<p>Sounds strange, I know, but I really want to study what I love. I made a mistake by doing Wharton for undergrad, and I have had an absolutely horrible four years here. I could have enjoyed life so much more at a place like Berkeley... especially if I studied what I loved. The problem is, is that my undergrad GPA is extremely poor (like a 3.0), but this is due to external circumstances beyond my control.</p>
<p>Any info would be appreciated. Is this a poor decision?</p>
<p>Have you taken any engineering classes? I had a physics major in my classes two semesters ago and he suffered horribly trying to keep up. Not trying to scare you, but you may be at a slight disadvantage coming from Wharton.</p>
<p>I am very skilled when it comes to engineering – many of my friends here at school at engineers and I hang with them all the time. All my hobbies are very engineering-related, and I love math/science/problemsolving/etc, and so the jump would not be that drastic for me. The kind of work they do is a ton of fun, in my opinion. Things they find annoying/difficult I see as being extremely interesting and enjoyable.</p>
<p>pretty much impossible</p>
<p>You may be “very skilled when it comes to engineering” but will you able to do the grad level engineering course work? You will be at a big disadvangate when you compete with your classmates who all have that strong engineering background. Also, what have you done in terms of research in your undergrad years? You will need something that will even out your low GPA.</p>
<p>It’s going to be tough. How would you show Berkeley that engineering is something you really want to do? </p>
<p>If you’re going for a PhD program, that would be near impossible. A 3.0 GPA in engineering would even be tough, nevermind a 3.0 GPA in an unrelated major. Graduate schools look for the ability to do engineering research when accepting PhD applicants.</p>
<p>Based on statements like this:
especially if I studied what I loved
and this:
but this is due to external circumstances beyond my control.</p>
<p>I wonder if you are ready for grad school. From what I have heard, they are searching for people with absolute and total commitment to the subject, and that comes with maturity. It sounds like, up until now, you have been letting other people or other things run your life.</p>
<p>I’ll echo what others have said.</p>
<p>You need a background in actual engineering courses, not just hanging out with engineers. Doy uo know what numerical analysis is or how to solve a differential equation? If you don’t know the latter, then you have absolutely no shot whatsoever. That 3.0 iusn’t even relevant if you have no background in actual engineering courses.</p>
<p>Boston University has a great program that might be fitting for you. It’s called the Leap (Late entry accelerated program) for engineering. You take all the pre-req engineering courses in a year or 2, then go on to get your masters degree in a field of engineering. I recently went to their open house. The funding for the program is amazing. Basically every person gets a 75% tuition scholarship for each year in the program. Check out more on their website: [The</a> Late Entry Accelerated Program at Boston University](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/eng/leap/]The”>http://www.bu.edu/eng/leap/)</p>
<p>You’ll have a better chance of getting into Berkeley with a masters in engineering. And I really don’t see any other way for you to take all of those undergrad engineering courses.</p>
<p>You should apply into a lower tier engineering school for a masters, then you can apply to Berkeley for a PhD, if that’s your terminal degree goal.</p>
<p>Ask in the Engineering Major forum for some input.</p>
<p>Why specifically Berkeley? I can imagine that it’s hard for you to brush off the name value of “Wharton”, but there are many engineering schools that are great and less competitive.</p>
<p>Also, how would you prove to the admissions office that your “very skilled” in engineering? Graduate schools tend to focus more heavily on what you are capable of doing than what your potential is.</p>
<p>Being a DIYer does not help one bit in graduate school engineering. It’s a lot of equations and practically no hands-on portion. It seems as though you should pursue an undergrad degree in Mechanical Engineering. Can you still attempt to double major or at least minor in it?</p>
<p>Not having taken any classes would hurt you way too much…even if you get in you’ll die since you’ll have no idea what anything is.</p>
<p>I just feel like I want to do what I love, but now I can’t because of my experience here in undergrad. I’m not worried about the skills required. I don’t really know how I can “prove” this since I don’t have any classes to back it up. You’d have to just ask me questions I suppose to better judge how much I know relative to someone who’s taken the coursework. There have been many nights where I’ve helped out friends with their engineering projects/assignments/concepts over the years, so it’s not like I don’t know what’s going on. All I can say is that engineering is a much better fit for me.</p>
