. If you never had in a research program, you probably will be rejected by all the good reputable graduate school (again, not necessarily the top 20, top 10). </p>
<p>For recommendation letters, if you did bad in your classes you probably won’t get a lot of impressions from your professors, and they aren’t very willing to write one for you. I am not talking about A, A-, but at least (1) he should somewhat thinks you are a very good student worth his time for writing, and (2) he has to mention your result in his class. If you are getting a low grade, probably nothing to mention.</p>
<p>GRE score is also a key to buy the ticket, beside the GPA.</p>
<p>Last but not the least (haha), is your college life. While having extensive research experience, great 3.80, 3.90 GPA and great recommendation letters, sometime graduate school also wants to have students to be enjoying their undergraduate student lives. I knew this guy he said one of his essay was about his undergraduate life. </p>
<p>Anything you do while pursing your undergraduate degree counts toward your grad school application. Applying to a grad school is nothing different a high school student applying to a college in his or her senior year. </p>
<p>Ask yourself: why would I want to waste my time and money to apply to a cheap graduate school. It is totally fine not to get into MIT or Standford as undergraduate, but it is so wasted to go to a program that is not helpful. </p>
<p>While you purse your master, or even Ph.D, you really want to have a program that is interesting and fun - with a lot of resources to support your study, your research, and also network.</p>
<p>You are attending UM-AA, and you should understand what it meant to be in a good engineering school such as UM-AA.</p>
<p>We all have stories behind our GPA, but really try your best. If not, giving up a year or two for work before re-entering graduate school may be even a better choice. Whichever is your choice, GPA is not everything. But it does influences your grad application. </p>
<p>To end this, tell us more about yourself.</p>
<p>Oh. 2.97 vs 3.0. Big difference? Which one looks more appealing? Of course 3.0. But 3.0 is still as bad as 2.97 when it is compared to 3.2 and 3.3 3.4 3.5.
But at least a 3 looks much better. But 3.0 is already a bad GPA. In most scholarships, even those with $250 one, a 3.2 GPA minimally is required.</p>
<p>I think 3.5 or anything above looks awesome, but the higher the better, of course. But with 4.0 and no (2), (3) may not get you to a good graduate school either.</p>
<p>lol. I am in the same situation at you. I have a 3.07 with same amount of time left.
For Gad school, you should shoot for a higher GPA. I want to get into UT grad school, and they are the number 10 best for engineering schools with a average of 3.5-3.6 GPA. Getting close to the average is good and having lots of research experience will help alot ( I only have 0.5 years of research experience). Im actually going to my advisors for the 4th time tommorrow to get some answers on what I can do to increase my chances, but I think they will probably say I have to talk to UT directly. </p>
<p>For a job. It depends if you have work experience in your major. I didn’t have any and had a 2.90 in GPA. When I applied for internships they loved me and wrote something on my resume everytime, but I only got one call back. Had the interview cancelled on me because they filled the position. So my guess is that they probably hated me for having less than a 3.0. </p>
<p>Best of luck to ya. Hopefully we both can salvage from starting off with a low GPA</p>
<p>Have you been able to figure out why you have that GPA? Are you under stress? Do you put in quality study time? Determine what’s troubling you and how you can improve your situation now before you think about the future. My recommendation is to approach as many professors as you can to ask for an undergrad research spot or try to get an internship; practical experience and good practical performance may make up for a less-than-stellar GPA. Some professors might give you a chance.</p>
<p>A 3.0 GPA will get you into most graduate schools in the US; a 3.5 or above will get you into the prestigious programs. For industry, GLOBALTRAVELER already provided general guidelines. There’s not much difference between a 2.97 and a 3.0 (both are B, one is B- the other is B). There’s a huge difference between 3.0 and 3.5 but there’s little difference between 3.5 and anything above.</p>
<p>Yeha…
I need to figure out way to put some strong efforts into my studying.
I do put efforts into studying but sometimes results just don’t come out the way I want them to. I am also planning on working for few years before I apply for graduate school.
