- #1
carstensentyl
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Should I make excuses about my GPA or suck it up? (longish)
I was recently hired by a consulting firm for an intern position. There's been a lot of mutual excitement about bringing me on board and getting me involved in a lot of their projects.
So far, everything has been great. They are a tough firm to get in with - considering the notability of their projects, and their national-level consulting work for the federal government.Fortunately, I'm very versatile and I have great assets to pad my resume; various skills with software/hardware, good previous internship, great personal experience like living overseas. Plus, I'm a charming son of a ***** (joking, not really).
Recently, I had lunch with one of the engineers and he brought up the topic of my GPA. My GPA is not my strong point, because I made some very stupid mistakes. Instead of saying 'it's going good' or something, I blurted out '2.8' (it's a 2.88, to be exact).
Perhaps it was all in my head, but I almost felt like he grew a little distant from me, after being very endearing and interested in my academic and proffessional development. After all, the majority of their firm has PhDs, and there is only one that I know of among them that has a lowly master's. Clearly, my employers are capable when it comes to academia.
I can't stop thinking about it for some reason. I feel like some sort of low-GPA-having monster that has invaded a place reserved only for overacheivers and winners. I'm even afraid that they might regret hiring me, and might feel betrayed for thinking I was a great prospect.
Anyways, enough schitzophrenia (sp?), here are the details of my issue:
I took my 'easy A's classes at a community college, so the grades do not transfer.
English 101, English 102, General Chemistry 1, General Chemistry 2, ALL GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSES (18 credits worth)
I pretty much aced all of those classes, but the grades do not transfer as anything more than pass/fail. I did this because all kinds of retarded people including my parents thought it was a great idea for me to 'save money' by going to a community college.
Here are my grades from the university.
Calculus II B
Intro to **** engineering A
Physics for engineers B
Intro to engineering B
Engineering Econ (1 unit) A
Computer Prg. for Engineers D
Here's the real kicker - the computer programming class WASNT EVEN REQUIRED BY MY MAJOR! Without it, I have a 3.3 GPA. I practically took that class for posterity. I only took it because it's accepted by a lot of engineering departments, and I wasn't sure what I was going into at the time.
As you can see, I normally get A's and B's. I'm getting mostly A's and B's this semester (highest grade in my E&M class tyvm). So I'm not completely stupid. Except that I am completely stupid for taking that ****ty computer programming that I didn't need.
Should I try to sneak some kind of explanation in when speaking to my employer? One of them used to be the civil department head at our U so he's going to be a secondary academic advisor to me. Maybe I can explain why my GPA is not 3.3+, as it rightfully should be. I can only imagine how high my GPA would be if I could factor in the 30-odd credits of A that I transferred from that community college. In fact, my imagination keeps backtracking on me and sometimes I wonder if I'm trying to make myself believe that I didn't make those stupid decisions I made.
Or, should I just stop worrying about this and not mention anything to my employer? I could easily make the explanation, but it might sound like I'm trying to justify something.
What do engineers think when they come across an intern with a 2.8, at the sophomore-about-to-be-junior level?
Okay now I'm just ranting. Shutting up now.
I was recently hired by a consulting firm for an intern position. There's been a lot of mutual excitement about bringing me on board and getting me involved in a lot of their projects.
So far, everything has been great. They are a tough firm to get in with - considering the notability of their projects, and their national-level consulting work for the federal government.Fortunately, I'm very versatile and I have great assets to pad my resume; various skills with software/hardware, good previous internship, great personal experience like living overseas. Plus, I'm a charming son of a ***** (joking, not really).
Recently, I had lunch with one of the engineers and he brought up the topic of my GPA. My GPA is not my strong point, because I made some very stupid mistakes. Instead of saying 'it's going good' or something, I blurted out '2.8' (it's a 2.88, to be exact).
Perhaps it was all in my head, but I almost felt like he grew a little distant from me, after being very endearing and interested in my academic and proffessional development. After all, the majority of their firm has PhDs, and there is only one that I know of among them that has a lowly master's. Clearly, my employers are capable when it comes to academia.
I can't stop thinking about it for some reason. I feel like some sort of low-GPA-having monster that has invaded a place reserved only for overacheivers and winners. I'm even afraid that they might regret hiring me, and might feel betrayed for thinking I was a great prospect.
Anyways, enough schitzophrenia (sp?), here are the details of my issue:
I took my 'easy A's classes at a community college, so the grades do not transfer.
English 101, English 102, General Chemistry 1, General Chemistry 2, ALL GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSES (18 credits worth)
I pretty much aced all of those classes, but the grades do not transfer as anything more than pass/fail. I did this because all kinds of retarded people including my parents thought it was a great idea for me to 'save money' by going to a community college.
Here are my grades from the university.
Calculus II B
Intro to **** engineering A
Physics for engineers B
Intro to engineering B
Engineering Econ (1 unit) A
Computer Prg. for Engineers D
Here's the real kicker - the computer programming class WASNT EVEN REQUIRED BY MY MAJOR! Without it, I have a 3.3 GPA. I practically took that class for posterity. I only took it because it's accepted by a lot of engineering departments, and I wasn't sure what I was going into at the time.
As you can see, I normally get A's and B's. I'm getting mostly A's and B's this semester (highest grade in my E&M class tyvm). So I'm not completely stupid. Except that I am completely stupid for taking that ****ty computer programming that I didn't need.
Should I try to sneak some kind of explanation in when speaking to my employer? One of them used to be the civil department head at our U so he's going to be a secondary academic advisor to me. Maybe I can explain why my GPA is not 3.3+, as it rightfully should be. I can only imagine how high my GPA would be if I could factor in the 30-odd credits of A that I transferred from that community college. In fact, my imagination keeps backtracking on me and sometimes I wonder if I'm trying to make myself believe that I didn't make those stupid decisions I made.
Or, should I just stop worrying about this and not mention anything to my employer? I could easily make the explanation, but it might sound like I'm trying to justify something.
What do engineers think when they come across an intern with a 2.8, at the sophomore-about-to-be-junior level?
Okay now I'm just ranting. Shutting up now.
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