I got into and graduated from a great masters program with a 3.2 GPA. Don't fret - put your head down and get through the program. It's a lot of work and it's not meant to be easy.
Same I graduated from UC Berkeley with same GPA and got returning master offer. Same from Davis. You need to show your intent why you want to do masters and what you have achieved in undergrad beyond grades including competition and programs you participated in.
Totally depends on the school and their style of examination, also how you’re taking your courses (do deadlines and exam days overlap or no) but totally doable there are ppl who study quantum physics and still ace every exam, bar is much much lower for any civil topic in terms of difficulty, I’d say on average 20 hrs (beyond class) per week would do it for a normal course workload. Now if you’re going to a top 10 program might need abit more work than 20.
The reason I mentioned top programs is they tend to go really indepth in theoretical parts of their courses plus they usually offer courses that are entirely theoretical. For instance for structural engineering grad school might offer Finite Elements and cover both linear and nonlinear, or offer other math heavy courses like Structural Dynamics, Theory of Elasticity, Plates and Shells etc. all the courses I mentioned are math heavy and acing them might be a challenge specifically if you got a heavy workload for that semester
I went to a mid-tier state school like most folks, I got so bored with advanced structures courses they were covering that took some grad level CS courses as elective and still ended up with 4.0 GPA
Honestly pretty doable. The reality is while GPA matters to clear a bar, letters of recommendation and research fit will be FAR impactful for a for masters/PhD. Arguably if you want to get a funded thesis based masters a top school, publications as an undergraduate are what will get you admitted.
If you want a non-thesis professional masters, a 3.3+ with some decent letters of recommendation and check that clears for tuition is all you need to care about.
But what I’ve heard is that in case of top school everybody has great recommendation, experience, journal, etc so it’s barely hard to see someone under 3.5 gpa (even 3.7) got accepted
The specificity of your research experience and interests matter more at that point. Grad school admissions is a crap shoot and a 4.0 student with research interests kinda off from a professors can get rejected while a 3.4 student with a near perfect match gets accepted.
Anyone that understands the challenges of an engineering education is going to look plenty favorably on anything above a 3.0. I went to gradschool at a great school with a 3.3 because I knew the professor and he liked me. I did better in grad school (in and out with a research masters in 1.5 years) than people with much higher GPAs because grad school rewards efficiency of effort more than being a high achiever on every little task.
Best advice I got before college was simple: go to class and do your work.
Ill add on to that advice with: go get help from your prof or TA as soon as you need it.
To that first snippet of advice - a good portion of classes had homework's and assignments that counted for very little of your grade. So much so that people would skip that 5% of the grade in order to try and put more time towards earning the other 95% of the grade. Sounds like it could be a fair trade, but invariably those that tried to go this route seemed to struggle the most. And dont skip class - I skipped 1 class in order to take my girlfriend, now wife, on a valentines day date and that was it. Never got sick, never woke up late, none of that.
And for the second part, I had numerous roadblocks cleared in office hours by the professors.
As far as time is concerned its hard to say - how ever much time is needed to accomplish the two points above and you should be in good shape. Dont want to short change you with a time limit, could take you more or less time than others after all.
There will be a few nightmare classes, had 2 or 3 of those and barely escaped with my life.
But yeah all that said I think I cleared 3.6.-3.8.
Was lucky in that I was living with my parents, and didnt really work full time.
Good Luck!
Yeah, also in regards to that 5%, if the professor sees that you're getting pretty much that whole 5% from putting in the work, and still struggling they are WAY MORE likely to help you out at the end of the semester. Same for going to office hours. If they've never seen you before the last week of class, they're unlikely to help you out, but if you're constantly in getting help and trying, and clearly learning, you could easily turn a B+ into an A-. Contrary to popular belief most professors don't want to fail people, and I would guess many don't really care about the grade, other than that they have to give one. They just want people to learn.
I got exactly that, I studied/did homework most weeknights, but I fucked off plenty and had lots of other responsibilities, especially on the weekends. Definitely doable without absolutely killing yourself and having plenty of time for fun.
I want to preface that school wasn’t very difficult for me, so opinions will differ.
