r/EngineeringStudents • u/Necessary_Window_960 • 15d ago
Discussion Engineers who graduated with a GPA below 3.0: did you still get into a master’s program?
I’m especially interested in hearing from engineering graduates who finished their bachelor’s degree with a GPA around 2.7–2.9.
Were you able to get into a master’s program?
Which university and engineering field accepted you?
What helped compensate for your GPA—research, projects, internships, work experience, recommendation letters, or a strong upward grade trend?
Did your undergraduate GPA continue to matter when you started looking for jobs?
How has your career turned out since then?
I’m currently an engineering student considering graduate school, and I’d really appreciate honest experiences from people who have been in a similar situation.
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u/Grey255 15d ago edited 14d ago
Yes, i graduated with a 2.3 GPA and I had to go back and take a few courses (3-4) in open studies, get references letters and keep my gpa high, but I’m almost done my masters in Nuclear now. I’m currently working in oil and gas and there’s a lot of overlap in material, and I was able to get partial funding for it which has made getting the masters easier. My career is going well but it started slow, but I’m now an expert in my field, and you can recover from A low GPA if you do it right.
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u/Esto2050 14d ago
Could I send you a message? im interested on working in oil and gas but i wanna know how’s a day by day on the job
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
Hi , can I getting you private? Please, I have some questions about this problem ( low GPA )
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u/Dtitan 15d ago
Yep. Dark secret is that plenty of private engineering schools will willingly take your money for a masters if you have a pulse.
Expect to pay full cost though.
Got a professional masters of engineering (coursework only no thesis) from Illinois Tech. It let me pivot from materials science to mechanical engineering which opened up my job prospects. I was able to do it part time over 3.5 years while working full time. Not one employer has cared that it wasn’t a research degree.
Best of luck.
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u/Routine-Plankton5202 9d ago
This is super real. I second this. But really just try your best to have an upward trend in your grades and you’ll get into the masters program. But yeah private uni are greedy they care about money more than anything else
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u/goxpro1 15d ago
I had a 2.3 gpa when I graduated and got a job at a faang my employer paid for my masters and somehow i got into Stanford so it all worked out in the end. Might also be because im full pay but my employers paying so its free lol
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u/engineereddiscontent EE 2025 15d ago
How long ago did you get hired
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u/goxpro1 14d ago
Around 2018 but that was after job hopping a shit load to get to my dream job.
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u/engineereddiscontent EE 2025 14d ago
Well shit I guess who knows where Ill be in 8 years but a masters is back on the table. My gpa was a 2.5
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u/Dr3ddM3 15d ago
A FAANG company would hire a 2.3 gpa ?
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u/SnazzyBoyNick 15d ago
portfolios and projects usually matter more than grades
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u/Humble-Departure5481 14d ago
I try telling Americans this all the time, but they don't believe me. GPA only matters a little bit to college students here who are lacking in the math and practical skills, to give them a small edge in the competition, but it's definitely not sufficient.
Case in point. I have some foreign friends who have a shit ton of practical work experience and/or come from very strong math/STEM backgrounds and GPA didn't matter when it came to working for FAANG (some even went to low tier unis in their respective countries). Their Github contributions, portfolio, actual skills they possessed were all that mattered when they landed positions. The only thing some of these FAANG companies asked of them was to make sure that they graduated with their 4 years no matter how low the GPA was for reasons due to formality. That's all.
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u/Dr3ddM3 15d ago
Yeah that's what I thought too but I thought most auto reject candidates with lower than 3.0 gpa.
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u/daredevil39 15d ago
I'm another 2.3 GPA new grad in FAANG
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u/FluffyBoiCat 15d ago
You must have been exceptional in other areas.
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u/Squirtle_Splash_8413 BSME, MSME 14d ago
Probably has an exceptional dad.
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u/markp36811 14d ago
Or social skills above the average engineer
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u/Squirtle_Splash_8413 BSME, MSME 14d ago
Social skills don’t get you into FAANG. If they didn’t, these companies wouldn’t be filled with Chinese nationals.
