Grad School for Electrical Engineering

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

I want to go to grad school for Electrical Engineering, but at the moment I'm hovering at a 3.0 GPA (first semester sophomore), and the classes aren't getting any easier. This question is for the graduate school engineers: what kind of GPAs did you have coming out of your undergraduate education? What was your courseload/extra-curricular schedule like?

 

[sciencewhiz]

What school do you go to?

3.0 is very low for getting into a halfway decent graduate program. For example, Michigan State says "Successful domestic applicants are highly ranked in their bachelor's class. Most successful domestic applicants have GPA's of 3.5 or better. Domestic applicants with GPA less than 3.2 are generally not considered for admission."

 

[PowerEngineer]

One option you might consider (if your school has it) is an acelerated masters program, where you can get it with just one extra year of classes. You usually commit to it at the beginning of your junior year, and the entrance requirements for students already in that school are usually lower than for transfer students.

I think you'll find that the average grades tend to rise, particularly in your senior year. Hang in there!

 

[ArmenK]

I graduated with a 3.05 in EE from UCLA and I'm doing my masters at USC. I think I got pretty lucky to be admitted considering my low GPA. The GRE is a joke and every engineer is expected to get a perfect on the math section so its pretty worthless in my opinion. If you have to, take less courses each quarter so that you can do better in each course. What I found was that my GPA was low not because I was taking too many tough courses but because I was lazy as hell when in lived in the dorms the first 2 years. You still have time to get your GPA up so work hard and you'll be fine.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

If you buddy up to a prof, your GPA doesn't matter as long as it's not horrible.

 

[sciencewhiz]

Originally posted by: PowerEngineer
One option you might consider (if your school has it) is an acelerated masters program, where you can get it with just one extra year of classes. You usually commit to it at the beginning of your junior year, and the entrance requirements for students already in that school are usually lower than for transfer students.

At my school, RIT, a 3.4 is required (and it has to be maintained to stay in the program).

I think you'll find that the average grades tend to rise, particularly in your senior year. Hang in there!

In some ways that's true, however, by that time your GPA has a lot of intertia. You might change a 3.0 to a 3.1, but not much more then that.


As RaynorWolfcastle says, If you can do research with a professor at your current university, that will be far easier then trying to get into another university.

 

[Peetoeng]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
If you buddy up to a prof, your GPA doesn't matter as long as it's not horrible.

Good advice.

1. Get to know your professors and what research areas they do
2. Figure out what research area interest you
3. Work for the professor (#2) as grader, workstudy, etc.
4. Then get involved in his/her research

Even if your GPA is in the lower range, if the professor likes your work ethics and progress, s/he will support you for admission. You may get only provisional admission, but you can work on it in a semester. The best outcome would be to get regular admission with graduate research assistantship (full tuition waiver and salary).

Good Luck young engineer!

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
What school do you go to?

3.0 is very low for getting into a halfway decent graduate program. For example, Michigan State says "Successful domestic applicants are highly ranked in their bachelor's class. Most successful domestic applicants have GPA's of 3.5 or better. Domestic applicants with GPA less than 3.2 are generally not considered for admission."

I'm at Virginia Tech.

Yeah, I've heard that if I really want to be competitive, I should shoot for a 3.5... Hopefully I can pull it up some more... the grades don't come easily here (or at least not for me). I have time on my side though, only in the third semester here.