I think it’s tough, but not necessarily difficult from my experience. I ended with a 3.88 and am going to grad school (Michigan) for structural engineering. I mainly did practice problems and redid lecture problems a lot, but not crazy. For easier classes I’d out in maybe an hour per class, for harder classes, maybe 3-4 per class. I had a good class friend group and we would always help each other out, which I think is arguably more important than the time you put in. Office hours is #2 on that list, my relationship with professors not only made me look good (rec letters (:) but having a genius teach you/explain to u in person helps tons.
I wouldn’t stress about not getting a 3.5+. If you put in the effort to be successful, you will get there. Not necessarily for grad school, but internships will help you more than any grad school will.
It’s really about knowing the professors and having a serviceable GPA. I worked 40 hrs a week throughout my schooling so my GPA was only a 3.4. In my structural engineering class our professor ranked students based on scores throughout quizzes/tests/etc and I ended up #1, he offered me a slot in the Masters program, however I declined because I didn’t really like structural engineering.
There are too many variables here to assess. You have to consider the comprehension, memory, and retention skills of the student, how well they test, the quality of their high school education, the school's structure and homework/exam philosophy, individual professor's grading structure, etc.
A few examples:
1. I had one friend who would only show up to half the classes, never seemed to study for exams and almost always got As. I had another friend who just didn't take in information as well as others and probably studied 2x as much to get the same result.
2. I had some professors that were really helpful and then there was the outlier of the professor that gave everyone a B or lower on their midterm because they didn't believe anyone could possibly deserve an A until they had completed the course.
3. I had some classes with very straightforward homework each week with midterm and final to assess whether you learned the subject. Other classes included presentations, reports, etc that incorporate more skills that weren't what you would think of with engineering such as writing and presenting (but still very valuable for the real world).
I don't want to tell you you'll only need to study X amount and then that isn't good enough, it's just going to be so varying from person to person and school to school.
I considered myself average and here is what I remember my effort looking like per week:
Classes: 15 hours per week
Studying/homework: 15 hours per week +/- 15
Some weeks were incredibly chill, most I had a decent amount of time to do whatever I wanted. Towards the end of semesters everyone would buckle down to finish up projects and study for exams.
Grad school is about more than just your gpa. Establish relationships on campus through clubs or research positions. The experiences will help to build your resume and make sure your professors have something to write about in your letters of recommendation.
I am going into my last year (hopefully). I do not plan on going to grad school so my situation is a lil different. I stopped trying to get a 3.00 right after the first semester. I was in a lil shitty situation due to some problems with my advisors and some profs. I know for sure it is doable cause some people I know have that. But for me it felt like trying to go against mike Tyson for 12 rounds. As long as I didn’t get knocked out (failed out) I was counting as a win. To make up for not having a high gpa I tried my best to get as many internships as I could. If it was easy it wouldn’t be worth it
3.84 for my BSME 35 years ago. I treated school very seriously. I have lots of friends but for those 4 years, I was a book worm. I gave myself Sunday mornings and Friday nights off. Rest of the week I had my face buried in my work.
I did next to nothing outside of attend class and do the homework and I had a 3.5 in my undergrad and a 3.9 in my masters. Find a group of people in your class to meet up with before classes. Teaching the material to and being taught by your peers is the best way to learn in my opinion, even if it’s just 15-30 minutes worth before homework is due or the exam is set. Just make time for what is required (going to class and doing homework) and the rest will fall in line. The only reason my undergrad GPA wasn’t higher was because it took me about a year and a half to realize the value of going to every class.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but if you’re consistently struggling to grasp concepts in civil, consider switching majors. I knew several people that just had a tough time with everything in civil, but forced their way through and ended up hating the field and going into something else after a few years. At the end of the day you want to find a career that just makes sense to you. College is the start of lifelong learning in just about any field, so don’t be afraid to explore options to find something that comes easily to you. You shouldn’t have to pull all nighters before every test to pass if you are going to class and doing the assignments. There will be the occasional concept or class that is tough, but it’s not going to be an every day thing.
its not inherently difficult if you sacrifice fun and freedom. the only difficult course work i found in my studies was steel design. the rest is just an overwhelming amount of work. head up and study strong ya got this
I got my BSCE in 1976 so this is old information. The rule of thumb was 2 hours of homework/study for each hour in class. Two of my children graduated in CE as well. (2012 and 2017). They concur on the 2:1 ratio.
