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Calculus III grade 2

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tue98161

tue98161

Civil/Environmental
Nov 23, 2012
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I was talking with my advisor for Civil Engineering, and we were talking about grades on transcripts affecting grad school entrance. When I took Calc III I got a C (took in sophomore year), which since I've learned well and been doing well with classes requiring it as a prereq - but I was wondering, how much does a C hold against me when I apply for grad schools? Is it a deal breaker, or can it be mitigated? I'm really worried about this.

- Dan in Philadelphia
 
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In a typical curriculum you need something like 136 semester hours to graduate. Calc 3 is usually a 3 hour course. If you average 3.6 GPA without the "C", then you would average 3.56 with it. My experience is that people look at overall GPA, then GPA within your major, then the look at you. I have never had time in an interview (or a candidate selection process) to go line by line through a transcript. Some folks may, but I've never met them. If that "C" is the only thing you are sweating on your transcript then you really need to get over it.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
The plural of anecdote is not "data"
 
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Thinking back as far as bachelor's degree time is a challenge. Best I can recall, though, the grad school recruiters cared more about GPA and GRE scores than anything else. I agree with David, I don't think much attention is paid to individual course grades.

Of course, I could be wrong. It might make a difference at a school with a large applicant-to-admitted-grad-student ratio. I think those places focus more on your essay and extracirricular stuff, though, as long as your GRE and GPA meet their minimums.

I'd start with the six-degrees-of-separation scenario if I were really worried about it. I'm sure I have a friend of a friend of a friend of a family member who either works in college recruiting or administration. That's who I would ask. You might be able to do the same.

Those are my opinions. They are not facts. Just so you have one, here's a fact: My opinions carry very little weight with my spouse, may children, and my banker.

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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I got in to grad school with a 2.9, but that was a decade ago before the higher ed bubble really got kicking and undergraduate grade inflation was in full swing. It was also a 2.9 from a college with notoriously low GPAs, so I probably got some dispensation from that.

Hell, I got a full fledged F in undergrad in a free elective. Curse you James Joyce.

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -
 
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Yes, it was vector calculus that ruined my grad school aspirations. I obviously wasn't Stoked enough, turned Green, my tongue Curled and I was lost in the Divergence, only to wake up in Hilbert Space.
 
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Unless you have trouble visualizing in 3d, or with unfamiliar math in general, I would not worry too much about it. As you said, you have done well in classes requiring it as a pre-requisite (I assume solid mechanics/structures and/or fluid mechanics/fluid dynamics?). Besides, all civE's need to remember is that payday comes on Friday and sewage flows downhill.

Snorgy, thanks for the laugh.
 
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I got a D in Diffy Q, and it was likely a gift. I made the mistake of taking an Advanced class, which had the Math Dept dean as the teacher. He was awful. I had A's in the first two Calculus course. But the D never affected either my progress towards a diploma, or my ability to get a job afterwards. Is re-taking the class for a possible higher grade permitted at your school?
 
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Diff-EQ was the absolute worst. A lot of it was the professor, but it still makes less sense than voodoo.

I was the first one to drop it. I realized it at the time, but halfway through when the more than 50% of the class had dropped it, being the first earned me the title of "smartest kid in the class." Then I took it during summer when I could focus more on memorizing useless forms of equation.

So now, I know enough to point out when Diff-EQ would be an appropriate way to solve a problem, and then I usually just come up with an approximate solution using math that doesn't come from an alternate universe. I'm sure I could work my way through it if needed, but that is very different from staring at an equation and half a page of blank space, with nothing but a pencil and my underwear (still have nightmares.)
 
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I got into grad school over 40 years ago with a "C" in the same course and a GPA lower than 3.0, but, as mentioned above, times have changed.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 
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@1Gibson, at the final for that Diffy-Q class, some girl threw in the towel after about 20 minutes (2-hour exam), after which a guy jumped up and threw his on the teacher's desk with a big smile. "I just didn't want to be first!" (plus a few expletives for the teacher, this being the '70's and all)
 
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I have many friends with similar experiences on Diff Eq, I am the oustider in that I had a great Diff Eq teacher. haven't used it since so don't remember a darn thing, but he pretty much only had the text book for the problems, he never really taught out of it. He taught it all math-department theory style, but he tried to show us the big picture and actual engineering uses for diff eq as this teacher's undergrad was in Electrical Engineering-he understood we weren't aspiring to be mathematicians and that we wanted useful knowledge.

But then, another engineering friend had a miserable Linear Algebra teacher that didn't believe that practical applications of math should be taught in a classroom... so go figure

I don't see how a C in one class can deep-six grad school. If they are looking that close at Calc III and not at your ability to handle the engineering work and the research type work, then piss on them.

 
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If my differential equations professor had incorporated examples of why it was useful during the body of the class, such as concentration in tanks and such, then I would have been fine. As it was, I had a very difficult time engaging the material because I didn't understand how it was useful.


Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -
 
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How to teach Diff EQ:

"For this equation form, solve it like this. For that equation form, solve it like that. Now try not to get too excited, but for THESE equation forms you might be able to solve like this, but if it doesn't work then you have to solve it like that."

How did I do?
 
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The math prof I had gave one engaging example of partial differentiation (I think it was). If a destroyer is right over a submarine at T=0, and the destroyer knows the sub is going to take off at max speed = V but doesn't know which direction he's going to go; what course can the destroyer take that guarantees the destroyer can intercept the sub?





Ans.: An outwardly spiraling course with radial velocity = V guarantees intercept

Beyond that I got very little out of the class.
 
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The destroyer should stop dead in the water. Any other answer relies on unstated assumptions. If you meant, what course gives the best /chance/ of an intercept, then that depends on the relative performance of the two.

Here's a sillybus for calc III, I use a surprisingly large proportion of that in my work


Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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Sompting, I had similar thoughts but didn't want to upset anyone - plus when I looked at one of the sample questions and couldn't even remember where to start I suddenly didn't feel like I had the moral high ground;-).

Posting guidelines faq731-376 (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​
 
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Sompting and KENAT,

I think you are misunderstanding where Calc III falls in "American" math sequences. If it is at a semester (fall/spring) college, it is in the fall of your sophmore year. At a quarter (fall/winter/spring/summer) college, it would be in the spring of your freshman year. While Diff EQ is typically at end of sophmore/beginning of junior year since you will need it (at least in ChemE) by the time you take Systems, and you DEFINITLY need it when Controls rolls around. BTDTGTTS and enjoyed it, but Diff EQ was taught by a MechE who specialized in controls. Also, some of my classmates considered me a sadist ;->

Matt

Quality, quantity, cost. Pick two.
 
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DiffEQ's and Bessel Functions and their kin "are" how we determine the neutron flow through the core, where they are, how their concentration changes with time and position (height and radius and efficiency and movement up/down and speed and cross-section) of the control rods.

DiffEQ's are pretty fundamental to FEA analysis (boundary conditions of whatever you want to measure, or plot, or control at the edges and boundaries of your FEA structure.

So, yes, you need to understand them IF if you are going to be doing something that requires them later on. But, really, unless graduate school is your real goal in life, or unless you are going to be using them later on a constant basis that you cannot pick up from your FEA training and practice (if you use FEA at all), you've passed. Don't bother taking the class again, unless you really, really want that grad school for a PhD or for your self-image of success. You certainly can't erase a C.
Get better grades in something important.
Get hired.
Start paying taxes. 8<)
 
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