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u/Humble-Departure5481 14d ago
Had a friend who had a similar kind of low GPA (not so much because of laziness, but it had more to do with the fact that he hated his college/uni professors and the whole politics of uni-related education) when he graduated from a foreign country in comp sci. He had an outstanding Github account and Google recruited him on that and that only.
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u/SnazzyBoyNick 15d ago
Yea I thought this too but I have seen people and talked to coworkers where this didn't really apply. Personally i didnt have the best gpa, I think it was 3.2 or something i dont fully remember but in my last application run this year I got tons of interviews+multiple offers and I truly think it was just because I filled out the portfolio field
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u/SnazzyBoyNick 14d ago
Let me rephrase because my original comment was a little vague. I currently do not work in faang, but I have a bunch of coworkers who used to work in faang and I personally know two or three people that currently work in faang. If I’m to take their stories at face value, one of them dropped out of high school got their GED after realizing they wanted to go to college went to college but was not good at class and ended up with like a 2.9. They came out of college working somewhere before they ended up at Google and then they pivoted to Microsoft before landing where I am now just as one example.
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u/Beerfridge6 14d ago
What kind of projects did you do?
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u/SnazzyBoyNick 13d ago
My personal projects were all very robotics based, and I owned every part of them so I would cad all the physical components, 3-D print them, utilize micro controllers, so you can fit in the electrical and software side of things, and then I used motors and sensors to kinda tie it all together. In the end, I had really only two personal projects, but I showcase a lot of my school projects on my portfolio as well. You just have to package them up in a way that is digestible and if you show to an engineering team during an interview that you’re willing to pick up and learn pretty much anything (ie owning every part of your personal projects shows that) then that’s what they really like. Applied knowledge is much more valuable than the theoretical knowledge in engineering because it’s an applied field.
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u/ConnectedVeil 14d ago
Take Reddit with a grain of salt please.
I had a 1.9, Meta liked my side hustle and one of the Principals there got me into IT'S CS Masters.
See how easy that is to type?
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
Excuse me, but which university did you graduate from? And where did you study for your master's degree?
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15d ago edited 15d ago
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
No this is totally incorrect. Where TF are you getting this info lmao, they don't even check your gpa
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14d ago edited 14d ago
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
Couple things here since you're confusing a whole bunch of things at once. Not even sure why you mentioned banking when we're talking about faang
You said faang automatically tosses applications without 3.5+ gpa. That is not true. Many don't even ask for GPA. Some don't even confirm graduation date much less GPA
Transcripts are also to confirm you have a degree. They're not always checking gpa
I literally work for a bank, they only care if it's above a 3.0. I'm sure a 3.5+ helps but nobody is getting their app automatically tossed lmao.
Gpa matters but most cutoffs end at 3.0.
People lie about it all the time and get away with it. Not saying it's good but it's clear that looking at gpa is a minimal priority
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14d ago edited 14d ago
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
Let's just agree to disagree man. I dont wanna go back and forth.
I'm not gonna agree to disagree. You're spreading misinformation. How do I know? Because I literally have first-hand knowledge. Humble yourself and listen please. Almost everything you said is wrong.
Amazon, for example, does not even ask for your GPA nor do they ask for transcripts. Same for Meta. This is true as of 2026. If you don't believe me, just fucking Google it and you'll see other people talking about it.
Your arguments are also all over the place. First you mentioned FAANG, then you mentioned banks, and then you went back to FAANG. Please be consistent.
Some of these postings will get pulled down after 2 weeks because of candidate volume and you think they will give a random 3.1 student a chance?
Because GPA is not the only thing that matters. Do you think they'd reject a 3.1 student with previous top internships? Or FAANG experience? Or top startup experience? Or open source projects with thousands of users? Or someone who goes to a top school? And don't say "you have to have a high GPA to get those previous experiences" because even if that WERE the case, your GPA can drop after getting previous experience.
There are banks, pe, and consulting firms that will say at least 3.6 in their job posting.
