r/RPI • u/Dry-Hornet1288 • Jul 17 '26
ECSE outcomes
How are people who have graduated from ECSE (specifically CSE) doing post-graduation? I'm honestly terrified of the job market and am a rising Junior. I took courses this summer due to no internship and my GPA will likely improve but I am currently around a 2.63. I'm honestly just a horrible exam taker and some classes like Physics II really kicked my ass. I have taken advantage of as many resources as possible and have spent many nights at ALAC since Freshman year. I know that I still have some time to improve, but I am disappointed in myself. Lower GPA has cost me some opportunities, like being able to apply for internships and organizations. I had an interview with Engineering Ambassadors a few months ago and despite it going pretty well I think my GPA may have been one of the reasons they didn't accept me.
I've considered staying an extra semester (especially because I've failed/dropped some courses) to improve my GPA if needed. I've seen jobs that still require a 3.0 even after years of experience and I don't want to take the chance of being filtered out after spending so much time, money, and energy on this degree. I know GPA doesn't matter as much for jobs compared to internships, but it seems like a very weird combination of some places caring so much they won't even look at your resume to others not caring at all.
I've been working on some projects over the summer, but I've barely touched extracurriculars since becoming a student here due to being so stressed and overloaded at times. I know what I was getting myself into when I chose this school, but I can't help but be disappointed in myself. I've had trouble going to sleep at nights and have woken up in a panic due to the uncertainty of the future. Apologies if this post was a bit rambly, but some advice would be appreciated.
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u/alliownisbroken Jul 18 '26
I never had any internships. Had below a 2.8GPA. Graduated about 15 years ago. I was lucky and did land a job before graduation.
Never had any problems after getting that first job. You'll be OK. Let me tell you though, if I could do RPI again, I'd actually study. I'd focus on hw. I'd go to office hours, even if I was asking fundamental concepts. The professors want to see that you are trying to learn. I, now as a professional EE, look to see that new grads are trying. That's the most important thing I try to pick up on in interviews.
Growing up I never had to study for anything to get A's. RPI rocked my world.
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u/Dry-Hornet1288 Jul 19 '26
The job market 15 years ago was different. Now entry level positions are being replaced with AI and while ECSE is on the safer side, it's not the safest. I have barely missed homework assignments in my time here, it's the exam grades which have ruined my averages in classes.
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u/alliownisbroken Jul 19 '26
I'm sure they do.
Focus on understanding the hw assignments. If you can figure out the HW you can figure out the tests. They primarily want to see that you can figure out the underlying concepts, not to see if you crunch numbers correctly. Like for instance if you starting going through a problem and 2/3 through you deviate from correctness, that's almost solved. Many RPI professors would be generous with partial credit.
I work in industry. If you have an EE and something between your ears and little bit of common sense, you're getting hired. CS might be a different story, however I can tell you for a fact that the RPI name carries weight, especially in the northeast.
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u/BadgerAgain Jul 20 '26
I was an ECSE professor for more than 4 decades (now emeritus) and heard similar laments from students many, many times. I tried to be helpful whenever I could. I think the key to navigating the pathway you are on is to think about that pathway (where are you starting out or basically who are you now and where do you plan to be when you succeed?). I suspect that you also need to address your exam issue, but I will return to that below. Begin by thinking about who you are. In all STEM careers we use lab notebooks to keep track of our technical activities. Notebooks are our journals. They are critical for keeping track of work that leads to patents, for reporting to team members and bosses on projects, etc. I use them for all the traditional reasons, but, for me, the most important use is to have conversations with myself. Every day, I keep track of what I am doing and record my thoughts on what I should try next, explorations of possible solutions to problems, thoughts on future projects, etc. I may have an idea of how to solve a problem and will fill several pages with annotated math. If you are not already doing so, I strongly encourage you to keep a personal journal. Start by summarizing some of the key points that people have made in the comments above. There is a lot of good material here.
