Rejected from ChemE at UW for low GPA. Is my life ruined? What are my options?

Well if you can’t have an overall GPA of 3.0+ by the time you graduate, you’re more than likely not going to be able to find an engineering job, unfortunately.

@umcoe16 There are jobs if ur GPA is under 3.0, just not with bigger companies so I would not be so negative. Many smaller companies are not so picky.

The OP may be able to get the GPA above 3.0, but not high enough to get admitted to the chemical engineering major at Washington.

Also, while having a <3.0 GPA can be a significant limitation on finding a job at graduation, it does not necessarily mean that one will be completely unable to find one (but one cannot be picky, and if there is an economic or industry downturn when one graduates, the <3.0 GPA graduates will probably be hurt worse).

As one that hires ChemE’s, I’d say go for it if you can get your GPA above 3.0. I’ve never seen alma mater correlate to a successful ChemE career or not, so if you can find another school to transfer to it shouldn’t matter much vs. UW…if you can dedicate yourself and get that GPA up.

You will be required to compromise on your desires, particularly with regard to weather (probably).

Yes the Chemical Engineering Department at Oregon State University is very good. I don’t know if they welcome transfers. Another direct-admit program is at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, an excellent STEM school where you will work harder than you’ve ever worked beforehand. The weather in Rapid City SD is a bit different from the rest of the Dakotas. It can get cold, but the snowfall is infrequent. The Spring, Summer and Fall can be quite nice in Rapid City.

A couple of warm-weather schools to consider, given your circumstances, are Louisiana Tech University and Tennessee Technological University. LTU is in the middle of nowhere, so getting there is an adventure. TTU is about 80 miles from Nashville. There’s also ChE at U of Tennessee-Chattanooga, which is about a 2 hours drive from Atlanta. Like Rapid City, Chattanooga is an interesting small city with some cultural attractions. Chattanooga is also home to a large and relatively new Volkswagen manufacturing facility.

Be aware that ChE is a very demanding major wherever you matriculate, so take heed of the advice offered to you by the earlier posters whom contributed to this thread.

As I re-read the OP’s original post, I wondered if the Quarter System Schedule is part of the problem for the OP. For some students it is too much of a rush; too brief of a time to digest the data and concepts. Not true of everyone of course, but for anyone whom is not diligent in his/her STEM studies the condensed workload/schedule can be difficult.

Oregon State University and Louisiana Tech University are on the Quarter System.