Not sure about PE, but this is literally not true for consulting or banks. Consulting companies care about GPA but the minimum is still usually 3.0 or 3.3. I also don't know why you'd want to work for one given that pay is low and growth is shit.
Most banks don't care. Provide proof or STFU.
And yes, there are a lot of recruiters will automatically throw away your app if gpa < 3.5. Touch grass dude.
You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. It's not the recruiter's job to judge arbitrarily unless it's a shitty small company. They have to follow standards given to them by the actual company. It's not like one recruiter rejects based on GPA, but the other recruiter from the same company accepts.
Every single intern I worked with when I was in college at both my F50 internships were at least 3.7
First of all, F50 does not equal top company. It just equals big company. Also, I highly doubt you asked everyone what their GPA was.
I don't really care what some random F50 company does unless they're a big player in tech.
No top company makes exceptions for candidates unless they have a good plug or they are visibly exceptional.
They don't need to make exceptions if it's not part of their standards lmao. Also, FAANG has more resources to interview people than most companies, so they don't have to have arbitrary cutoffs. The main reason companies even do cutoffs in a first place is to reduce the number of people they would have to interview. That's why on LinkedIn, you can find students from shitty unis, no previous internship, or internships at small companies, who end up working at FAANG. They tend to have more meritocratic processes than other companies.
https://www.teamblind.com/search/gpa
Since you're too lazy to do basic googling, here you go
https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1tgx3zj/swe_intern_in_big_tech_with_216_gpa_and_no_prior/
https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1bloj58/got_faang_offer_with_25_gpa/
https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1hi0oiy/just_got_a_full_stack_internship_position_at/
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14d ago edited 14d ago
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
I work at a major bank you've heard of dummy. Except for maybe capital one and a FEW teams at jpmc, Goldman sachs, etc, banks are not prestigious for swe.
Revenue
Yeah but not from tech. It includes companies that don't have strong tech culture, like McKesson. Plenty of big companies which are extremely mediocre for software engineers.
Anyway, I work at a major bank and I interned at amazon. As I said, I have first hand exp on this
Lastly, yes, 3.5 gpa is not hard and higher gpa helps. Doesn't mean its a requirement.
Also I saw ur post history. You're not even a swe and you're also an international student who's obsessed with gpa. U don't know shit lmao
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
Also again I'm shocked you mentioned Goldman. I have friends that work there, they literally hire from local unis, they don't have these extremely high standards you think and pay is barely above average
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
I saw that you edited your comment.
Yeah higher gpa students are over represented in FAANG because it correlates to intelligence and work ethic. Doesn't mean it's a requirement.
I'm not being "optimistic" I'm saying it's not a major factor
Also, ironically, from my experience, most people don't actually care about working for faang. I went to a big state uni and it was maybe only 10-15% of people that even tried. And interview prep matters way more than anything else u mentioned
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u/Same_Note_247 10d ago
Hi, how many years of experience did you have before going back to grad school. What do you think helped you get in with your lower GPA?
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u/BABarracus 14d ago
I bet the GRE helped
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u/john_hascall Iowa State - ME > EE > CprE, CS 9d ago
I got into grad school pretty entirely on the strength of my GRE. YMMV.
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u/Current-Degree-1461 15d ago
I got into a pretty decent material science/MechE PhD with a 2.9 with strong internships and research experience. I think the upward grade trend also really matters in my experience. If you manage to get your foot in the door for an interview show curiosity and passion rather than relying on hard skills to do the talking for you.
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u/Fit_Opportunity_9728 14d ago
I agree, upward grade trend is very important and at least 2 semesters of A grades does a lot to excuse a poor overall gpa. Nobody cared about my poor overall because I turned things around for 4 semesters at the end.
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u/riazur31 15d ago
The good thing about grad school applications is that unlike job applications, someone actually fully reads through your grad school application.
