r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Conscious-Use-2739 • Apr 29 '25

Student Chemical engineers/ chemical engineering students, what is/was your gpa throughout college?

I am an engineering student, about to enter my junior year of chem E. I am currently sitting at a 3.65, but I'm a little bit insecure about my gpa because i go to a really competitive school where everybody seems to have such a high gpa. it's really discouraging, but when i look online, I see posts saying anything above a 3.0 or 3.5 is acceptable/good. i really want to get a better idea of what's "normal", "good", or "great". Not here to judge anyone about their gpa's, just genuinely curious to see where I fall. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks! (P.S., sorry about any bad grammar, currently typing this in a rush since I'm studying for finals lol)

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u/gggggrayson Apr 29 '25

I would say 3.5-3.9 is good, 3.9 and above is great. A lot will depend on the school you are at and where u apply but you shouldn’t worry too much you are in good shape in my opinion. My first manager said he was honestly leery of 4.0s because it was a rural factory including a lot of tech/operator interface and he worried if they were too academic they may struggle to relate.

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u/AdmiralPeriwinkle Specialty Chemicals | PhD | 12 years Apr 29 '25

he worried if they were too academic they may struggle to relate.

In my experience there is little correlation between high GPAs and poor social skills. Folks just tell themselves that so they don't have to deal with the fact that some people are better at both. It's similar to the "dumb jock" stereotype. I.e. pure cope.

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u/YesICanMakeMeth PhD - Computational Chemistry & Materials Science Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25

It's actually the opposite, at least it is for IQ. Smarter kids tend to have better social skills. People seem to like to imagine intelligence as a spec sheet in an RPG where everyone has to allocate a finite number of points (the "multiple intelligences" theory), when the truth is a lot simpler: skills vary and can be learned, but smart people tend to be better at everything.

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u/SyrupOk3529 Apr 29 '25

Is a 3.4 ok?

Cause I can’t seem to be getting any jobs lmao

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u/Thicc-Zacc Apr 29 '25

A 3.4 probably isn’t holding you back, but it isn’t helping too much either. It’s kind of an OK GPA that doesn’t help or hurt.