<p>Field I'm going into: Engineering / Computer Science / Something in that area</p>
<p>After freshman year (no honors classes): 3.6
After Sophomore year (maximum AP's and honors offered by my school): 3.5 (went down as I adjusted)
My grades are getting better this year (I'm taking 3 AP's, and 2 honors classes), I aim to at least raise it back to a 3.6 before college applications, but I still feel like a 3.6 is lousy and crap. Really, it just sounds so bad! Am I worrying about nothing? I know Engineering is a competitive field so I feel I need to go to an amazing school and get a 3.95 GPA at that school to get a decent paying job out of college (>50k)... am I wrong on this?</p>
<p>
Yes, you are. Engineers generally make good money coming out of an accredited college. It’s more important (IMO) to look at job placement.</p>
<p>Companies that hire engineers do NOT expect grads to have a 3.95 GPA. Seriously.</p>
<p>Yes, you will likely have to provide your grades, but techie companies know that eng’g is a very hard major and many, many good students graduate with GPAs between 3.0-4.0. . </p>
<p>This is an area that I know a LOT about. I come from a family of hiring engineers for companies like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Canon, DirecTV, 3M, etc. No one expects/demands that high of a GPA in order to get hired.</p>
<p>And your GPA will have NO BEARING on your salary. Companies that hire engineers start them all at the same rate…no matter their GPA and no matter which undergrad they attended.</p>
<p>Thanks for clearing me up about the college GPA thing, but still on the high school GPA… is a 3.6 GPA really awful, or can I still get a good college/job? (Please don’t BS me saying anyone can get a job with any GPA out of any school…)</p>
<p>Well if it’s your math and science classes you are struggling in then you may want to rethink going for engineering.</p>
<p>By the end of high school I would have taken AP Chem, AP Bio, and AP Physics B (probably, I doubt my teacher will say I can tackle C without prior physics knowledge). I also would have taken AP Stats and AP Calc BC. So, while occasionally I haven’t gotten fantastic grades in these classes, they ARE coming up this year like I said. I wasn’t really struggling any more with them compared to other classes, it’s almost like every trimester all of my grades are very close to each other.</p>
<p>Thanks for clearing me up about the college GPA thing, but still on the high school GPA… is a 3.6 GPA really awful, or can I still get a good college/job? (Please don’t BS me saying anyone can get a job with any GPA out of any school…)</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Not sure what you’re asking.</p>
<p>I know that you’re asking about HS grades and college, but WHY are you asking about high school grades and JOBS? Companies don’t ever see high school grades unless they’re for a Dual Enrollment class (not AP)</p>
<p>Yes, you can get into good colleges with your grades. What are your test scores? With your GPA and strong test scores, you can get into many good schools/eng’g programs</p>
<p>If you’re strong in the Math and Sciences, then you may do very well in eng’g. </p>
<p>What state are you in? What is your budget for college?</p>
<p>Where are you thinking of applying?</p>