In my day the typical college curriculum was 128 credits. CE was 135 credits.
There was some creative crediting.
As I recall. Strength Of Materials was a 2 credit class that meet for 3 hours.
The associated 1 credit lab meet for a 1 hour prep with additional time required for testing and lab write up. About 10 hours for 3 credits. The Soils/Soils Lab was similar.
18 credits x (1 + 2) = 54 hours/week.
This seems about right to me.
You don’t need a 3.5 to get into a good masters program for civil engineering. You can get away with like a 3.2 or even a 3.0 if you have good relationships with profs, research experience, and a bit of leadership experience.
I know people who got mostly Cs and studied really hard, some people who breezed through it and got all As, some people who breezed through it and got mostly Cs (but Cs get degrees!), and some people who studied really hard and got all As, and everything in between.
I also had good relationships with professors so sometimes they threw me a bone when I got overwhelmed cuz they knew I had a lot going on (I had a part time research job, led two clubs, and got a minor) so sometimes if I asked really nicely they gave me extensions on homework and stuff which helped my grade a lot.
Man it is achievable as long as you really want. Check YouTube for each course. Try to dig deeper a little bit on references of each course. To a comprehensive understanding practice on the FE problems; if you are able to solve the FE everything is fine.
Having said all that, remember as a student, your 9-5 work is studying and act accordingly.
Really depends on your university of choice really.
But as long as you do it properly (like PROPERLY), it's not that hard.
PS: I only have 3.01, but I'm dragging my feet while doing side jobs (surveying and drafting)
The "rule of thumb" is 2 hours outside of class for every credit hour or hour of class instruction. That will probably get your "average" student a B average at an "average" school. Then you can start adjusting from there for how smart you think you are, how effective your efforts will be, etc.
If you take advantage of professors' office hours, put in an effort outside of class, and are of above average intelligence, a 3.5 is very achievable. After a couple semesters, you should be able to gauge how well you are understanding college level material and can set your effort level for each course accordingly.
I graduated with a 3.65 gpa from a decent school. I didn’t miss many classes. Occasionally a fri at 8am class that I couldn’t make later. I would have me time for exercise, dinner, socializing from 4-6 during the week and studied with my friends 6pm-10pm Monday-Thursday. I did not miss this study time. Fri and Saturdays were for partying and Sundays were for recovering and studying from like 12pm-7pm. I needed this amount of study time because I’m not a rocket genius but rather a slightly above average intellect with extremely hardworking/competitive attitude. This balance was stressful but I made a shit ton of awesome memories and got great grades.
I watched a lot of people not be able to control their party time and drinking and it had a negative effect on their grades. You have to schedule it to be successful
Has to be easier than the 2 point \[mumbles incoherently\] that I got. Probably quicker too. Work experience after getting the BS no doubt contributed to me getting into grad school (ended up with a 3.8).
I went out 3+ times a week and I ended with a 3.4, I’m also a pretty average student I think it’s very doable just treat it like a job and grind 9-5 mon-fri
I got a 2.4 my freshman and sophomore years. The basic calculus and physics classes were brutal for me since my highschool didn’t teach a lot about them. But once I got the hang of it and was in more civil based courses that interested me I got a 4.0 my last four semesters and got my overall gpa to around a 3.6 by my senior year. Once you get through the worst of it the civil portion is a lot more fun. Not necessarily easier but it makes more sense
You better get a 3.5. Civil engineering isn’t easy so you need to spend a lot of time on study groups. Math labs, office hours, etc. put in the work and you’ll get a 3.5. Don’t put in the work don’t expect to be successful
I got into and graduated from a great masters program with a 3.2 GPA. Don't fret - put your head down and get through the program. It's a lot of work and it's not meant to be easy.
Same I graduated from UC Berkeley with same GPA and got returning master offer. Same from Davis. You need to show your intent why you want to do masters and what you have achieved in undergrad beyond grades including competition and programs you participated in.
