[Computer Engineering] Raise GPA over 3 or expand skill set

ucbalumnus
Tue, 16 Jan 2018 19:25:37 +0000

Do you already have a job lined up to start at after graduation this May?

If so, then choose the extra upper level technical course, which has the greatest potential to be useful in your job and career in the future.

If not, then your choice would be between:

A. The upper level technical course, which has the greatest potential to be useful in your job and career in the future.

B. Repeating for grade replacement the course in which you got the lowest grade (assuming that your school does grade replacement for repeating your lowest grade), in order to raise your GPA to 3.0 or higher. Assuming that this is the precalculus course, it is useless educationally and professionally, but may help if (1) you do not find a job by the time you graduate, and (2) you actually earn high enough grades to raise your GPA to 3.0 or higher. In this case, your post-graduation job search may avoid many of the auto-rejections that a 2.x GPA will encounter (probably about 40% of employers screen new college graduates with a 3.0 cutoff GPA, based on NACE surveys), although you will still be at a disadvantage because of lesser access to the career center and the perception among employers that anyone not hired while still in school is less desirable.