<p>so this semester just finished at UT. i got two grades of A- and rest As. but i messed up. so gpa = 3.85</p>
<p>in addition , i decided to go to UT over some prestigious schools such as rice and penn and northwestern.</p>
<p>i want to got to mit or stanford for masters or grad engineering. can it still happen if i get close to a 4.0 from now on and do significant research?</p>
<p>… Chill out. a 3.85 is fine.</p>
<p>3.85 is fantastic mate</p>
<p>I just got accepted to a really good PhD program in Mech E and I had a 3.72 and I even got a B- in one of my upper level courses. So with some research experience I am sure you will be fine.</p>
<p>Looking back at your post history I have a few recommendations for you:</p>
<p>One, you seem to be a freshman. It’s too early to be worrying about grad school, you don’t even know what you want to research yet. You may find that grad school is not the right path for you–it’s not an issue of better or worse, but an issue of what fits you best. </p>
<p>Two, you seem to be obsessed with prestige. When it does come time to pick a grad school, if you do decide to go to grad school, pick it based on the strength of its program, not the weight behind the name. In all actuality, UT Austin is one of the top fifteen schools in Electrical Engineering in the nation. It’s a good school to find research opportunities. As a senior in EE at Caltech who just finished applying to schools for my PhD, I can say this with a pretty decent amount of certainty. </p>
<p>So seriously, get out of this forum, do the best you can and don’t worry about “getting into mit or stanford”. Have some fun, do some research, and have some fun doing research–if you don’t, grad school’s not right for you.</p>