<p>Well, my general observation has been that whatever GPA you got in high school, subtract a full 1.0 from it to estimate what you will get at VT engineering if you put in the same amount of effort as you did in High School. I slid by with a 3.5 GPA in high school but never studied until the night before and did homework the morning of, and as a result of devoloping poor study habits I’m getting by with a 2.6 GPA in engineering at tech. it seems that the majority of my peers though average anywhere between a 2.8 and 3.2 in engineering. Maybe a handful of students in my classes have 3.5+ GPA’s in engineering. </p>
<p>With that said, since you got a 3.97 GPA in High School your looking at around a 3.0 GPA in engineering if you put in the same amount of effort/work. A 3.0 GPA in engineering is actually pretty good and was my original goal. I have yet to meet an engineering student with a full 4.0 GPA. That’s pretty rare, even the smart international/chinese students here usually have like 3.8 or 3.9, and they work non-stop. Never have seen a 4.0. The most extreme case I ran into was a guy double majoring in CS and Aerospace while taking 21 credit hours that particular semester and managed a 3.5+ GPA. I asked him how the hell he could possibly do that and it turns out he had extra time in the day since he apparently had insomnia. </p>
<p>If I were you, I’d focus on your first semester and see if you can pull a 4.0.</p>
<p>Everyone is different and has their own limitations and motivations of course. I’m just saying your going to have to take very few in-major classes at a time or work your a** off to pull a 4.0.</p>