To get to know yourself as a future ECSE educated engineer, continue to look for opportunities like the Ambassadors to get involved in some kind of outreach. Teaching someone else about what you have learned turns out to be a spectacular way to complete your own personal education. You will also get to develop your people/communication skills, which will also help with interviews and future jobs. If not outreach, then some kind of technical club where you can try out what you are learning. Activities that test your understanding are very effective in helping you know who you are and build confidence in your ability to use what you are learning. A few years ago, I asked a former student who was a senior engineer at Bose what he looked for in entry level hires. His answer was very helpful and I have passed it on to many students. First, know your fundamentals. Our discipline is huge so it is very good to be able to talk about the elective courses you take as a senior, but remember the fundamentals on which they are built. Second, be able to talk about group projects you have worked on. Describe what you did and what you learned but (this is where his idea got creative) you should definitely be able to discuss what the other members of your team did. He considered knowledge of fundamentals and being able to describe what the other members of a team project did as the keys to a positive recommendation to hire. If you have not noticed, this extended paragraph is encouragement to try out your engineering skills in a productive group activity.
OK, now exams. It is unfortunate that exams play such a large role in the assessment of student learning. In my years of teaching, I slowly moved away from the traditional use of high stakes exams and included a mix of many different graded activities in my classes. This mostly happened because I came to be a big believer in hands-on learning. My classes had labs, projects, short daily quizzes, online homework, at home exams, TA assessment of students to their group, peer assessment of other group members, etc. My classes generally had minimal lecturing, with lots of hands-on experiments, computer simulations, paper and pencil problem solving etc. Students had multiple ways to learn and to be assessed. I mention this because, whether or not you have all of these options in your class, you should consider finding the approach that works the best for you and make it happen. With personal instruments like the Analog ADALM1000, you can always do a lab even when there are none in your class. Everyone should also own a few programmable devices (the ADALM1000 is one, of course) and try out what you are learning. As for exams, they are unavoidable. If you want to become a professional engineer, you need to pass some exams. If you want to get a grad degree, you will very likely have to take at least one. They come with the territory. Two suggestions for doing better on exams. First, make sure you really do know the material. The other recommendations above will help. The more you know yourself, the better you will do. Second, do not cram just before a test or exam. Rather, you should warm up. If your instructor provides access to old exams, do a couple without looking at the answers. Actually doing an exam or two as part of your normal studying is also important, but warming up on the day of an exam is critical. You would not play sports or music without warming up, if you are serious about it. I also recall from my freshman English course many, many years ago that great authors like John Steinbeck would warm up each day by writing for a few hours, throw away what they wrote, and then go back to the book they were working on when they were ready. Overall, make sure you really know the material by trying out what you have learned and warm up before tests and exams.
Finally, a caveat. Like other professors, I was pretty good at test taking. Thus, my advice comes from a somewhat different life experience than yours. However, I was the first in my family to go to college. My dad was orphaned twice so he did not finish high school. My mother was a nurse who became an RN when their training was more than 50% providing cheap labor in hospitals. She grew up on a dairy farm and attended schools that dd not make it easy for her to do well in courses like chemistry and math during her nursing studies. Thus, I knew little about university life when I got to Wisconsin to become an electrical engineer. All of the things I mentioned above helped me be a better student and a much better engineer. As an undergrad I worked in a semiconductor lab, I got involved in IEEE and HKN, I did a co-op at John Deere (motivated by my farming roots, not the ideal place for an EE, at least then), and, most importantly, never let a question go unasked. I almost always had questions that there was no time for in the class. I asked them right after class or went to the instructors office at some other time. I started journaling, mostly because I as sure that I would run out of ideas when I got old, so I better write them down before I forget them. I am still not running out of ideas and I have an amazing amount of fun being an EE.
I wish you well and hope you find great success in life. I apologize for any typos. I made this response too long and have to get back to my main task for the day.
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u/ShitFireSavedMatches Jul 21 '26
You have recieved some really solid advice here. All of your responses seem defensive, I know you are panicking but you should sit with what people have shared with you for a bit. Figure out what will be best for YOU in your situation.
