GPA or Double Minors: Student Deciding on Career Change

[koab1mjr]

Hi

I am a 2nd degree student who did a bacholers in finance in the late 90's I am back at school doing a career change to engineering with the goal of breaking into Nuclear engineering. I am in the sophmore tier of coursework with a strong GPA of 3.88. I am studying mech since my school does not offer a full nuclear degree plus i have more options with the ME degree but I am taking a concentration in nuclear. I was concenred since I know nuclear is physics and math intensive so I wanted to get some more course work under my belt. I need 4 more courses to complete both, but I still need a great deal of engineering course to take. I want to graduate in Spring 12 and I can do so taking about 4 classes a semster if I drop the minors, plus I could work in a lab with the free time to get some research experience in? I would just do it all but I work 30 hours a week and have demanding live in gf that needs attention. So i can't do it all without some impact to the GPA. I feel pretty strongly at 4 classes a clip i can maintain a GPA above 3.8


My questions is from an employer and a graduate school admission perspective which is weighted more someone with 3.8-3.9 gpa and a lot of research. Or a Gpa around - 3.5 but with a physics and math minor (quantum mech and complex variable/partial diff eq focus) and not so much research if any.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[TMFKAN64]

From either perspective, 3.8 with a good undergraduate research background beats 3.5 with no research, hands down.

The extra courses in the minor would be helpful, of course, but no one really cares if you actually complete the minor or not.

 

[yungman]

I don't know how the grad school will look at, but the extra applied math is going to make your life a lot easier after you get in. I'll take the extra math classes no matter what. What you mention, quantum mech, PDE and complex analysis is really the stepping stone.