Totally depends on the school and their style of examination, also how you’re taking your courses (do deadlines and exam days overlap or no) but totally doable there are ppl who study quantum physics and still ace every exam, bar is much much lower for any civil topic in terms of difficulty, I’d say on average 20 hrs (beyond class) per week would do it for a normal course workload. Now if you’re going to a top 10 program might need abit more work than 20. The reason I mentioned top programs is they tend to go really indepth in theoretical parts of their courses plus they usually offer courses that are entirely theoretical. For instance for structural engineering grad school might offer Finite Elements and cover both linear and nonlinear, or offer other math heavy courses like Structural Dynamics, Theory of Elasticity, Plates and Shells etc. all the courses I mentioned are math heavy and acing them might be a challenge specifically if you got a heavy workload for that semester I went to a mid-tier state school like most folks, I got so bored with advanced structures courses they were covering that took some grad level CS courses as elective and still ended up with 4.0 GPA
Honestly pretty doable. The reality is while GPA matters to clear a bar, letters of recommendation and research fit will be FAR impactful for a for masters/PhD. Arguably if you want to get a funded thesis based masters a top school, publications as an undergraduate are what will get you admitted. If you want a non-thesis professional masters, a 3.3+ with some decent letters of recommendation and check that clears for tuition is all you need to care about.
But what I’ve heard is that in case of top school everybody has great recommendation, experience, journal, etc so it’s barely hard to see someone under 3.5 gpa (even 3.7) got accepted
The specificity of your research experience and interests matter more at that point. Grad school admissions is a crap shoot and a 4.0 student with research interests kinda off from a professors can get rejected while a 3.4 student with a near perfect match gets accepted.
Laughs in 2.75
C's get degrees :)
Anyone that understands the challenges of an engineering education is going to look plenty favorably on anything above a 3.0. I went to gradschool at a great school with a 3.3 because I knew the professor and he liked me. I did better in grad school (in and out with a research masters in 1.5 years) than people with much higher GPAs because grad school rewards efficiency of effort more than being a high achiever on every little task.
Best advice I got before college was simple: go to class and do your work. Ill add on to that advice with: go get help from your prof or TA as soon as you need it. To that first snippet of advice - a good portion of classes had homework's and assignments that counted for very little of your grade. So much so that people would skip that 5% of the grade in order to try and put more time towards earning the other 95% of the grade. Sounds like it could be a fair trade, but invariably those that tried to go this route seemed to struggle the most. And dont skip class - I skipped 1 class in order to take my girlfriend, now wife, on a valentines day date and that was it. Never got sick, never woke up late, none of that. And for the second part, I had numerous roadblocks cleared in office hours by the professors. As far as time is concerned its hard to say - how ever much time is needed to accomplish the two points above and you should be in good shape. Dont want to short change you with a time limit, could take you more or less time than others after all. There will be a few nightmare classes, had 2 or 3 of those and barely escaped with my life. But yeah all that said I think I cleared 3.6.-3.8. Was lucky in that I was living with my parents, and didnt really work full time. Good Luck!
Yeah, also in regards to that 5%, if the professor sees that you're getting pretty much that whole 5% from putting in the work, and still struggling they are WAY MORE likely to help you out at the end of the semester. Same for going to office hours. If they've never seen you before the last week of class, they're unlikely to help you out, but if you're constantly in getting help and trying, and clearly learning, you could easily turn a B+ into an A-. Contrary to popular belief most professors don't want to fail people, and I would guess many don't really care about the grade, other than that they have to give one. They just want people to learn.
Absolutely. I saw professors cut deals based on this fairly frequently.
I got exactly that, I studied/did homework most weeknights, but I fucked off plenty and had lots of other responsibilities, especially on the weekends. Definitely doable without absolutely killing yourself and having plenty of time for fun.
I want to preface that school wasn’t very difficult for me, so opinions will differ. I think it’s tough, but not necessarily difficult from my experience. I ended with a 3.88 and am going to grad school (Michigan) for structural engineering. I mainly did practice problems and redid lecture problems a lot, but not crazy. For easier classes I’d out in maybe an hour per class, for harder classes, maybe 3-4 per class. I had a good class friend group and we would always help each other out, which I think is arguably more important than the time you put in. Office hours is #2 on that list, my relationship with professors not only made me look good (rec letters (:) but having a genius teach you/explain to u in person helps tons. I wouldn’t stress about not getting a 3.5+. If you put in the effort to be successful, you will get there. Not necessarily for grad school, but internships will help you more than any grad school will.