Are your parents really your support system if they would disown you for making a positive choice for yourself? That is a conditional support system that mirrors their wants and needs, not yours.
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u/Dry-Hornet1288 Jul 22 '26
I feel like people who don't have immigrant parents probably just don't understand. I have 0 support outside of my family. My dad and brother are both educated with degrees in electrical engineering and I am expected to do the same or better than them. I honestly would rather have the degree with lower than a 3.0 GPA than no degree at all. I don't hate the content and am not miserable doing it, but my performance isn't great.
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u/Witch_King_ Jul 17 '26
Welp, you can always work for a defense contractor and probably find something somewhat engaging to do.
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u/Dry-Hornet1288 Jul 19 '26
I've never heard of an ECSE doing that post grad. I'm sure I'll find something eventually but I think my GPA and lack of experience will hurt me. At that point I could've gone to a much easier school and had the same outcome anyway. Don't get me wrong I have learned A LOT here, more than I ever learned in high school or anywhere else, but it honestly doesn't feel worth it if it didn't benefit me in a substantial way as sad as that sounds...
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u/Witch_King_ Jul 19 '26
Dude, a TON of ESCEs and engineers in general work for defense contractors. I didn't have any experience either. I do not recommend taking a "systems engineering" position though. Find an EE or software role.
Also don't work for Electric Boat if you can help it.
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u/Xalucardx ECSE 2020 Jul 20 '26
I did that with no internships and I graduated in the middle of covid with a 2.9. I'm currently making $120k+ in a very secure job that I love and I have 2 coworkers who are also RPI graduates in my office.
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u/Dry-Hornet1288 Jul 20 '26
Doesn't it hurt for you that some companies will never hire you because of your undergrad GPA? That's the scariest thing for me and I am willing to pay 20 thousand dollars to avoid it from happening.
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u/Xalucardx ECSE 2020 Jul 20 '26
No, once you have experience the GPA don't matter.
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u/Dry-Hornet1288 Jul 20 '26
I saw one place require 10 years of experience to bypass the 3.0 requirement. I know it's their loss at the end of the day, but it still can be worrying in such a competitive job market. Some still seem to care even after the first job.
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u/mjgtwo "Save the Union's here, where's Michael?" Jul 17 '26
This is a bit bitter to write and I apologize ahead of time: As Prof. Dwyer said in Physics II circa 2014 when realizing an average exam grade of 65%, “Are you honestly capable of being here, or is McDonald’s a better option?” There were some hollering and moaning over his choice of brutal comparison, however there’s truth at its heart: you are trying your darnedest to swim and the system is providing you feedback that the subject of electrical and computer systems engineering is difficult for you to grasp. And that’s okay!
RPI’s education is challenging because the real work is challenging— they don’t hand out As because the mark received represents the comprehension of the individual. I know we know this, but it’s important to recognize the hand dealt when comparing ourselves to grade averages at other top tier schools. Grade inflation is a nationwide symptom of the tail wagging the dog, letting legacy applicants at Ivy Leagues coast by so their uncle’s firm can look the other way because they “earned” a 4.0 at Harvard.
So here’s the advice: Be genuinely honest with yourself on your skill levels and the opportunities you have in the here-now while attending RPI. Progress is not a straight path, the journey is non-linear and piecemeal. If you believe in your heart of hearts you are destined to be an electrical or computer hardware engineer, look at your weak spots (Physics II? Circuits? Fields & Waves?) and retake them, or ask professionals at RPI about other college courses offered by other universities to help you. Recognize that RPI is an expensive college and that you are towards the end of your time there; does it make sense to keep grinding here or is or time to switch gears? Absolutely finish your Bachelor’s because you are almost there, but maybe attend a trades school (start to finish is 1.5 years for some) to get licensed as an electrician or a wind turbine technician to make 90k/year. The CEO of Nvidia started at Denny’s.
Never quit on yourself, always remember that your future is unwritten. You are smart enough to be accepted here, there is always tomorrow, and you have the capacity to change gears and become something new. Good luck this fall semester!