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Applying to college
- Thread starter xenu
- Start date
Spot on. Don't underestimate the power of GPA cutoffs, though. You can sell your soul to the clubs and charities and it won't matter if you don't get past the firm's GPA cutoff (and rounding doesn't work, either, 3.49999999 is NOT a 3.5). Take easy classes your freshman year because people DGAF that you took Real Analysis freshman year like Bill Gates did at Harvard (unless you're the second coming of Bill Gates, that is.) Lots of firms have so many applicants so using GPAs is an easy way to weed out people. Keep that in control and then do all the craziness afterwards that you enjoy. Less is more with this stuff because people know when you're doing stuff for the resume. Employers aren't idiots, but the recruiting software definitely is. Keep that in mind when internship season and job hunting season comes around.
That's indeed a very good point. Many companies, especially the ones with good PR and reputation, have enough talented recruits to choose from and thus have no need to implement a tedious and expensive recruitment strategy. Nevertheless, I feel that at least compared to STEM degrees, a business major's 2nd priority (other than grades) is to develop a network, gain work experience, and gain relevant contacts that will be pivotal in terms of getting a job after graduation. Basically GPA>relevant contacts>work experience>volunteering in that order.
I think this is somewhat disingenuous. If you're applying to certain fields, there are computer programs that will literally throw out your application if you don't meet a hidden GPA requirement (lots of my friends' parents work in admissions at various medical schools). The obvious GOAL of college is to learn, but you absolutely DO need to worry about GPA. In an ideal world you could put all your focus into learning, but I don't think doing so is very realistic.
Have to agree with Harsha here. If your GPA isn't high, you WILL have a problem finding internships and eventually jobs in engineering. A lot of jobs and internships will deny applicants under a 3.0 without even looking at the application, while many others set the bar at 3.2 or 2.8. When it comes to employment, look at your GPA as an indicator of the number of opportunities you'll have out of college. If you have a 4.0, nobody's going to deny you an interview (but they absolutely will deny you a job if you bomb it!). If you have a 2.5, you better pray to God you have some sort of connection. There are plenty of companies that put less of a focus on GPA and are more liberal with giving interview opportunities, but someone with a 2.9 probably has half of the employment prospects that someone with a 3.1 has.
If you're looking to go into industry, your GPA matters up to a point. The differences between a 3.7 and a 3.5 and a 3.3 are pretty insignificant, especially if there are balancing factors like research experience, relevant extracurriculars, etc. Companies look to hire people, not numbers. Once you get in an interview room your GPA couldn't matter less. There are plenty of 3.8+ students that do not have personal skills or relevant experience, and there are plenty of 3.1 students that do. If a hiring manager has to choose between a 3.9 student who can't interview and a 3.1 student who can, they're going to take the 3.1 more often than not.
tl;dr: GPA gets you an interview, skills and experience get you a job.
If you're looking to go into industry, your GPA matters up to a point. The differences between a 3.7 and a 3.5 and a 3.3 are pretty insignificant, especially if there are balancing factors like research experience, relevant extracurriculars, etc. Companies look to hire people, not numbers. Once you get in an interview room your GPA couldn't matter less. There are plenty of 3.8+ students that do not have personal skills or relevant experience, and there are plenty of 3.1 students that do. If a hiring manager has to choose between a 3.9 student who can't interview and a 3.1 student who can, they're going to take the 3.1 more often than not.
tl;dr: GPA gets you an interview, skills and experience get you a job.
Believe me I'm well aware of losing out on interviews because of not having a stellar GPA. That was my experience plenty often in college.
But beyond getting hired for your first job out of school, no one will ever care about your GPA. They will care about if you have relevant useful skills to contribute. Some of these skills you will learn on previous internships, which, yes, are harder to get if you have a lower GPA. But most of it will come from taking a challenging AND rewarding (note: not challenging just for the sake of challenging) courseload.
I will tell you there is zero chance I'd have landed the job I landed had I not taken a 400 level stat class, even though I got a C in it. I also wouldn't have gotten it had I not challenged myself to do heavy quant analysis in my senior thesis.
Moreover, taking a challenging courseload is about more than just learning more. It's also about learning how to learn. When new tasks come up at a job that you're not familiar with, no one is there to handhold you. You should be used to being challenged and being resourceful and figuring stuff out even when it's hard. I had many coworkers at internships throughout college who got the job based on GPA. They were, being totally honest, often really bad workers on the job because they weren't used to having to work hard.
I do agree it's probably different for engineering students. By all accounts I've heard from my engineering student friends, landing the right internship or co-ops is incredibly important. Probably also true for some more "trade school" type majors like nursing and architecture and accounting.
But beyond getting hired for your first job out of school, no one will ever care about your GPA. They will care about if you have relevant useful skills to contribute. Some of these skills you will learn on previous internships, which, yes, are harder to get if you have a lower GPA. But most of it will come from taking a challenging AND rewarding (note: not challenging just for the sake of challenging) courseload.
I will tell you there is zero chance I'd have landed the job I landed had I not taken a 400 level stat class, even though I got a C in it. I also wouldn't have gotten it had I not challenged myself to do heavy quant analysis in my senior thesis.
