Hey Hustler, my parents are originally from Europe & came on their own free will so thats commonwealthIER to you :p hehehe

Man i cant believe thats a myth, what stories do we tell our grandkids now :vash::giggle:

This.

I need a really motivating summer job...classes just keep getting harder, but threads like this make me feel it's worth it.

Why build a Flux Capacitor when you can buy one from O'Reilley Auto Parts?

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...p?keyword=121g

They have Mr. Fusion, too.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...keyword=121gmf

We definitely hire coops for the summer. It is a win-win. The coop gets fantastic real-world experience at a good wage, and we get relatively cheap help.
More info here:
http://www.swri.org/hr/default.htm

Be forewarned, they tend to be really picky about GPAs here. The usual is 3.5 or above but that is not a hard rule. If you have some directly relevant skill they are looking for, or they are trying to hire more than normal, then that could change.

A friend of mine that worked here, Mech Engineer, has a 4.0 from Rice (BSME) AND a 4.0 from Stanford (MSME). Holy crap... :facepalm:

Eh High GPA is for wankers, I have more real world experience on our FSAE team than he probably does. Anyway I have a 2.4 right now so I guess that job is a no go =(. I cant believe I just used a British insult too haha.

This is me. I work 35hrs a week as an engineering assistant, commute 75miles each way to school, and have a family.

I'm hoping someone will see past that low GPA a year from now.

My school was the same way. If you put in the time to really be a part of the FSAE team, it really cost you in grades. So I chose to focus on grades since low grades would cost me scholarships/HOPE Grant which would mean I would have had to take out loans.

I will say co-oping was one of the best things I did in college. Over 50% of engineering students at my college co-oped. It drug out graduation a bit, but when I graduated, I had over a year of real world experience to refer back to during my interviews. It made a huge difference. I also graduated debt free thanks to the co-op income. Work one quarter, pay for the next.

Well, to be honest, my BS GPA was not that great either. Worked all through college, FSAE, etc. My MS GPA is much better. But I got in here through the back door. Long story short they knew my abilities before they hired me, sort of a test-drive.

GPA is important but it is not the end-all. Later on in your career a lot of employers do not even look at it anymore. The problem is for the recent grad positions they get thousands of resumes for a few positions so they use GPA as the initial filter criteria, right or wrong. BUT, coop experience is also very important especially in Engineering. It helps to show you can solve problems in the real world. Two people with the same GPA, both from good schools, but one has coop experience. The one with coop experience is going to get more attention, no doubt.

I will say that being on my third job since I graduated that my GPA was only really taken into account on the first job. Also, a lower GPA is sometimes overlooked if it's a good school. Don't know if that helps or not.

And one last plug to encourage the ME's out there. My BSME has been a very versatile degree. It has allowed me to work as a:
Automotive Assembly Line Support Engineer (co-op)
Tire Design Engineer
Electrical Controls Engineer
Aerospace Engineer

Other majors that are more specialized can do some of the above jobs, but the ME degree is so broad it allows you to do any of them.

Word. Plus the BSME degree is just the toolbox. You learn what you really need to know on-the-job.

I'm gonna get a BSME so I can go into naval aviation. Word.

Let me guess, you want to be a test pilot in pointy nosed jets! That's the recipe I hear. My BIL got his ME degree from the Naval Academy for that exact reason. Ended up flying H60's and got out 3 years ago.
It's funny, he had NO plans on ever using his ME degree so he was the only guy who graduated with one that year that didn't take the EIT. What's he doing now... Tire Test Engineer for Michelin.

God if only I had thought through to that fact when I was in school :facepalm: