How important is your undergrad final year design project to grad school?

[kougou]

Hi all

 

I am from Canada. I have completed the last year of my undergrad degree in electrical. In the last year, we need to complete a design project. This project is industrial related (not a research project), and we are basically working it for a company and it worth 1/3 of the total credit of the entire last year's course work. 

 

I am wondering how important is that course when in my application to some competitive EE program in US?  

I didn't do that well in this specific project course (I felt the marking is extremely subjective and unfair...), but I have been extremely well in all of the other courses. Do you think this single mark on my transcript will put me onto a disadvantage position?

Edited May 9, 2015 by kougou

[eeee1923]

Every engineering major usually has to complete a capstone design project. What I did for my capstone project has nothing to do with what I'm doing for my master's or PhD. Basically you learn to work with a team and an industrial contact - those are transferable skills that can work both at the grad and professional levels. A design project is viewed slightly differently than regular coursework since it's more akin to what you would encounter in the work force. How poorly did you do on the project?

 

I wouldn't stress too much over it, just be able to explain what you did and learned from the project and how does skills would benefit you in grad school.

[kougou]

Every engineering major usually has to complete a capstone design project. What I did for my capstone project has nothing to do with what I'm doing for my master's or PhD. Basically you learn to work with a team and an industrial contact - those are transferable skills that can work both at the grad and professional levels. A design project is viewed slightly differently than regular coursework since it's more akin to what you would encounter in the work force. How poorly did you do on the project?

 

I wouldn't stress too much over it, just be able to explain what you did and learned from the project and how does skills would benefit you in grad school.

 

Yes, it is also called capstone project in my school. I got few percentage below the class average. It was MUCH lower (14%-ish) than all other courses I have taken this year.  This is bascially pulled behind by my teammates, this is a 5 people project and I can't pick my own teammates. But I don't think I could use "bad teammates" as excuse for this low mark, what do you think?

 

The worst thing is that, this single capstone course worth 1/3 of the credit of the entire year course work. Even I have many other courses with good mark, but this course worth lots of credit. 

[eeee1923]

That sucks - I've worked in a few group projects with "bad" teammates. Yet, the goal is to find a positive spin on every situation. For example, working in the group taught you that you need careful planning and delegating of the tasks at hand and you personally know the consequences of what can happen if this is not done at the beginning and throughout the project's lifetime. Or something to that effect. Unfortunately, you cannot redo the project so you have to be able to move on and make the best of your situation.