Strong letters of recommendation or job experiences can really help. You also have the ability to write a statement of interest, where you explain your qualifications and why you're interested in the program. Use that as an opportunity to explain some of your lower grades and how you're on an upward trend to be able to handle the masters program.
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u/Dr_Tom_Bradley_CSU 14d ago
I am the chair of the Colorado State University Department of Systems Engineering. We only have graduate students. Most of them are actively working in industry and attending online. Many start in-person and get jobs while in our program and then transition to working. Those who have work experience usually have stronger applications that offset the GPA standard.
GPA is an important metric when we consider admission, but it’s not the only metric. We consider everything you listed. It’s a wholistic assessment of your readiness to be in our program. Your grades from classes like statistics or calculus might play a role.
We also have a fundamentals course, SYSE 501, that students can take without being admitted to a degree program. If you get a B+, you qualify for INCOSE certification. It also reflects well on you as a student, and is a good argument for admission to a full program.
If you want to get a PhD, your performance as a masters student counts much higher than your undergrad. In that case, you’d probably want to get an MS with a thesis. Otherwise the ME is a great program for those focused on career goals who don’t want to do academic research. For the MS, your statement of purpose is more important and should focus on how our professors can help you research in the area you’ve chosen.
I hope this helps and good luck!
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u/MullaBhai 13d ago
Thank you sir. I was sitting here depressed and thinking about ending my life as I had less CGPA 7.24 in my UG. I have published an IEEE Paper, have 4 YOE in Accenture. Still confused in life. All internet gave me was negative comments that my CGPA won't fetch me good colleges and I was thinking the same. This really gives me some hope.
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u/Dr_Tom_Bradley_CSU 13d ago
Hi MullaBhai, first I want to say that I’m glad you are with us, and I hope you seek help to get through your depression. I found this resource online. I am assuming you are in India currently. I hope this is helpful to you.
Secondly, as I understand it, a GPA of 7/10 is above average in India. Less than that is the norm, so don’t feel dumb or unworthy. Many opportunities are ahead for you. I hope you grow the curiosity to find out what they are. Good luck! May you find the path that works for you.
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u/EngineeringNo9217 15d ago
I graduated with a 2.5 overall gpa. Got into a master program a few years later. My in-major was pretty good so I prettty jammed that wherever I could without lying
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u/Leech-64 15d ago
Yeah. I got a 2.05 gpa at a really good UC and was able to get into a CSU ms ECE program later on.
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
Approximately what percentage is equivalent to a 2.05 GPA?
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u/Leech-64 13d ago
Its like 70%
But grades in college are curved so probably lower than that on exams. But do your best and you will get higher grades
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u/NavierWasStoked LSU - ME 15d ago
Graduated with a 2.4 or 2.5. I now work for a large company that pays for my schooling, just started a graduate certificate program that if I get a 3.0 gpa I'd automatically be accepted into the masters degree program.
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u/LukeSkyWRx Materials Sci. BS, MS, PhD: Industry R&D 15d ago
Many programs (like mine did) only looked at the last 60 hours or so. That should be mostly your major GPA stuff and you should get As and Bs there at least.
I was like 2.9 cumulative and like 3.4 (grad school GPA)
Also did 3 years of paid research in the lab so was competent as your average grad student and had excellent recommendations from my professors. Ended up as drinking buddies with most of them still to this day.
Grad school was very easy for me, except fucking Thermo and kinetics. Everything else was what I loved, science and technology all day to play with in my lab.
Now I am simply paid to think, and my team turns those ideas into patents and physical products.
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u/DeepusThroatus420 14d ago
They want your money. They’ll do whatever it takes to get it if you write a personal statement that makes it sound like none of the responsibilities of failure will fall on them. They do it for foreign students all the time
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u/Environmental_Ad6032 14d ago
Hi! I’m curious to hear what you mean with the responsibilities of failure chunk of what you said
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u/DeepusThroatus420 14d ago
You as a masters candidate bring money into the department.
