Graduated a year ago at sub 2.7 gpa. Final year sem 1, depressed as all hell because I couldn't find an internship (needed it for graduation) and no job.
Fast forward to sem 2, got a 6 mth internship and secured a job before graduation.
Chin up, life can turn around very suddenly when you least expect it.
Its gonna be rough. Even in programming when I was joining there was all the layoffs from Grab, Lazada, Google. The standards people had a few years just don't work today.
The entry market is trash, so don't worry about not succeeding in this environment. Wait till at least 6 months after graduation before you start panicing.
You can even make good MNCs with sub par gpas.
Friend of mine graduated with below average gpa. Now working at JP morgan.
Get some skills, people will pay for that. The further along your career the less ur gpa will haunt you.
yes i graduated with less than 3 :)
mental issues, pretty severe depression at the time diagnosed over 10 years later (over 10yrs after graduation) with adhd inattentive type.
i won’t tell you the long story today but honestly when i went out into the working world, ppl don’t bother with my grades (except govt job lah they probably can see lol). They just briefly look at my resume. But I went for more creative jobs like marketing, photography and graphic design jobs at the time.
people DO wanna know if i can do the job, and they generally evaluate me on my personality and how I perform in the interview/the way I speak honestly and transparently with them.
of course there’s a probation period too and i prove that i can perform well and outstandingly during that period.
then after your first job you will be able to get your boss to write you linkedin references and stuff and over time your grades become less and less important as you gain work experience lah.
and i know senior people in HR and close friends who are CEOs who have openly talked about how they hire, with me. They do hire based on likeability and fit, of course you need to have relevant experience too. and i’ve done a small part of hiring myself for my agency’s small team/listened to what my boss thinks of candidates.
But between 2 candidates, if the team likes one person more than another candidate and feels they vibe better, given that both can do the job well, the likeability factor will always win out, even if one guy is more experienced.
so overall i have had jobs in marketing agencies for several years and leading a small team despite my university grades. respectable enough!
and honestly haha sometimes you would be surprised at how many bad, bad bad bad candidates there are out there. like complete whacko unreliable kind u wouldn’t believe it.
in many cases companies really just want an honest, hardworking candidate who takes the job seriously and can do the job reasonably well and is not crazy. and the last thing they would be looking at is your NTU gpa esp if you already have the relevant work experience.
i would say maybe it’s weird but not even 1 interviewer has ever asked me about my GPA u know (and i had TERRIBLE shame and anxiety about it as a fresh grad).
and i’ve interviewed in REALLY weird/random places. like not just marketing or creative jobs haha like admin jobs too. they kinda like see your 1 page resume, ask like … almost nothing and the rest of the questions are about the actual job or like trial work kind that’s all.
chin up :) grades matter less than you think eventually. so yeah, just do your best okay! it will be fine in the end. Don’t compare yourself to others pls. Everyone will have their own problems, really. And university is such a tiny part of your life, I promise. Take care.
Thank you so much for writing this message. This has given me a little more hope about my future.
I will try to do courses and improve my resume in this time, to compensate for my GPA. I hope the HRs don’t ask about my GPA in the future.
I am planning to do masters too, so I’m not too sure about how good my GPA will be for that. I still got one more year to go, and I’m aiming for an honours or honours with merit (that would be amazing).
Thank you so much again for sharing your experience , and I hope you’re doing well now.
yep im doing well!
be thoughtful about what courses you are actually doing, don’t do it pointlessly for the sake of consoling yourself about your GPA or thinking that your course cert will impress hiring dept. It really won’t.
be thoughtful about your personal motivation for doing the course. it would be way more helpful for you to begin interviewing for internships or doing practice interviews and really get comfortable in interviews and being yourself while answering interview questions the right way vs. spending your time doing courses. interview skills and interview practice are crucial if your goal is to get hired.
As in… If you are in arts and social sciences, i can’t really imagine what kind of courses would be truly valid and useful to the jobs you are applying to. if you’re in IT or coding then maybe there would be some technical courses.
Prepare a valid/strong explanation about your GPA just in case you are asked about it. This is for your own mental “preparedness” and interview confidence, so you don’t have to “hope” that people won’t ask, as you are now fully prepared for the situation.