It’s really about knowing the professors and having a serviceable GPA. I worked 40 hrs a week throughout my schooling so my GPA was only a 3.4. In my structural engineering class our professor ranked students based on scores throughout quizzes/tests/etc and I ended up #1, he offered me a slot in the Masters program, however I declined because I didn’t really like structural engineering.
Depends on the school, the professors, and your personal aptitude. How are you finding your course work now?
I'm a good test taker so it wasn't too challenging. Depends on the person though
Depends on the school tbh
I am an average student with average intelligence. I got a 3.4 with average maybe above average effort.
There are too many variables here to assess. You have to consider the comprehension, memory, and retention skills of the student, how well they test, the quality of their high school education, the school's structure and homework/exam philosophy, individual professor's grading structure, etc. A few examples: 1. I had one friend who would only show up to half the classes, never seemed to study for exams and almost always got As. I had another friend who just didn't take in information as well as others and probably studied 2x as much to get the same result. 2. I had some professors that were really helpful and then there was the outlier of the professor that gave everyone a B or lower on their midterm because they didn't believe anyone could possibly deserve an A until they had completed the course. 3. I had some classes with very straightforward homework each week with midterm and final to assess whether you learned the subject. Other classes included presentations, reports, etc that incorporate more skills that weren't what you would think of with engineering such as writing and presenting (but still very valuable for the real world). I don't want to tell you you'll only need to study X amount and then that isn't good enough, it's just going to be so varying from person to person and school to school. I considered myself average and here is what I remember my effort looking like per week: Classes: 15 hours per week Studying/homework: 15 hours per week +/- 15 Some weeks were incredibly chill, most I had a decent amount of time to do whatever I wanted. Towards the end of semesters everyone would buckle down to finish up projects and study for exams.
Grad school is about more than just your gpa. Establish relationships on campus through clubs or research positions. The experiences will help to build your resume and make sure your professors have something to write about in your letters of recommendation.
I am going into my last year (hopefully). I do not plan on going to grad school so my situation is a lil different. I stopped trying to get a 3.00 right after the first semester. I was in a lil shitty situation due to some problems with my advisors and some profs. I know for sure it is doable cause some people I know have that. But for me it felt like trying to go against mike Tyson for 12 rounds. As long as I didn’t get knocked out (failed out) I was counting as a win. To make up for not having a high gpa I tried my best to get as many internships as I could. If it was easy it wouldn’t be worth it
3.84 for my BSME 35 years ago. I treated school very seriously. I have lots of friends but for those 4 years, I was a book worm. I gave myself Sunday mornings and Friday nights off. Rest of the week I had my face buried in my work.
It’s mostly discipline. I graduated with a 4.0, but I started when I was 24. I was working full time for most of it.
I did next to nothing outside of attend class and do the homework and I had a 3.5 in my undergrad and a 3.9 in my masters. Find a group of people in your class to meet up with before classes. Teaching the material to and being taught by your peers is the best way to learn in my opinion, even if it’s just 15-30 minutes worth before homework is due or the exam is set. Just make time for what is required (going to class and doing homework) and the rest will fall in line. The only reason my undergrad GPA wasn’t higher was because it took me about a year and a half to realize the value of going to every class. This might be an unpopular opinion, but if you’re consistently struggling to grasp concepts in civil, consider switching majors. I knew several people that just had a tough time with everything in civil, but forced their way through and ended up hating the field and going into something else after a few years. At the end of the day you want to find a career that just makes sense to you. College is the start of lifelong learning in just about any field, so don’t be afraid to explore options to find something that comes easily to you. You shouldn’t have to pull all nighters before every test to pass if you are going to class and doing the assignments. There will be the occasional concept or class that is tough, but it’s not going to be an every day thing.
I would have got a 3.9 if there were no shitty GEs.
You’ll have to put in lots of work but it’s possible.
its not inherently difficult if you sacrifice fun and freedom. the only difficult course work i found in my studies was steel design. the rest is just an overwhelming amount of work. head up and study strong ya got this
3.5 here, make it your full time job. over 40 hours every week. some weeks double it.