Moreover, taking a challenging courseload is about more than just learning more. It's also about learning how to learn. When new tasks come up at a job that you're not familiar with, no one is there to handhold you. You should be used to being challenged and being resourceful and figuring stuff out even when it's hard. I had many coworkers at internships throughout college who got the job based on GPA. They were, being totally honest, often really bad workers on the job because they weren't used to having to work hard.
I do agree it's probably different for engineering students. By all accounts I've heard from my engineering student friends, landing the right internship or co-ops is incredibly important. Probably also true for some more "trade school" type majors like nursing and architecture and accounting.
I'm committing to Bard College at Simon's Rock today! I was graciously granted scholarships totaling ~$50,000 so I'm really fortunate to be going to this school. This is the end of my junior year, but they are an accelerated/early college that accepts high school students before graduation in order to begin degree paths early. I'm likely to pursue a degree in performance arts/film. 
So in short, when someone tells you that for engineer
I thought you were much older :o, but nonetheless congratulations on your acceptance!
I'm committing to Bard College at Simon's Rock today! I was graciously granted scholarships totaling ~$50,000 so I'm really fortunate to be going to this school. This is the end of my junior year, but they are an accelerated/early college that accepts high school students before graduation in order to begin degree paths early. I'm likely to pursue a degree in performance arts/film.
I thought you were much older :o, but nonetheless congratulations on your acceptance!
you're by no means the only one, haha. thank you! :)
I just committed to UMD College Park! :D
Tough choice between this and UMBC since I got scholarship there, but UMD is so much cooler tbh. I got into the scholars Living and Learning Program which I heard a lot of good things about, so hyped for that! And I also heard there's a lot of pokemon players at UMD!!
Can't wait.
n)_(n
Tough choice between this and UMBC since I got scholarship there, but UMD is so much cooler tbh. I got into the scholars Living and Learning Program which I heard a lot of good things about, so hyped for that! And I also heard there's a lot of pokemon players at UMD!!
Can't wait.
n)_(n
Legit RIP. Scholars is going to be a nightmare. But nonetheless welcome to UMCP.
sup. i'm college park. unlike eaglehawk i like this school. what's your major?
Hiiiiii, I'm a somewhat nontraditional student in that I spent 4 years at community college part time while working in order to save money for a University. I imagine most people in this thread are applying straight from high school but maybe someone could have some advice for me anyways I hope. I'll be graduating from CC next month and I'm applying for a couple universities that have a partnership with my CC so I can transfer fully as a junior, but really the only one I actually want to go to is the University of Pittsburgh. I've noticed browsing through their website that I'm applying to one of the few programs that requires an essay for transfer students. The guidelines for it are very loose though and I'm one to stress about everything so I was just wondering a couple things. The only guideline given for length was that it should be less than 8 pages, but most of my friends say they only wrote like one or two pages for their entrance essays? Would around 2 or 3 be enough? Also, I'm kind of confused on how scholarly I should really get with it. The prompt asks that I explain why I chose to pursue the field, what do I think I have to gain from the education, and what do I think is one of the most pressing social issues of our time (I'm a Social Work major.) For the first two questions I just gave pretty much personal anecdote and opinion as was asked, but should I be going deep for the third question? Like is a detailed and researched essay expected of this? My friends who applied in high school said they don't think it's really that serious but I don't wanna do too much or too little I guess.
The easy answer to this is enough to answer the question. Is this multiple promps or one prompt with three questions? It looks like 3 separate, well written paragraphs (one per question) will do the job here.
So an update on my status in terms of transfers:
Waitlist
Cornell University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
University of Chicago
Rejected
Columbia University
Swarthmore College
Williams College
Unknown
University of Notre Dame
It has truly been a sad year.
Waitlist
Cornell University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
University of Chicago
Rejected
Columbia University
Swarthmore College
Williams College
Unknown
University of Notre Dame
It has truly been a sad year.
Columbia student transferring out:
Accepted
Yale
Stanford
Harvard
Rejected
MIT
Well, at least I can always try for master's at Cambridge.… :(
Accepted
Yale
Stanford
Harvard
Rejected
MIT
Well, at least I can always try for master's at Cambridge.… :(
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Hey guys! Got accepted into Kansas State University and Purdue and eventually decided to attend KSU!!! My father went there and my parents lived there when they were growing up (I have never lived in Kansas myself) so I am pretty familiar with Manhattan (it's nickname is the Little Apple LOL) My plan right now is to mathematics although I'm not sure what I will do exactly with that degree. I really just enjoy math and so I'm honestly just excited to focus on that for the next four years!
If anyone is in that area and wants to play mons or whatever hmu!!
If anyone is in that area and wants to play mons or whatever hmu!!
Am I supposed to feel sorry from you that you didn't get into MIT? idgi
Yeah, that was why I made the sad face.
Just a quick question: why were you thinking about transferring out of Columbia? If anything Harvard College is more or less similar to Columbia College (LA-esque discipline).
Unless you're naming all the possible HYPSM schools one can transfer into without actually applying to any of them.
Just an assumption...
Unless you're naming all the possible HYPSM schools one can transfer into without actually applying to any of them.
Just an assumption...
I plan to declare CS as my major and start doing machine learning and NLP research, so Stanford, Princeton, Harvard and MIT are all considerable improvements for me. Transferring to a stronger school (Stanford) should help immensely wrt research opportunities and graduate school
admissions.
In short, prestige matters.