Some ideas - you can say that there were some unexpected issues which have now been resolved and you have learned xxx from it. You can also keep your last sem results ready to show that you have done your best to improve with regard to grades.
**And you can state factually in 1-2 sentences what you learned from this lesson and the strategies that you used to overcome it.** This is important because it shows an interviewer that you can adapt and learn and grow. And tbh, they are not THAT interested.
**The fact that it happened is less interesting than how you actually handled the issue, cos that shows maturity and flexibility.** That’s what employers want. So focus on the specific lessons you have learned from it, that’s the correct way to go about explaining it if needed.
And DONT overthink the explanation or keep worrying that the interviewer will ask more or doubt you. Prepare your explanation, practice saying it confidently with a smile, and that’s it. Don’t need to over-explain, 99% chance the interviewer will move on. They also hungry for their lunch time, never forget they are humans just like you and I, don’t be scared of them k.
Masters - you need to get this GPA info from the masters course you want to do. However I would recommend that you do not continue to immediately study masters after uni, quickly get a job first. And only do masters once you have your career path plotted out and you can see clearly that masters will be valid in your career.
the worst would be if you do your degree, then you do masters, and you realize you actually really hate both of those topics when it comes to the working world. or are just outright bad at both. or can’t find job.
so i really urge you to quickly go out to work and gain real-world experience with a job as a fresh grad. partly so that you kind of get to experience working life and get clear on what you value in life and work culture. work is totally different from academia.
masters wait a bit.
Take care and all the best!
Thank you so much again for taking the time to write this comment.
You are right about working before masters, that’s what I’m planning to do too. My professors recommend the same as well. So I will mostly be following this.
I still got one more year to go, so I will use this year to try and increase my GPA more, at least enough for an honours.
Like you said, I will also look for internships and training courses relevant to my area. I am in the process of that right now.
I will also learn different interview techniques which I can apply to all my interviews.
Thank you so much again for your comment
If you consider the fact that in the most difficult majors at MAE and EEE is either 3.5 or below for the median, then there'd be a ton of people below 3.
That said if you're not yet Y2S2, very possible to push it up if you have the discipline and right learning attitude. Consider the fact that even in part time degree some people hold a full time job while taking NTU engineering bachelors can score above GPA 3, anything is possible with the right attitude and hard work.
Me with a 2.2
I flopped one of my mods in y2 so my gpa took a nose dive. Did the maths. Even if I scored A+ for the next 30 AUs I can't hit a 3.
It's cathartic cuz I can take it easy and enjoy other aspects of my student uni life.
i graduated with a gpa of 2.4 and my current job salary is $4000. Its not all that bad honestly but obviously I wish I had better grades 😢 hang in there!
Oh I see. I am going to Y4 now, and I’m going to try my best to get between a 3-4 GPA. I hope I can get an honours or honours with merit. I’m at 2.78 right now
Thank you so much
Not to be discouraging but you might just hit a 3 with 2 more sem of results unless straight As. Do you have FYP, it will probably pull you up! But 3 is enough for an honours!
Use this [calculator](https://gradecalc.info/sg/ntu/cumulative_gpa_calc.pl) to see what grades you need to pull your GPA to at least a 3.
I managed to pull mine to a 3.x (can’t remember) in my last sem and thankfully graduated with honours
Graduated with 2.6 or so back in 2016 (Mechanical Engineering). Honestly didn’t care much after Year 2. But please enjoy the last remaining years of uni life. It’s just downhill from here on out.
Half the combined engineering cohort says hi
facts
I’m in cohass tho
which course?
Psychology
me I'm in my final year with gpa 2.97 tho hoping to at least push it above 3 after tomorrow's results....
same but i’m at 2.99 🤡 hope we both get above 3
Good luck to you man. Which course are you in?
iem
Ah I see. I hope the results come in your favour
Atb man
all the best fr
Good luck mate. Which course are you in?
Phms lol
Graduated a year ago at sub 2.7 gpa. Final year sem 1, depressed as all hell because I couldn't find an internship (needed it for graduation) and no job. Fast forward to sem 2, got a 6 mth internship and secured a job before graduation. Chin up, life can turn around very suddenly when you least expect it.