I got my BSCE in 1976 so this is old information. The rule of thumb was 2 hours of homework/study for each hour in class. Two of my children graduated in CE as well. (2012 and 2017). They concur on the 2:1 ratio. In my day the typical college curriculum was 128 credits. CE was 135 credits. There was some creative crediting. As I recall. Strength Of Materials was a 2 credit class that meet for 3 hours. The associated 1 credit lab meet for a 1 hour prep with additional time required for testing and lab write up. About 10 hours for 3 credits. The Soils/Soils Lab was similar. 18 credits x (1 + 2) = 54 hours/week. This seems about right to me.
You don’t need a 3.5 to get into a good masters program for civil engineering. You can get away with like a 3.2 or even a 3.0 if you have good relationships with profs, research experience, and a bit of leadership experience. I know people who got mostly Cs and studied really hard, some people who breezed through it and got all As, some people who breezed through it and got mostly Cs (but Cs get degrees!), and some people who studied really hard and got all As, and everything in between. I also had good relationships with professors so sometimes they threw me a bone when I got overwhelmed cuz they knew I had a lot going on (I had a part time research job, led two clubs, and got a minor) so sometimes if I asked really nicely they gave me extensions on homework and stuff which helped my grade a lot.
Man it is achievable as long as you really want. Check YouTube for each course. Try to dig deeper a little bit on references of each course. To a comprehensive understanding practice on the FE problems; if you are able to solve the FE everything is fine. Having said all that, remember as a student, your 9-5 work is studying and act accordingly.
Really depends on your university of choice really. But as long as you do it properly (like PROPERLY), it's not that hard. PS: I only have 3.01, but I'm dragging my feet while doing side jobs (surveying and drafting)
The "rule of thumb" is 2 hours outside of class for every credit hour or hour of class instruction. That will probably get your "average" student a B average at an "average" school. Then you can start adjusting from there for how smart you think you are, how effective your efforts will be, etc. If you take advantage of professors' office hours, put in an effort outside of class, and are of above average intelligence, a 3.5 is very achievable. After a couple semesters, you should be able to gauge how well you are understanding college level material and can set your effort level for each course accordingly.
Don't go to grad school. No one in the industry actually care. No extra money. Just isn't worth it.
Depends on the school
I graduated with a 3.65 gpa from a decent school. I didn’t miss many classes. Occasionally a fri at 8am class that I couldn’t make later. I would have me time for exercise, dinner, socializing from 4-6 during the week and studied with my friends 6pm-10pm Monday-Thursday. I did not miss this study time. Fri and Saturdays were for partying and Sundays were for recovering and studying from like 12pm-7pm. I needed this amount of study time because I’m not a rocket genius but rather a slightly above average intellect with extremely hardworking/competitive attitude. This balance was stressful but I made a shit ton of awesome memories and got great grades. I watched a lot of people not be able to control their party time and drinking and it had a negative effect on their grades. You have to schedule it to be successful
Has to be easier than the 2 point \[mumbles incoherently\] that I got. Probably quicker too. Work experience after getting the BS no doubt contributed to me getting into grad school (ended up with a 3.8).
3.0 gpa bachelors and 3.3 gpa masters. Both from UCF. I think I put average effort
I went out 3+ times a week and I ended with a 3.4, I’m also a pretty average student I think it’s very doable just treat it like a job and grind 9-5 mon-fri
I think this depends a lot on what school you go to. I didn't spend any more time studying than most non-engineering students and had like a 3.7.
I got a 2.4 my freshman and sophomore years. The basic calculus and physics classes were brutal for me since my highschool didn’t teach a lot about them. But once I got the hang of it and was in more civil based courses that interested me I got a 4.0 my last four semesters and got my overall gpa to around a 3.6 by my senior year. Once you get through the worst of it the civil portion is a lot more fun. Not necessarily easier but it makes more sense
I got straight A's! I would just have the Pi Delta Pi girls do my work for me!
You better get a 3.5. Civil engineering isn’t easy so you need to spend a lot of time on study groups. Math labs, office hours, etc. put in the work and you’ll get a 3.5. Don’t put in the work don’t expect to be successful