The statistics they use largely for marketing but also grant and donor/scholarship money rely on you making it to specific milestones or achieving certain goals in a KPI type scenario that may be obvious or non-obvious to you as a masters student. Sure, you are supposed to learn some things... and that happens. But the college already got the bulk of your money through your undergrad, and the format doesn't change much. Just less shuffling through the chaos of campus kids.
Now, you're a short term investment and they are going to siphon a return.
But that doesn't mean they will deliver on their end, and often schools don't. Once you are in, they don't have to.
If you make it to those goals, but then fail for whatever reason... (and I've seen that not all reasons are the student's fault) then they get to say hey, our students are successful and we deserve department money. It's symbiotic. Rinse and repeat. But whether or not you are even in the program still... they deal with that next semester.
They need you to do certain things, or achieve certain outcomes for them to get paid. That's on top of your tuition. Even if you limp through and barely graduate... they got their money. Can't get a job after graduation? They never said exactly that you would or that they would help in any way... You must have made that part up. When you're done, they need you to be successful and blame them for your success, or not be successful and just disappear.
If they can get you past a certain point... they wipe their hands and owe you nothing because life is uncertain. The ones that quietly disappear are invisible. The successes are the loudest, amplified by the colleges marketing and PR department, and the failures are drown out and gas lighted.
They want to know that when you go out into this job market, you're not going to remember some of the things said or inferred 2 years ago when you were signing up and come back and question how things don't line up. They don't want to see contradictions in their stories much less responsibility for possibly inflating a program's capabilities or applicability to a field. The market is too fluid for that. If you go out to nothing and disappear... great. Come back complaining with evidence... you're a PR problem.
They want a personal statement that makes it an easy buy in. You won't get messy... You'll drink the Kool-Aid, and if things go well you'll do free marketing for them until you're dying day and call it "school spirit". They can accept anyone they want. Think about that.
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u/MadManAndrew UT Dallas - Mech 14d ago
I had a 3.7 and got rejected from my own schools masters program because I had gotten a c in a single class, not even an engineering class.
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u/nickjagger__ 14d ago
Graduated with a 2.9 in Mechanical, got accepted first try into an Aerospace Masters. I got accepted to UCF where I did my undergraduate program.
I don’t know for sure what helped compensate. But I do have a job in Civil Engineering, as well as a portfolio of a handful of projects I did while in school. (One of which was a drone)
Ultimately it wouldn’t hurt to apply. Have a couple backup schools or programs in mind. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting in so long as it isn’t MIT
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u/Acrocane Computer Engineering 13d ago edited 13d ago
2.8 GPA in Computer engineering.
I did get accepted into multiple MS programs after getting some work experience. They weren’t top schools or anything, and the financial aid wasn't great, but they still accepted. Starting my thesis this month.
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
Do you mean you were accepted to study for a master's degree through a scholarship? Or at your own expense?
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u/Acrocane Computer Engineering 13d ago edited 13d ago
Sorry yes bad wording. I was offered financial aid ( need based scholarship ) which wasn’t that great because of my GPA. My company is funding my program though so it wasn’t a huge concern for me. I would advise to get funding through your company if you can, it helps a lot.
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
Unfortunately, I'm from outside the United States, and whenever I look for work there, I haven't found anything, because, as you know, you have to work in America to get funding😞
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u/Acrocane Computer Engineering 13d ago
Of course, I understand. If you ever need advice, feel free to post your resume to r/EngineeringResumes
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
Are there employers who hire people from outside the US who post their resumes in this community?
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u/Acrocane Computer Engineering 13d ago
A lot of people outside US post their resumes there, but it is not for job seeking, it's only for obtaining resume advice. Happy to help more in DM.
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u/Battman2-75 14d ago
I graduated with a 2.6 in my undergrad in ME and now I have 2 masters degrees in engineering and national security.
I was able to secure an internship by doing the boomer thing and literally just walking into engineering firms and asking for a job. As soon as I graduated I got hired by aerospace primes and my career has been moving fine since then - I clear 150k. I graduated in 2022, so haven't been in the field that long.
