Will I be able to get into a "top tier" engineering grad program?

Graduate School
1

Hello. I’m a 3rd year undergraduate structural engineering student at UC San Diego and my upper division GPA is 3.0. By the time I am applying for Grad school in a few months, I can raise my GPA to about 3.1 .

I have been doing undergraduate research for the mechanical engineering department (at UC San Diego) and have been involved in heavily involved in Steel Bridge team (a structural/civil engineering extracurricular competition). During my last senior year, I will be the project manager (“president” of the team). I am starting to study for my GREs this summer as well.

I am planning to apply to a lot of structural/civil engineering grad programs around California since I want to stay in California. My question is do I have a shot to get into the top structural engineering grad programs (Stanford/UCSD)?

For recommendation letters, I can definitely get two “strong” recommendation letters from professors. Please let me know if you guys need any more information! I appreciate any feedback (whether it is good or bad) !

2

Do you want a Ph.D. or a M.S.? Your GPA is a bit on the low side for a Ph.D. in the programs you name. You would have a better chance at a CSU program for a M.S. and then possibly moving on to a different school for a Ph.D.

3

I want an M.S. Would you still recommend me to apply to the top programs even if I don’t really have a chance?

4

Pick one or so. For an M.S. the entrance requirements may be a bit lower but they will probably expect you to self-fund it. Make sure you apply to programs where you expect to get in.