<p>Basically I’m a student at Cambridge University (UK citizen), graduating with a MEng in EE in June 2012. I got awarded first’s for my first and second year exams (also being awarded a prize/scholarship in each case). I’m not sure what this is in terms of GPA. I then studied at MIT for my third year as part of a selective exchange programme. First semester went fine, got a gpa close to 5/5. However, in the second semester I took 2 lab classes and some other classes that I didn’t really have appropriate prerequisites for (but they were interesting). Worried about the impact this would have on my gpa, I considered dropping some classes, but I figured I would only be at MIT once and I should take advantage of the available classes/labs. I also spoke to an advisor at Cambridge, who said that the MIT grades would not appear on my Cambridge transcript, it would just say ‘Third Year – Studied at MIT as part of exchange programme – No marks recorded’.</p>
<p>So, I continued with everything and predictably got a bunch of Bs (I really could have got a lot more As, but after finding out that this year wouldn’t appear on my transcript, I kind of stopped caring and slacked off a lot)..I ended up with an overall gpa of around 4.5/5 for the year.
However, I now really want to apply for and MS in EE at a top US school like Stanford/Berkeley/Caltech. Although my poor MIT gpa won’t appear on my Cambridge transcript, it seems it’s going to be exposed anyway – this is what Stanford has to say on the matter (everyone else says something similar): ‘Concerning course work completed in a study abroad program: If the course work and grades are reflected on the transcript of your home institution, you do not need to submit original transcripts from the study abroad institution.”</p>
<p>How much is this poor gpa going to hurt me? Bearing in mind that I have excellent first and second year results and only one poor semester (excuse being that I thought no one would find out – of course this is a terrible excuse). I also haven’t got any significant research experience – how important is this for terminal MS? I have had high-tech r&d internships but nothing published. I should also be able to get good recs from Cambridge/mit profs or industry but no one will really be able to comment greatly on my ability to do ‘independent research’. Is it worth taking a year out and getting some research experience? I haven’t taken the GRE yet so can’t say anything about that, but I’m hoping I should be in top 10%.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance – any advice/thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)!</p>