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/uniballing Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25
Had to pull my transcript to paint a better picture of just how crappy my GPA really was and how little that really mattered.
End of year 1: 2.094
End of year 2: 2.475
End of year 3: 2.140
End of year 4: 2.048
End of year 5: 2.000
End of year 6: 2.107
Between years 1/2 and 2/3 I had “internships” working as a hydraulic tech (mostly sweeping floors and painting equipment) at a big O&G service company because my uncle worked in their trucking department and was able to get me a summer job. That experience helped me get a real engineering internship at an O&G EPC the summer between years 3/4. Then the summer/fall between years 4/5 I took six months off to work at another EPC. I went to an extremely inexpensive public university. These jobs paid for all of my schooling costs and my parents paid for my living costs so I didn’t have any debt when I graduated.
I had to do summer school between years 5/6 to pass two classes I failed in the spring of year 5 that were prereqs for my senior classes. That was extremely lucky because the university I went to for summer school wouldn’t have taken me if my GPA were 1.999.
I passed the FE on my first try at the end of year 6. I’ve considered getting my PE a couple of times throughout my career, but never did and I don’t think that’s held me back at all.
I got multiple job offers when I graduated. All EPCs though, no operator would take me because the GPA cutoff is usually 3.0 or 3.5. My first job was with the company I worked for between years 3/4 and paid $76k a year (back in 2014). That EPC laid me off in 2016 and I went to another engineering company making $83k. My first job hop to an operator was at the end of 2019 and they had me at $105k base ($118k TC with bonus). I job hopped to a different midstream O&G operator in 2021 and again in 2023. Now I’m at ~$200k in total comp ($158k base, ~$30k bonus, ~$12k stock) as an Ops Engineer at a gas plant.
Book learning wasn’t for me, but I’m an extremely effective engineer. I’m the guy people call when they wanna get something done.