To those of you who have graduated from college...

What's your major, Spelling and Humility?

 

Apparently a 'Bachelors of High School'.

 

i did ME at UT and graduated <gulp> 6 years ago but i used ECAC up the wazoo for jobs. they are really great and helpful so i'd use them to your advantage. start thinking about what field or industry you want to get into. as someone else said, the market is great now for engineers so i wouldn't be as worried about it and you have a great GPA already. i know my company didn't hire a single person after may 2002 through may 2005 (i got in march 02) and now we can't get enough people.

study hard and party hard! that's what i did at UT and it was the best 4.5 years of my life. buckle down during the dead days and pace yourself so you don't get burned out since you probably have at least 4, maybe 5 finals.

good luck!!

 

If you have a good GPA you can make 80-90K coming off a bachelors degree in Engineering from UT. I know a lot of people will say GPA does not matter, but at least shows you are serious at something.

 

For me, some of my job offers have been from an equation with the gpa playing a factor.

For a lot of other places, my starting base pay has been based off of crap. Like everyone gets 50k regardless.

 

It's not too late. Job fairs held by Universities usually are the best place to find a internship. Also goto the website of the company you are interested in and check if they are hiring interns right now.

 

i will copy everyone else. GPA matters both for grad. school and for your job in any professional career. For your first job, for sure, thereafter, it can be a requirement, but usually not.

Someone else said in this thread, but don't push yourself into taking hundreds of super hard classes. An employer won't care nearly that much that you pushed yourself...they'll be more impressed with a really high GPA that covers all of the prerequisite classes and some higher up classes towards your major, obviously.

 

When does GPA matter? A-your first job out and of course if you have good contacts even less

 

i was an electrical engineering major at UT. i took business foundations classes to boost my gpa. graduated and decided engineering is not for me...

do the best you can in your undergrad major but keep your options open. just bc you graduate w/ a bs in civil doesnt mean you HAVE to become a civil engineer...

dont stress, study ahead of time, work hard, study ahead of time, and do your best.

did i mention that you should study ahead of time?

 

I've been graduated for about a year now and it's all about who you know. Who puts in a good word for you, if you were referred to the company by any present employees and things of that nature.

GPA is obviously important if you plan on attending graduate school. If you plan on getting a job it's mostly just about who you know combined with your prior experience.

 

Obviously you chose the latter. Apparently, you like to offer your dope at a discounted rate as well. Go get 'em tiger.

 

That's pretty good...I didn't know GPA's had extra credit to allow for over 4.0.

 

Silly me, forgot to give my answer.

Depends on if you plan to go grad school or not. I can't speak on grad school, so I'll say what I know. My GPA sucked. It is one thing employers will ask about it. As someone said, it's a great way to get interviews or lose them. Assuming you can still get the interviews, just impress them and perform. Ever since my first job, my GPA hasn't come up.

 

Depends on the industry, and where you are in your career.

I am not an engineer, so I can not speak for your industry, but I will say this:

The better your GPA, the easier it will be to get jobs interviews, and interviews with good companies (or companies you want to work for).

You will also get more job offers, with better salary, as companies will consider you will be a better candidate.

A good GPA will say the following:
1.) You are able to prioritize (very important for management positions where meeting hard/firm deadlines are critical).
2.) You are intelligent and have an aptitude to quickly learn and apply new technologies and processes. Almost everyone will tell you that you will learn almost everything you need to do your job, on the job. In other words, you are coachable, and trainable.
3.) You have a good work ethic and are reliable. To a company, a good GPA = quality work. A poor GPA = sloppy work. A slacker who either partied too much in college, or did not study enough.

A good GPA will have the biggest impact in getting internships, and landing your first professional job. After that, experience plays an important part, but is not to say it is no longer important. I see job posting that read like:
1.) 7 to 10 years experience,
2.) Bachlors degree from a top tier university with 3.5 or better GPA
(Masters or Phd preferred)
3.) High SAT scores

Even for positions that require several years of experience, some companies still want to look at your GPA. It tells a lot about a person.

 

Jack in the Box is hiring.

 

I agree with the other posters that GPA really matters if you are pursuing another degree after your Bachelors other than that I think as long as you have 3.0 it shouldn't be too big of a problem. I think more than GPA it matters where you got your degree from. I mean if you got a 4.0 from BFE U that will count for less than a 3.0 from an Ivy.

Still I'm one of those wierdos who believe in education for education sake and encourage you to keep your GPA up whether you are going to Grad school or not.

GOOD LUCK!

 

That depends. Many grad schools such as medical school only care about GPA. But in the real world, most people don't even put their GPA on their resume.

 

GPA isn't that big of a deal. Keep your GPA over a 3.0, and make it through grad school if you want. You should have no problem getting a job then, and once you get experience no one will care what your GPA was.

 

I would check with the CE department at UT to see if you can take a co-op program for the summer only - that way you can get experience with the internship and get credit for a class as well. I know that most engineering schools have co-op programs but I am not sure if they offer them in the summer like they do in the fall and spring.

 

I found that internships and work experience were worth much more than GPA. In most of my interviews coming out of college, GPA wasn't even brought up, but we would usually spend 80% of the interview talking about my internship experience.