CivilTwilight

Cool! Would you mind telling me more? Did you have work experience or was this right out of school? How was the school ranked? How many places did you get accepted to?

Are masters programs really more forgiving of GPA? My cGPA is 2.96, my major GPA is about the same, my degree is in mechanical engineering. I have some research experience but nothing earth-shattering so I know getting into a PhD program is too much of a long shot, so I want to try for a MS. The 3.0 GPA cutoffs are really making me feel discouraged though.

In undergrad (mechanical engineering) I enjoyed doing research a lot, and from what I can tell getting a graduate degree is very helpful for getting into research jobs. I was looking at thesis-based MS programs . . . However I have a big problem with my app: my GPA. My cumulative GPA is 2.96, just under the cutoff for most grad programs. My major GPA is about the same so it's no help, and my last 4 semesters weren't that good so there's no nice upward trend. I had some mental health issues that got in the way that I've since done a lot of work on (I graduated almost 6 years ago) so I feel good about trying school again, but I know it's hard to convince admissions committees that you're ready. I wanted to ask if anyone else had experience getting into engineering MS programs with a less-than-impressive GPA, especially one that is under the GPA cutoffs like mine? What kind of schools did you apply to and what were the results? What helped, what didn't?

Thanks everyone! That certainly helps put my expectations in check a bit. I guess I'll have to look into how financial aid works again. I was actually really lucky in that a program in my state covered almost all of my BS costs so I only have a tiny amount of school debt. So even if I have to pay for the MS I at least won't be piling on top of BS debt too. Thank you, that's a good point. Honestly I'm not quite sure yet if MS will be enough or if I'll need a PhD. Based on my research it seems to vary a lot based on the particular company/shop/lab/etc. What I want to do is work in research, and not just doing grunt-level work. I could maybe get there by landing the right job and getting the right number of years of experience but it seems like just going back to school will be a lot more efficient in terms of time and effort (maybe not money-wise but the MS does give a pay bump so maybe it's a wash).

Thank you, that is good to hear (although you are not in engineering). That is a good idea to reach out to schools and ask how funding works for MS students. Do you mind if I ask how strong your app was? Did you have a good uGPA? One of my problems is that my cumulative uGPA is just under 3.0. I don't know if it will be possible to get any financial help with that kind of background.

Hi, like I posted a few months ago I am still investigating going to graduate school for mechanical engineering . . . I've talked to a couple professors and because of my GPA problems (under 3.0) that I should probably stick to MS programs. I keep hearing people say that you shouldn't go to engineering graduate school unless you have funding (by "funding" I am including TA/RAship here), but I ALSO keep hearing that getting funding for a Masters is almost impossible. Which is it? If it matters, I'd be looking at the thesis-option Masters.

Hi! Argh, it logged me out while I was writing up this post, so now I'm going to try again, probably with much fewer words, haha . . . So I have a BS in mechanical engineering, but currently work as a software developer. Weird right? Back in school, I realized I thought robots were really cool but since they are so complex and interdisciplinary, I wanted to know which part of them was my favorite so I had a direction for grad school. I knew I liked the "brains" part of robots the most so I tried to get a minor in computer science while still doing my ME degree. I missed by one class but I still got a lot of great CS fundamental knowledge. However my grades were not great by that point. I ended up with a 2.7 or so. I think that my uncertainty about which path I should take made it hard to fully concentrate on classes. I was also in a really lousy relationship at the time. Since my grades weren't that great and I was still unsure about what path to take in grad school, I decided not to go at that time. So I went into software development instead because it seemed interesting. It was good for awhile but I haven't been able to move forward within that field. It turns out that maybe it wasn't the right fit for me after all. I've looked into lots of cool things like AI, machine learning, data science, etc. and I haven't been drawn in enough by any of it. I keep feeling like I don't want to continue with tech at least on the software side. So now my old dream of going to grad school has come back up and I'm examining it. I'm still narrowing things down but I think I want to study in a ME department things like robotics, controls, dynamics, multi-agent systems. I think I'd want to do MS for now though, since it's been awhile and it sounds like it's a bit easier to get in. Oh and as for things I have besides my GPA, I had a research internship where I finished a small paper and a poster for a conference. I also worked in a research lab for a couple semesters although I didn't manage to finish anything there. I am hoping I could ask those professors for LORs, assuming they remember me after five years, haha. So, my questions: 1) I see that there is a low GPA admittance thread which is great. I guess I am worried that being out of school for so long (5 years now) might hurt me, especially since it's not in a very related area. Will I still be able to get in somewhere decent? 2) Getting admitted is one thing but how likely will I be able to get some kind of financial aid as a MS student? How hard is it to get things like fellowships or RAships or stuff like that as a masters student? 3) Speaking of funding I'm a bit confused by it . . . so do you get admitted and THEN try to find funding or do you do those things at the same time? How do you find funding sources? Just ask the program people? I'm not sure where I'd start with that. Thanks again for reading, I'd appreciate any help you can lend. It feels good to work on my old dream again but it still feels a bit impossible!