<p>i hear people talking about good gpa's, but what is in fact a good gpa in engineering. i realize it depends on the school, but is there a general concensus as to what gpa is deemed very solid by top grad schools and employers?</p>
<p>3.0 is the magic number. That will get your foot in the door.</p>
<p>look, if your college's GPA is of 4 your GPA must be 3.00 or above and if it's of 5 it must be 3.80 or above..</p>
<p>and look to the companies and what GPA they accept..</p>
<p>I was told that a 3.5 would get someone into about half of the top ten engineering grad programs. My 3.5 did better than that. From what I've seen for grad programs, you need at least a 3.0 to be considered, and a 3.5 to have a good chance of admission.</p>
<p>As with most things, it depends. A 4.0/4.0 is generally respected. :D OTOH, there are people who, after seeing too many straight-A students fail to perform what they consider to be reasonable tasks, discount its value. A common complaint is that there is too much grade inflation, or the schools don't teach what is required at the next thing (e.g. job, grad school).</p>
<p>I have heard of some grad schools that will admit anyone who's finished an undergrad degree. Now this may mean that the grad school will require admits to retake classes that are required for their undergraduate major. Also, even though these schools may not be the "best" schools (in terms of rankings and so forth), these schools may be good for admits if they can learn what they need to there, do the research they want, etc.</p>
<p>In short, no silver bullet.</p>
<p>is it possible to get a good job with a < 3.0?</p>
<p>^I think so. I've heard stories of people here who've been hired at respectable places with lower < 3.0 GPAs.</p>
<p>anything above a 3.0 shows that you are bright, have potential and work hard.</p>
<p>Lower than 3.0 is possible. I've seen students getting jobs through family members and friends despite have a low GPA. Also, your other experience counts too like internships and such.</p>
<p>Son graduated from GaTech and found a great job very quickly. He did not put his gpa on his resume and not a single prospective employer asked.</p>
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I was told that a 3.5 would get someone into about half of the top ten engineering grad programs. My 3.5 did better than that. From what I've seen for grad programs, you need at least a 3.0 to be considered, and a 3.5 to have a good chance of admission.
[/quote]
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<p>Depends on the field and whether you want to apply for an M.S. or direct admission to the Ph.D program. I know that UIUC (ranked 4th) has an average incoming GPA of 3.86 for EE Ph.D.s (listed on their website) and I assume MIT/Standford/Berkeley are even higher. Overall for EE doctoral programs it's probably around 3.7 for top 10 and 3.8-3.9 for top 5. Getting into the M.S. program would require a lot less research experience but I don't think the GPA expectations would be too far behind.</p>
<p>For jobs it's completely different. Highest minimum GPA that I've ever heard at a corporate info session is 3.5 (from nVidia) and I would guess that this is the upper-end.</p>
<p>Alibarr: I'm guessing that your 3.5 is from Rice. With a math top quartile (i.e. virtually all of the engineers) that starts at 780 and goes up, this is not exactly your average engineering school.</p>
<p>It depends on the generally accepted definition of "good", "solid", "top grad school", etc.</p>
<p>what do i need to get into a top US grad school? I currently go to a mid range school in Canada.</p>
<p>realistically, there is a place for engineers of any GPA from 2.0 to 4.0. I have a friend who has a 2.2 (lol) and works at Siemens. A good friend of mine, whos GPA i've never asked for an exact number, but i'm assuming its low is getting a high ranking position in the Navy when he graduates. I know several ppl who are slightly under 3.0 who work for Northrop Gromen. </p>
<p>There is no harm in aiming for as high as possible though.</p>
<p>3.8 or bust ;)</p>
<p>3.5 and up is good.</p>