<p>I know I saw a few other threads on this, but the students in question who asked how badly their chances of getting a job would be hurt by their low GPA were mostly engineering majors. Me, on the other hand graduated from Univ of Pennsylvania with a 2.8, double majoring in anthropology and biology. I had a 3.6 (might have been higher, actually...) in the anthro side, and while my core biology coursework was alright and calculus was excellent (all As in 2-3 semesters of calc), it was anything chemistry (organic/physical) and physics that pretty much doomed me, not to mention that I worked minimum 30 hours/week if not more to pay for college. I do have a tremendous amount of work experience and I've noticed that it's helped in getting internships. But with a lot of companies using GPA to filter out candidates, it doesn't allow me to justify at all why the GPA is so low. I'm also not entirely sure what to say, or how to approach someone that might stress the importance of a high GPA or someone that says "we don't consider anyone below a 3.0". Some of the interviews, including some of the ones I have pending now, were scheduled based on reference contacts, so I'm hoping that might help. </p>
<p>Thing is, I'm not an engineering major, but I don't really consider biology that much "easier" and being forced to work a lot didn't help either. I guess the ultimate question for me is, aside from automated screening systems, what would be the best way (if possible) for a non-engineering major with a sub-par GPA to somehow get past that first barrier? I had a consulting interview where one of my interviewers noted that GPA was an indicator of how smart you were, etc, and I'm not sure how other people, especially those in pharmaceuticals, marketing, consulting, will look at that compared to work experience.</p>