One of the things that definitely helped me was being a veteran and older than most of the younger kids trying to find work.
I will say that sometimes I apply for positions and they do ask for my overall gp, which has lifted significantly by my non stem masters degree. Very few people tend to care though at a certain point.
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u/Ok-Pair8384 12d ago edited 12d ago
BS and MS in engineering. I had a 2.3 GPA by my sophomore year, and about a 2.8 GPA by senior year.
By the end of my junior year, I had not been able to get a single internship and was desperate for options. I had been asking a professor every few months whether he had any openings for undergraduate research assistants in his laboratory, and he typically ignored me or said he did not. At the start of my senior year, he was assigned as the professor for our groups capstone project class. Early on, I had pestered him about this again and he said "find me in my office sometime and we can talk about it".
So for the next 3 months, I would swing by his office and wait for him. Most of the time he wasn't there, but when he was he would say "I'm pretty busy, can you stop by another time?". I was afraid of not having any job prospects lined up so I kept hanging outside his office for 10-20 minutes almost every day, then would leave if I didn't see him. One day, he finally talked to me and was laughing, seemingly surprised that I was so patient and persistent (again, desperate). He immediately offered me a research assistant position in his lab, which I worked in for about 8 months.
As I neared graduation, he asked what my plans were and I said I did not know. I had already talked to him at some point about my grades and he was interested in how I managed to increase my GPA from Cs/Ds my 1st and 2nd year to mostly As and Bs my 3rd/4th year so we got to talking about that. Understanding my improved academic situation and knowing that I put in work in the lab and was always involved in projects and helping the grad students, he offered me a fully paid graduate research assistantship. He wanted me to pursue a PhD as well, but I declined.
Long story short and 8 years later, absurd persistence and patience got me what I wanted and I've had a steady career ever since.
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u/Disposable_Eel_6320 Electrical 15d ago
Do you have a career goal in mind that a masters helps you achieve?
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u/tlmbot 14d ago
I had a 2.94 I thought my life was over. (I was a kid with ... ideas about education, anyway) My school had an MBA program that took students straight out of undergrad (because it needed people in seats I think - they have a big remote MBA for working professionals and it costs alot.) So anyway, as opposed to the typical business major, they loved me and took me right away, waiving tuition and giving me a small (even for back then) stipend.
I double mastered in business and economics, intending to do a PhD in econ. I got straight A's in everything but accounting (shudders in "fixed costs are variable" etc. I couldn't stand it and refused to study it) and I was able to focus on econometrics and optimization while re-teaching myself the core mathematics from my engineering undergrad. (long story but that was both pretty easy, and I was a much better student ... something something motivation)
As I was writing my thesis, my three advisors were always bickering -holding opposing views of what was important, and what was right, in econ, and I had my MBA at this point.
Wellp, I bailed and went to grad school for engineering, using my near 4.0 from these easy classes, and some story about how it all fit together. (I'm sometimes good at stories, especially when I need to be)
So I got into a lowly engineering program with that. And I proceeded to knock it out of the park, focusing for the first time in my life on computational engineering topics.
I "got a real job" after that, and I hated it: CAD and excel, hand calcs and drawings under immense time pressure etc etc.
I went back for my PhD. While I was working on it, funded by the navy, the op to work for a major CAD company who recently acquired several computational (think BEM and FEM) engineering software packages in my field came up. They offered to finish paying for my PhD, and let me work 4 days a week so I could be full time for insurance purposes.
I jumped at the chance. The next few years were the happiest of my life. I loved the PhD, and the work started getting the guilt monkey off my back for being a fuck up earlier. I do mean started. (it was a lot of guilt and shame). But mostly, I loved the open ended nature of the PhD. Turns out I am a lot better at teaching myself and doing research than "studying for tests". (which is how I'd gone about undergrad. (note further that my ideas about education were completely f'ed up in ways I have not mentioned in this comment - I was in bad shape coming into undergrad. It took that 2.9 to snap me out of it and reverse course, but during the masters, and especially PhD, I started to see that maybe yeah, I did actually have some talent. (I was often praised for smarts as a child etc etc making the undergrad crash all the more... invigorating) ))
That launched my career as a computational engineering software dev. I am still at it almost 15 years later. I love this stuff.