<p>captiv8ed: It has little to do with being immature. My father passed away and this made finances extraordinary difficult for various reasons. In the end, I needed to take on additional jobs on top of classes in order to pay for my expenses and to help foot the school bills. Even with the life insurance, my family has high expenses and high-value assets, but the problem is that none of it is being put to my tuition. Therefore, I’ve had to fend for much of the costs. This has had a hugely adverse effect on grades simply because I could not physically do everything that I needed to do, and I was always sick and ill. This caused further health issues. Going to college without a support base is extremely difficult, and it’s been even harder since I’m studying something I just do not like at all. As a result, my undergrad experience has been awful, and it’s too late to really change anything since I am now a senior entering my last semester. Also, here at Penn, I had been told different things from different advisors, making planning very difficult. It’s been an absolute mess. If anything, I think a 3.0 under these conditions is <em>actually not that bad</em> considering the Wharton average is like 3.3. Regardless, it’s still not a strong GPA at all.</p>
<p>Anyways. I don’t think Berkeley Grad at this point is a remote possibility. I feel as if all my options have been closed off. It really upsets me because I had such an amazing range of choices for colleges when it came to undergrad, as I was valedictorian with near-perfect SAT’s and acceptances to like 14 colleges, many of which were reach and match schools. But, now, I feel trapped, and I feel like I’ve missed out on what could have otherwise been an amazing four years.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d consider looking into programs like the one nicholjs at Boston University.</p>
<p>I’m an engineering major myself, and I can say that no matter how smart you are, you probably are not going to be able to compete in a PhD program without an engineering background. A Master’s, however, is not out of the question. </p>
<p>There are just terms you need to learn, concepts that you need to gradually pick up over time. Being smart may mean you pick these up faster, but it still takes time to learn, and it’s harder to pick up on your own than having someone explain it to you in class. Engineering is different from other majors in this respect. It builds on a lot on previous concepts, and there is a lot of knowledge you need to know before tackling some problems.</p>
<p>What type of engineering are you thinking of doing? I think that also makes a big difference. You need to know what you want to concentrate in for a graduate degree. The knowledge you need is completely different for different concentrations, even within the same major. In electrical engineering, you can do optics, signal processing, solid state, computer architecture, etc. I’m doing signal processing, and I know nothing about the other 3 major areas.</p>
<p>Also, I know a lot of math majors who are a lot smarter than me and yet are utterly confused when trying to read a research article on something like blind equalization, for example. Basic things you’d need to know (for signal processing) are:</p>
<p>How does Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) work?
When do Bessel functions come up in FM Decoding?
How does Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK) solve the problem of carrier phase estimation error?
How would you design a bandpass filter?
What is a Laplace, Fourier, and z-transform?
How do you implement a Fast Fourier Transform?</p>
<p>With optics, you’d probably need to know things like transmission line load matching, antennas, multimodal interaction, etc. With Solid state you’d need to know about quantum tunneling, MOSFETS, doping, etc. With Computer Architecture, ALUs, RISC and other architectures, logic gates, etc.</p>
<p>WHy didn’t you transfer from WHarton to Penn SEAS? I don’t imagine it very hard to do so during your first / second years</p>
<p>Because I transferred from CAS to Wharton in my sophomore year. Didn’t realize how much of a mistake that was until junior year.</p>
<p>Transferring from CAS to Wharton would have been a dream come true for most guys, but I’m really sorry that it didn’t work out for you.</p>
<p>If you can’t impress the admissions committee with your academic records, you can impress them with your experience. I say work for a few years (and work your heiny off) and then try applying.</p>
<p>Engineering undergrad is intense, business undergrad doesn’t even compare, dont care where ya went. Grad school is that much harder.</p>
<p>You should take the basics and then apply. Or apply and tell them you love engineering but know you need the fundamentals. You will also need a perfect gre quant.</p>