in need of advice

sjmiller6
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:24:02 +0000

Hi, after reading this forum and seeing some good advice, I was hoping someone could help me with my situation. I am about to enter my senior year in mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the past 6 months I have decided that I would like to pursue graduate school in Nuclear Engineering because I believe nuclear power is essential for generating clean, safe energy for the future(not that I want to get into that debate right now). Anyways, I feel my college experience has made me a strong, motivated person with many qualities to succeed in the future, however, my GPA has nothing to show for it. Since I was young, I have struggled to force myself to spend more time on homework than was necessary for a complete understanding. Thus, my exam scores have always been near the top of the class but homework grades continually bringing down my GPA. I currently have a 2.976 GPA and a slightly higher GPA in my major. I have resolved to finish my final year with a 4.0 which would likely bring my overall GPA in the 3.2-3.3 range. I think I will be able to secure several quality letters of recommendation from my favorite professors, however, my resume includes no research. Although I have talked to several professors which I was interested in helping with research, I have yet to commit to anything because of a busy extracurricular schedule (coach/player of the club volleyball team, working to pay for school, busy social life). At this point I am pessimistic about my chances of being accepted into graduate school with a sub-3.0 GPA and no research. I plan to taking the GRE in October and have begun studying so my scores can possibly overcome my poor GPA. I also wonder if the fact that I am not a NE undergrad affecting my acceptance. I plan to visit a few of the schools I’m going to apply to in hopes of making an impression on the faculty. On the other hand, I wonder if spending an extra year of school to improve my GPA and doing some research(hopefully in NE) would increase my chances of being accepted to one of the top schools. Postponing my dreams and goals by a year sounds very unappealing but maybe necessary. I also wonder if the fact that nuclear engineering is somewhat of a specialized degree changes the circumstances slightly.

Does anyone have experience applying to grad school with a subpar GPA? Would an extra year of school and research significantly improve my ability to conduct meaningful research in grad school? Does anyone have specific knowledge of Nuclear Engineering graduate student acceptance rates?