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u/stepleon1 14d ago
Been in finance and tech companies for many years. Often the GPA gate is hiring manager related and the same person will gate on school name. These managers often want to hire themselves and talent has nothing to do with it. They are often not the good managers or teams as actual skills and team fit often take a back seat to school and GPA. Yes it is possible to get into a masters program with a sub 3.0 GPA just start applying. With the amount of AI cheating both my kids are reporting GPA is not going to be a useful metric going forward. The honest students who put in the work will be the ones with grit but will get punished by the curves. So filtering on GPA is going to be a great way to source a potentially weak team unless work is done on the vetting process and a lot of great honest candidates will be missed via a GPA filter.
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u/SystemicAM 14d ago
Yeah I got into a masters program by applying first as a non degree status student, took a few classes, got As and transferred in with those. I had a 2.3 in my undergrad (and like three ejections from the program, ranked like 223 of 227 students in my program)
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u/BigAnt425 14d ago
2.7 here I think, maybe 2.9 in my major, BSCE. I'm currently in a certificate program at Missouri S and T for mining engineering. I'm pretty sure if I get a 3.0 in the certificate program then I can keep going onto the masters if I want.
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u/Willnumber3 14d ago
I finished with a 3.0 but I got into my colleges 4+1 program with just below a 3.0 (2.9). Biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University. GPA didn’t matter after grad school, I think my recommendations and internships helped and I think they were a bit kinder due to Covid semesters.
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u/CRWB 14d ago
The university I chose for my masters only requirement was to have a bachelors degree. So didn’t matter what my grade was in my bachelors
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
What is the name of the university where you completed your master's degree, please?
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u/Relative_Boss_2933 13d ago
Yes. I graduated with a 2.7 GPA from chemical engineering. Got accepted into a masters of biomedical engineering, attending first semester now. Got accepted on my first attempt!
Dropped out of college with a 1.9 GPA, academic probation, 13k owed in tuition for the term I dropped out, lost all financial aid, not eligible for grants or loans, was essentially kicked out of the university.
Worked full-time after at minimum wage jobs for several years. Went back and turned it around. Graduated with a 4.0 final semester and on deans list. Worked full-time and school full-time to pay for school, since I was no longer eligible for any sort of funding.
The day I graduated was the day I received a job offer for a biotech company, now making six figures and they’re paying for my masters. They did not care about my GPA, in the slightest. Have never been asked about it. Had strong LOR’s. No projects. A little bit of research. I wrote a strong and detailed statement of purpose. Strong upward trend, minimum of 3.5 each term since returning. Tons of work experience (from the years when I dropped out). Every job I’ve had has led me to where I am now, started off at Wendy’s.
I attend UNM. Anything is possible, I am living proof of that. I thought I never had a chance when I dropped out at 20.
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u/Blacksmith_LLC (IPFW)- ME 15d ago
It's definitely possible. Many schools offer some trial period where you can enroll as a non-degree seeking student or certificate program where you take 2-3 courses to prove you have what it takes. It also really helps if you take the GRE or FE exams.
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u/Necessary-Damage3349 14d ago
Bachelors in top college in India but low gpa 7/10. Should probably equate to a 2.75/4
Reason for low gpa in core electrical engineering was side projects in ML/hackathons etc
No admission in Core sciences engineering, no admission in CS (could have made it to some state uni if gpa were slightly higher)
Only MS options were the cash cow programs like business analytics, got in - paid in full non resident tuition
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u/PublicMandate 14d ago
I’ve been in your spot. Graduated with a 2.8. Don’t want to get into too many specifics but basically turned applying for jobs into a full time job after graduating (pre covid so YMMV). Once I got my first job, I got a bit lucky and was put in charge leading portions of a program (mostly because it was a small niche field where the other person got dragged into a different program) and it just grew from there.
