I want to get a job that will let me earn epic amounts of $$

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:20 am

So... my GPA tanked really hard recently because I tried to do 18-20 hour semesters for two semesters. So grad school (any kind) is pretty much an impossibility at this point. I mean I have most of the hard classes out of the way and I won't have more than two 'hard' classes in a semester until I graduate but you don't really recover from a 2.9 GPA. So shady professor ain't happening. Hell even if it was an option I am absolutely beat from spending 20 hours this weekend studying Calc 5 and I still have 10 more hours to go. Just the thought of two more years of this crap exhausts me; I don't think I could do even more of that for 2-4 more years afterwards. Even if I actually went through with it my GPA would be so low that I couldn't get anywhere; if college has taught me anything it's that I'm just not that smart.

So... I'm thinking about doing the mean liar thing and thinking about doing project manager. I mean I don't think I want to be working for the nuclear power industry (too many DK'd, aging grognards) except in a parallel capacity like IT Guy and the combination of technical cores I want to grab (Power Systems + Academic Enrichment) won't really help me in any other EE contexts unless I decide to pick up Embedded Systems as a technical core... something which will take me another semester, turning me 29 when I get out of college, and has a high chance of reducing my GPA even further. So, while I'm in college and I have more-or-less free tuition, what other things can I do besides get certification to help me get project manager?

Of course if there's another job with mediocre-to-decent salary, fairly good security, and great working hours out there I'd love to know. I actually kind of regret enlisting as a Navy Nuke; if I was in Ops or a Yeoman or a Cryptotech I'd be living on the high hog. One of my classmates who was an E-6 as a Yeoman is kicking himself for leaving after 12 years. Ah, well.

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:48 am

School isn't for everyone, but don't write off that 2.9 gpa. The only C I ever got was in a math class; by mid-semester, I was walking into class able to recite word for word every lecture by date, and still couldn't break a 60 on that guy's tests (he was an amazing lecturer, however)--and nobody else could, either. A bad grade or three isn't that big a deal.

Even extensive bad grades isn't a dealbreaker. I was on a hiring committee; we ended up hiring a professor with two graduate degrees. His undergraduate gpa was like 2.1, and his grad school grades, both degrees, were below B level (and seriously, it's *hard* to get below a B in grad school). Amazingly enough, he was a really good professor, able to answer precise technical questions without difficulty. He writes textbooks now.

Undergraduate GPAs are dubious anymore, what you really need is to score well on the GRE; my 1480--2280 if the analytical part counted-- got me loads of scholarships, but you don't need nearly that high to just get accepted. It's a fill-in-the-bubble test, no different than the SAT, really. The GRE subject tests are brutal, however, and not to be underestimated. If your GPA is crap, you'll need to look good on that, too.

I'm thinking taking 18-20 hours a semester is a mistake; I took 17 one semester, that nigh killed me.

On the other hand, if you know you just can't cut it, don't be a fool and get into massive student debt. If you can take an easy route into IT, it *can* be a pretty sweet job, too, to judge by my friends with IT jobs (one musta played WOW 20 hours a week at work). Make certification an absolute priority.

Neeeek · Post by **Neeeek** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:21 am

Lago PARANOIA wrote:So... my GPA tanked really hard recently because I tried to do 18-20 hour semesters for two semesters. So grad school (any kind) is pretty much an impossibility at this point. I mean I have most of the hard classes out of the way and I won't have more than two 'hard' classes in a semester until I graduate but you don't really recover from a 2.9 GPA.

I got into law school with a 2.5. It's totally possible.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:41 pm

become a prostitute

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:12 pm

It's funny, I had a 'groupie' years ago (another long story). Artsy chic. Bright girl, could read and write, but hated college because everyone was all 'uppity' there.

Anyway, she was always struggling with money, and couldn't sell her artwork for much (I'm no judge fo artwork, but it seemed fine to me, just no money to be made there, in my opinion). So I told her to start doing more risque work, maybe even put some photos on her site (she was quite attractive).

Boy did she get pissed at such a suggestion. Hopefully Lago won't get upset, not that I recommend he take your advice seriously.

Whatever · Post by **Whatever** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:53 pm

Neeeek wrote:I got into law school with a 2.5. It's totally possible.

Yeah, I had a bunch of Fs my final year of college, but an excellent LSAT score, some work experience, and a good explanation (looking forward, explaining but not apologizing), was enough to get me into a very solid law school.

You'd have to talk about how you've learned your lesson in terms of taking on too much work (maybe add something about learning to ask for help when you need it), and now you're ready to apply that to greater productivity in grad school, or whatever. That kind of thing. Plus, high standardized test scores. You may have to take a prep course if your numbers aren't where you need them to be, but it's pretty easy to improve that, much easier than GPA.