<p>I've gotten several scholarships to A&M, pretty sizeable amount. All of them require that I maintain a 3.5 or greater GPA.</p>
<p>Problem- I'm going to be a Computer Engineering major. Engineering is hard, and I've heard a lot of people saying that just breaking 3.0 is an accomplishment.</p>
<p>So, grads and current students, do you think that's it's possible to maintain a 3.5 as an electrical engineer?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your responses.</p>
<p>Depends on your study habits. I came from a pretty rigorous high school and was well prepared for the pace of the coursework and i’m looking to wrap up my second semester with a 4.0 in computer engineering. </p>
<p>Just some general advice about the major:</p>
<p>They’re going to try to get you to cram a bunch of pre-reqs into your first year (multiple math, physics, chemistry, etc.) all of which will come with a lab and recitation section. Don’t be afraid to pad your schedule and spread these out over multiple semesters (if it is GPA youre concerned about), especially if there’s money on the line for it. Take some intro classes in other areas you find interesting (college is for learning, after all) to soften up the courseload. </p>
<p>in most of those courses it is entirely possible to make an A. People may say certain instructors or courses are notoriously difficult or impossible, but if you put in the time to learn the material and prepare yourself for exams i don’t think you’ll have too much trouble. However…</p>
<p>Their intro to engineering courses (ENGR 111, 112) for computer engineering which are required pre-reqs have been - for me, this year, at least - have been terrible. I love the material (it is my major, after all) but the quality of instruction is abysmal and the tests are rarely ever “fair”. Just a heads up.</p>
<p>Sorry this is kind of scattered. PM me if you have any questions about it. I’m on the computer engineering CS track, but CS and EE haven’t diverged yet in terms of required courses so I can probably give you a pretty good idea what to expect first year.</p>
<p>A 3.5, one A for every B. If you work hard and do some schedule padding like mnaacd</p>
<p>*like mnaacd suggested, I think you’ll be fine. You coming in with any credit for calculus or science? I’d imagine that would help…</p>
<p>I should have credit for a yearsworth each of calc, history, physics, and english coming in.</p>
<p>Definitely possible. It will require good time management skills though.</p>
<p>Sent from my LG-P925 using CC</p>
<p>Cal and Physics will be huge.</p>
<p>OwntheNight, you sound like you might be in a similar position to my son, who started at A&M last August. Like you, he was a little worried about all he had heard – how hard it was, etc. And when comparing scholarships at different universities, A&M’s 3.5 GPA was one of the higher thresholds out there! But A&M was also one of the very best scholarship schools. And so, like you, he wanted to attend and take them up on those massive scholarships – but only if he thought he could hang on to them (naturally)!</p>
<p>Well, he’s only a freshman, but he has had no trouble keeping a 3.5 gpa. He got a 4.0 the first semester and has a 4.0 at the mid-term this semester. He brought in a similar amount of AP credits as you (plus a few more), and he would agree with derekallen2009 that calculus and physics (and/or chemistry) credits are huge.</p>
<p>To give you an idea, for comparison purposes to yourself: He came from a very large, very rigorous public. He had all AP classes and really excellent stats. And I already mentioned he had similar AP credits to yours.</p>
<p>He DOES have to work harder than he ever had to work in high school – mostly in terms of time, but very occasionally in terms of concepts, too! That was kind of a surprise for him (and me), even though we’d heard that he would likely experience that, because he was truly a top performer before college and never struggled with anything academic. </p>
<p>The good news is, despite the fact that he has to work harder than ever before, he also still has plenty of free time! He takes almost every single weekend off, except for a few hours on Sundays when he meets with his engineering group to do projects/papers. He finds the time to work out several times a week. He volunteers for several hours a week. He has a pretty big ‘extracurricular’ that he does for several hours a week. And he has a girlfriend. BUT, he DOES study more, struggle more with concepts (but still not much), and devote much more time to academics than he ever did before college. He wouldn’t say that it was HARD to get a 4.0. But it WAS more challenging than any 4.0 before college – even at a very rigorous, very large public high school with all AP classes.</p>
<p>I sure hope that explanation helps you in some way. I remember when my son was in your shoes, wondering if it would really be as hard as so many people said! We knew it would probably depend on the person … but it’s hard to know how you compare to the person who’s pulling it off! I know it’s a little scary biting off on the 3.5 GPA!</p>
<p>Best of luck to you as you make your decision. My son is very, very happy at A&M! :)</p>
<p>Oh. And I wanted to comment on this quote …</p>
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<p>My son would totally agree with this quote (though he’s not computer engineering – but for ENGR 111 and 112 it probably doesn’t matter).</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest, my son really didn’t like his ENGR 111 teacher last semester. And like mnaacd, he also thought the quality of instruction was abysmal. He was kind of disappointed that his very first engineering class ever was so – meh – and frustrating.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the Dwight School could do a much better job of introducing engineering to their eager freshmen!</p>
<p>But, as mnaacd pointed out, my son also thought that the tests and grading systems were less than fair. He just happened to get into a section that had a super-rigorous grading system. He got his A out of the deal, and he and/or his group consistently got the highest grades in his section on each paper/project, but they weren’t always great grades, despite being ‘the best’ grades! (Come to think of it, he may have gotten an A in the class only because of the curve! It could be that if you took his straight grade, without a curve, he would have had a B. I’m not really sure.)</p>
<p>Anyway, even though he got an A in the class, his first paper, after tons of work and ‘perfectionistic’ effort, was something like (I really don’t remember, but this will be close) a 78. And that was the highest grade in the class!</p>
<p>There were a few other disappointments like that one as the semester went along.</p>
<p>But what REALLY frustrated him was when he discovered, about midway through the semester, that other sections were being held to a MUCH lower standard than his section! Not by design, of course. It was just that the person grading his section’s stuff was a much stiffer grader (and perhaps a worse teacher?). He and his ‘teammates’ personally saw several papers from other sections that got 97s, 98s, 99s and 100s but were ridiculously threadbare and weak, particularly in comparison to his sections’ papers. On one of them, the conclusion was something like, “See analysis on page xx!” And that paper got a high A! My son’s group was turning in really detailed, pretty professional (for freshmen) work in their section and feeling lucky to get an 86 or so as the highest grade in the class. (He really wasn’t putting his classmates down when he relayed this to me. He was happy for them that they had it easier and could enjoy their sections more than he did. His point was that the grading system was unfair – not that his classmates did ‘less than good’ work!)</p>
<p>Not to get on my soapbox or anything, but it seems to me that the Dwight School should really try to instill more uniform grading practices and better instruction in these introductory courses. It was a real shame, I thought, that my son’s least favorite course, by far, was his first engineering course ever! No fair. :o</p>
<p>Like above, keep an eye out to see if your classmates have a better/more clear/fairer professor for any class you can add/drop into. </p>
<p>If you are bright enough to get those scholarships, unless you change study habits in a major way - as in don’t study and party too much - you should be fine.</p>
<p>^Right! That’s how I see it, too. :)</p>