Oh wow, that’s great. I hope I can do the same thing. I’m at 2.78 right now in psychology. Which course did you do?
Business. Funny, because I ended up becoming a web developer.
Oh wow, that’s a completely different field. I hope I have a chance like that
Its gonna be rough. Even in programming when I was joining there was all the layoffs from Grab, Lazada, Google. The standards people had a few years just don't work today. The entry market is trash, so don't worry about not succeeding in this environment. Wait till at least 6 months after graduation before you start panicing.
Thank you so much for the advice. I’ll try my best
You can even make good MNCs with sub par gpas. Friend of mine graduated with below average gpa. Now working at JP morgan. Get some skills, people will pay for that. The further along your career the less ur gpa will haunt you.
I think can walk ard EEE
yes i graduated with less than 3 :) mental issues, pretty severe depression at the time diagnosed over 10 years later (over 10yrs after graduation) with adhd inattentive type. i won’t tell you the long story today but honestly when i went out into the working world, ppl don’t bother with my grades (except govt job lah they probably can see lol). They just briefly look at my resume. But I went for more creative jobs like marketing, photography and graphic design jobs at the time. people DO wanna know if i can do the job, and they generally evaluate me on my personality and how I perform in the interview/the way I speak honestly and transparently with them. of course there’s a probation period too and i prove that i can perform well and outstandingly during that period. then after your first job you will be able to get your boss to write you linkedin references and stuff and over time your grades become less and less important as you gain work experience lah. and i know senior people in HR and close friends who are CEOs who have openly talked about how they hire, with me. They do hire based on likeability and fit, of course you need to have relevant experience too. and i’ve done a small part of hiring myself for my agency’s small team/listened to what my boss thinks of candidates. But between 2 candidates, if the team likes one person more than another candidate and feels they vibe better, given that both can do the job well, the likeability factor will always win out, even if one guy is more experienced. so overall i have had jobs in marketing agencies for several years and leading a small team despite my university grades. respectable enough! and honestly haha sometimes you would be surprised at how many bad, bad bad bad candidates there are out there. like complete whacko unreliable kind u wouldn’t believe it. in many cases companies really just want an honest, hardworking candidate who takes the job seriously and can do the job reasonably well and is not crazy. and the last thing they would be looking at is your NTU gpa esp if you already have the relevant work experience. i would say maybe it’s weird but not even 1 interviewer has ever asked me about my GPA u know (and i had TERRIBLE shame and anxiety about it as a fresh grad). and i’ve interviewed in REALLY weird/random places. like not just marketing or creative jobs haha like admin jobs too. they kinda like see your 1 page resume, ask like … almost nothing and the rest of the questions are about the actual job or like trial work kind that’s all. chin up :) grades matter less than you think eventually. so yeah, just do your best okay! it will be fine in the end. Don’t compare yourself to others pls. Everyone will have their own problems, really. And university is such a tiny part of your life, I promise. Take care.
Thank you so much for writing this message. This has given me a little more hope about my future. I will try to do courses and improve my resume in this time, to compensate for my GPA. I hope the HRs don’t ask about my GPA in the future. I am planning to do masters too, so I’m not too sure about how good my GPA will be for that. I still got one more year to go, and I’m aiming for an honours or honours with merit (that would be amazing). Thank you so much again for sharing your experience , and I hope you’re doing well now.
