'Subpar' Engineering Undergrad; Chances for Grad School?

Graduate School
1

<p>Summary:<br>
I spent too much of my undergraduate career partying, fooling around, etc. I enjoyed much of the chemical engineering material but fell into that trap where I’d study for a few hours and accept a B or C rather than study all day long for an A or B. Lately, though, I’ve found myself re-reading old textbooks for fun (?!) and really desiring a deeper understanding of all those thing I learned about the past few years. I understand that I stand no chance for a top-level program, but I’d like to know how realistic it would be to pursue even lower-tier schools. I also know that advice for my situation is frequently to work for a few years, but I’d really like to get back into academics as quickly as possible. I have absolutely no worry about whether or not I can accomplish my goals – I’m more than ready to apply myself at this point in my life, and I believe my test scores show I have the intelligence to succeed now that I have sufficient focus—but I need to know just how dire my chances of actually getting into a program in which to apply myself are.</p>

<p>Qualifications:
-BS Chemical Engineering (good state school but certainly not Ivy League)
-GPA 3.33 (Major GPA 3.13)
-GRE: Verbal 169 (99%ile) Quantitative 168 (96%ile)
-Beyond the mandatory hours of curriculum lab work, I never did any research or lab work with any professors
-My work experience in the field is limited to a one semester internship
-In terms of recommendations, I can think of a handful of professors who <em>might</em> give me a good recommendation, but I cannot be sure I could get 3 recommendations of sufficient quality</p>

<p>Outlook:
Clearly, I’m not the ideal candidate for graduate school, but I truly want to pursue further education. Basically, this all boils down to a few questions…
1) What are my chances for being accepted to a chemical engineering graduate program? Is there even a chance, or am I looking at universal rejection? If there is a chance, can you give an example of schools to aim for?</p>

<p>I definitely would prefer to go to a decent school for MS chemical engineering, but if my current qualifications aren’t satisfactory, then I have two more questions…</p>

<p>2) What are my chances for being accepted into a related program, such as MBA, law school (perhaps for patent law), environmental engineering, or something else in the sciences?
3) Would it be worthwhile to retake any of the classes I did poorly in to improve my applications? For example, I got a C in Thermo 1 and I’m quite confident I could bring this up to close to an A; would it be wise or make much of a difference to do this? I suppose this would also be an avenue to better recommendations, and perhaps even research, so again, is this an advisable route to take?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance for all answers and advice!</p>

2

<p>Looking at other previous forum posts, I suppose I should make one correction. When I say ‘chances’ of getting into graduate school, I’m not being literal. What I mean is whether or not it’s even practical to consider graduate school with my qualifications at this time.</p>

3

<p>You can probably get into a Masters program although it will probably not be with funding. Your GRE scores are very good and should help. The real question is whether you can convince admission committees that you won’t take the same attitude toward your graduate studies as you describe for your undergraduate days.</p>

<p>You really are an ideal candidate for taking a couple of years off to work and then come back. Not only do graduate programs in Engineering like to see work experience on the resume but if you come back after working, they are much more certain that you are serious.</p>

<p>My recommendation would be not to retake courses and I would suggest that you wait on an MBA until you have job experience. Business Schools really like experience too.</p>