I am also looking to take one semester off and dedicate that time in internship, research or somewhere along that line.</p>
<p>Try your best to keep it above a 3.0. There are a couple reasons why this is significantly better than a 2.97. When looking at your resume, 3.0 is a lot more likely to pass the “eye test” of the reviewer. If they see it start with a 2 instead of a 3, that already starts you off on a bad note, even though 2.97 is only 0.03 lower than 3.0. It is the same reason car companies charge $16,995 for a car instead of $17,000. That lower major number is mentally noticeable, no matter how insignificant the difference between the two majors really is.</p>
<p>The other reason is that a lot of companies deal with high resume volume and employ computer programs to filter through the huge stack of resumes and whittle it down to a more manageable stack for the hiring managers to read through. Many of them set that bar to something like 3.0, so a 2.97 would get filtered out while the marginally better 3.0 will not. Now, I can’t cite a specific company that has 3.0 set for their “bar”, but I know for a fact that they won’t pick something like 2.95 or 3.05, they will keep it to one decimal. It is also much more likely that the company will have it set at 3.0 than at 2.9.</p>
<p>Basically, do whatever you can to try and get it to 3.0+.</p>
<p>If you are looking to go to grad school:</p>
<p>A lot of the advice that jwxie gave you here is incorrect and/or misleading. Work your tail off and get it as high as possible. You have very little chance at a good grad school with a GPA below 3.0, and even 3.1 or 3.2 is pushing it without any good research experience and good recommendation letters. Even with decent stats everywhere else, having a GPA below 3.0 will be a killer most likely unless you want to go to relatively unknown school.</p>
<p>jwxie was right in that there are several other factors in grad school applications besides GPA, but undergraduate life is not one of them. Extracurriculars hold very little power when it comes to grad school applications. Your best bet for getting in is to do well on the GRE and get research experience. Research experience is absolutely the best thing you can do for your grad school chances besides having a good GRE. I say this because research experience both proves you can perform in a research setting, and gives you a very good relationship with professors who can write you an excellent letter that comments on your research potential. Letters of recommendation that have research or projects mentioned in them are significantly better than those that just mention class grades.</p>
<p>The bottom line for graduate admissions is that the school has to know that you have a high likelihood of succeeding in their program and successfully carrying out their research. GPA is part of that, and you really need to try and keep it above 3.0 for any shot at a good grad school.</p>
<p>If you want to attend grad school with very little work experience and/or want a fully-funded tuition, yes you need that high GPA and GRE. I would not call myself knowing too much about that route and going from what I read on this board and college websites.</p>
<p>Now if you want the other “hustlin’” route to grad school, I can give you better advice. Still it would be nice to have a nice GPA, but good work experience can offset GPA/GRE for schools not ranked in the Top-10 and maybe a couple of schools IN the Top-10. Of course, the drawback is that you are in your late 20’s or age 30 in grad school as opposed to 21/22/23. Here is the hustling process…</p>
<p>Step 0) Latch on with an employer who has a good tuition reimbursement benefit
Get 5+ years work experience
Apply to grad school as non-degree student
Take 3 courses and get A’s
Apply for full-time admission</p>
<p>If you have a 3.5+ GPA in 3 graduate courses of your major, not too many schools are going to say no. You have just aced 1/3 of their program AND giving them steady checks to accounts payable. College is a business and won’t turn that down.</p>
<p>I had a 2.7 undergrad GPA and snuck in the back door at U-Wisconsin and their ISysE program. Of course, I took advantage of being able to pad my courses with a few Statistics courses and my undergrad degree was in Math.</p>
<p>As far as Top-10 schools. The only programs that will allow that alternative route would be U-Wisconsin’s ISysE program (#10), Georgia Tech’s professional Systems Engineering program and Penn State’s Systems Engineering program. Those programs are tied to their highly-ranked I.E. departments (where SysE is usually placed). The schools ranked #11-#20 will probably have to be aimed at…but it won’t matter too much since you will have experience.</p>
<p>Hey GLOBALTRAVLER, once again I think you are right person to ask the following questions/situations:</p>
<p>I am currently working in tech ops. The work is really interesting and it looks like something I want to be involved in the long run. Now, if I go for a masters in Information Systems, will that help me on the path to becoming a technical architect? There aren’t many around and it’s an extremely specialized role. From your experience in the industry can you tell me more about this career? Is it easily outsource-able? Is there such thing as a non-programming architect ( network/data)?</p>
<p>The technical architect (TA) is the person who is tasked with providing technical solution either for an application or an entire system. Now that is a general term because the definition and roles of a TA is tailored to either the industry that is the focus OR how the employer chooses to define the position. I can only speak from a I.T. perspective and if my past employers has TA’s, they were folks who knew:</p>
<p>a) the technical archirecture (whose definition will also vary from industry to industry)
b) a “go to” person when technical issues occur
c) who knew how all of the “pieces” interacted (application front-end, data/database, network administration, testing, etc)</p>
<p>A M.S. in Information Systems can help from a perspective of at least exposing you to different areas of a system, but to be honest, experience is the main ingredient because a TA had to have experienced all kinds of issues and success from past projects to know how a system will be implemented. The graduate degree helps as far a the pay-scale, but the experience and possibly certifications will keep you employed.</p>
<p>The TA cannot be outsourced because it is almost 50% people/team interaction. Usually, a TA specialized in one area but knows the “minimum” in others…just enough to know how all the pieces fit. Of course a TA can be a network or Information Assurance expert and still be the “go to” person for the system.</p>
<p>Now…</p>
<p>Having said ALL of that, remember when I mentioned that it depends on the employer?? The role of the TA can be masked as a “technical project manager” or “systems architect” of the company may just allow the TA role to be a team of the “leads” of each area (network, data/database, programming, testing, etc).</p>
<p>Yes, it does help. Since I have two semesters left, I really want to make sure that I get into the right field and not just waste doing things that won’t help. There isn’t always a reset button after screwing up therefore I am trying my best to avoid potential blunders by doing as much research as possible on various career paths. Thanks for your input.</p>