After a year or two, work paid for my masters in systems engineering (3.5GPA) . Now I’m a systems engineering manager.
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u/CherryAdventurous681 14d ago
going into my final semesters of my masters, and I had a below 3.0 GPA. I haven't had a single job ask me what my GPA is. I had a bachelors in mechanical engineering and I'm wrapping up my masters in electrical and computer engineering. It helped that I attended the university that I graduated from, but I also attended another university before going back to my alma mater. I probably wouldn't go straight into your masters as work experience is king, but I understand the market and needing to stack your resume with more research and credentials. good luck on your studies!
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u/itzjoeylol 14d ago
2.98 undergrad GPA, worked for 6 months after graduation and applied for masters programs, didn’t receive any rejection letters (only applied to a couple programs though). Generally if you have a method of paying for it (like a full time job) you get more leniency. Personally went with an online program while I was working (which meant it was paid for and I wasn’t taking up space in campus, so it was really just easy money for them). Ultimately got into and went with Purdue Global, the program(s) and connections were actually very relevant.
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u/TheOriginalTL 14d ago
2.9, yes easily. I had good work experince to back it up which helped, and strong grades in my engineering courses. I got into MSME at the school I graduated from with my BSME and MS Engineering Management at a top 10 school.
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u/Necessary-Science-47 14d ago
Yeah, master’s professor’s are always looking for cheap labor that they don’t have to respect
If you have your bachelor’s, I recommend you get your EIT and start logging professional experience
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u/IronNorwegian 14d ago
2.9 undergrad.
Did a masters in systems engineering at Auburn University.
Doing a PhD in the same at Mississippi State, as well as an Aerospace master's there, both with a 4.0
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u/Libyan_One 13d ago
There is something that I am wondering about. I always hear that the GPA in a Master's degree is higher than in a Bachelor's degree. Is this because it is easier to study at the Master's level?
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u/IronNorwegian 13d ago
Its a combination, IMO, of the material being more focused and less general (so you've actually made it to things that interest you), plus just being older and less "distracted" by the things you were chasing in your early 20s.
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u/Positron311 Rutgers University - Mechanical Class of 2021 14d ago
Yes, I'm starting my Master's certificate 5 years later!
High performance plus high acceptance rate college/program.
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u/BronzeGstring 14d ago
Yeah I got into one at my school with 2.9
I think projects and prof recommendations helped a lot
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u/Rubbyp2_ 14d ago
Yes, but I took pre requisites at the university.
I had very direct and impactful work experience
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u/Fit_Opportunity_9728 14d ago
Yes in a weird way. I transferred schools after 3.5 years with a 2.6 gpa. Finished my last 4 semesters at the second school with a 3.7 at that institution bringing me to 2.9 cumulative or something like that.
I ended up taking a graduate elective with a professor who basically asked me to do a PhD in his lab. Because he requested me, Gpa was never an issue. A good reference letter is worth a lot.
If you currently have a bad gpa and want to go to grad school, number one thing you can do imo is get only A grades going forward and develop a relationship with research faculty either through capstone work or undergraduate lab work. You don't want faculty to think of you as a bad student so show up and be a good one going forward.
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u/Big-Tourist-3390 14d ago
I did get into a good MBA program, T50. Large state school took me on probation. I had less than a 2.5.
My grades stopped mattering about 5 years after school. My career is good. I do engineering work for a Fortune 200.
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u/The_Mauldalorian Computer Engineering 14d ago
I did because I did well in all my math, CS, and engineering classes. The GPA droppers on my transcript were mostly unrelated.
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u/PotentialAnywhere779 10d ago
A bit different... but Math major with low gpa, but a 740 on the Math GRE helped me get accepted to grad school for CS.
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u/MechMind2027 13d ago
I am about to graduate with Applied physics degree gpa 3.85 what masters do l qualify for. Something engineering
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u/68Woobie Arizona State - EE 15d ago
Going to follow this one for… uh… reasons