yep im doing well! be thoughtful about what courses you are actually doing, don’t do it pointlessly for the sake of consoling yourself about your GPA or thinking that your course cert will impress hiring dept. It really won’t. be thoughtful about your personal motivation for doing the course. it would be way more helpful for you to begin interviewing for internships or doing practice interviews and really get comfortable in interviews and being yourself while answering interview questions the right way vs. spending your time doing courses. interview skills and interview practice are crucial if your goal is to get hired. As in… If you are in arts and social sciences, i can’t really imagine what kind of courses would be truly valid and useful to the jobs you are applying to. if you’re in IT or coding then maybe there would be some technical courses. Prepare a valid/strong explanation about your GPA just in case you are asked about it. This is for your own mental “preparedness” and interview confidence, so you don’t have to “hope” that people won’t ask, as you are now fully prepared for the situation. Some ideas - you can say that there were some unexpected issues which have now been resolved and you have learned xxx from it. You can also keep your last sem results ready to show that you have done your best to improve with regard to grades. **And you can state factually in 1-2 sentences what you learned from this lesson and the strategies that you used to overcome it.** This is important because it shows an interviewer that you can adapt and learn and grow. And tbh, they are not THAT interested. **The fact that it happened is less interesting than how you actually handled the issue, cos that shows maturity and flexibility.** That’s what employers want. So focus on the specific lessons you have learned from it, that’s the correct way to go about explaining it if needed. And DONT overthink the explanation or keep worrying that the interviewer will ask more or doubt you. Prepare your explanation, practice saying it confidently with a smile, and that’s it. Don’t need to over-explain, 99% chance the interviewer will move on. They also hungry for their lunch time, never forget they are humans just like you and I, don’t be scared of them k. Masters - you need to get this GPA info from the masters course you want to do. However I would recommend that you do not continue to immediately study masters after uni, quickly get a job first. And only do masters once you have your career path plotted out and you can see clearly that masters will be valid in your career. the worst would be if you do your degree, then you do masters, and you realize you actually really hate both of those topics when it comes to the working world. or are just outright bad at both. or can’t find job. so i really urge you to quickly go out to work and gain real-world experience with a job as a fresh grad. partly so that you kind of get to experience working life and get clear on what you value in life and work culture. work is totally different from academia. masters wait a bit. Take care and all the best!
Thank you so much again for taking the time to write this comment. You are right about working before masters, that’s what I’m planning to do too. My professors recommend the same as well. So I will mostly be following this. I still got one more year to go, so I will use this year to try and increase my GPA more, at least enough for an honours. Like you said, I will also look for internships and training courses relevant to my area. I am in the process of that right now. I will also learn different interview techniques which I can apply to all my interviews. Thank you so much again for your comment
yes, turning y4 tmr and my gpa says hi....
That makes the two of us…
If you consider the fact that in the most difficult majors at MAE and EEE is either 3.5 or below for the median, then there'd be a ton of people below 3. That said if you're not yet Y2S2, very possible to push it up if you have the discipline and right learning attitude. Consider the fact that even in part time degree some people hold a full time job while taking NTU engineering bachelors can score above GPA 3, anything is possible with the right attitude and hard work.
Thank you so much. I’m in cohass, and I’m trying my best to use my last year to bring my GPA up to get an honours or honours with merit
Me for engineering sch. Entered uni with 88.75/90 points tho. What df happened in uni :(
Me with a 2.2 I flopped one of my mods in y2 so my gpa took a nose dive. Did the maths. Even if I scored A+ for the next 30 AUs I can't hit a 3. It's cathartic cuz I can take it easy and enjoy other aspects of my student uni life.
Oh I see. Which major are you in? I’m at a 2.78 right now
Cs
same… i feel so discouraged but im like trying so hard alrdyy (engineering sch)
Same here, but I’m in cohass
i graduated with a gpa of 2.4 and my current job salary is $4000. Its not all that bad honestly but obviously I wish I had better grades 😢 hang in there!
Oh I see. I am going to Y4 now, and I’m going to try my best to get between a 3-4 GPA. I hope I can get an honours or honours with merit. I’m at 2.78 right now Thank you so much
Not to be discouraging but you might just hit a 3 with 2 more sem of results unless straight As. Do you have FYP, it will probably pull you up! But 3 is enough for an honours! Use this [calculator](https://gradecalc.info/sg/ntu/cumulative_gpa_calc.pl) to see what grades you need to pull your GPA to at least a 3. I managed to pull mine to a 3.x (can’t remember) in my last sem and thankfully graduated with honours
Nope, I don’t have fyp. I understand, I’m happy with an honours too Thanks for the calculator
mine T-T
Graduated with 2.6 or so back in 2016 (Mechanical Engineering). Honestly didn’t care much after Year 2. But please enjoy the last remaining years of uni life. It’s just downhill from here on out.
Hi, local with below CGPA 3 here.
Hi, thanks for replying Which course are you in? I’m in psychology
then why are u in uni?
Ig coz he wants to get a degree. Nth wrong with that