| GPA does matter quite a bit, just not as much as professional schools.
1) internships recruit based heavily on gpa and often have a cutoff for consideration (3.0 or 3.5 usually). I know people say its who you know, but I knew a lot of people, and eventually they want to see a proven ability to handle work well (i.e gpa).
2) When you apply to good grad schools, the people you are competing with are invariably good in all categories: gpa, gre (even verbal though it doesnt matter), and research experience. To be considered, you need to be in this bunch.
3) If you want funding for grad school
4) What else would your first-year employer look at? Remember everyone takes similar classes; so how do you stand out on a piece of paper?
Overall since its so tough, I think its easier to go from engineering-> anything as opposed to the opposite. You don't hear about too many pre-med/law students deciding to "go for" engineering. |