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[greywolf]

Southern_Transplant gave you good advice, but it was incomplete.

You keep focusing on grades.  For many very good (even, dare I say it, top) programs in engineering, published papers, patents, or other evidence of ability to succeed at doing research will cause people to not even bother to look at transcripts except perhaps to satisfy the admissions committee about your having a BS.  Most advisors would rather have a C student who can think and do than an A student who can only do classroom-type problems.

I know several people who tanked their first couple of years of college (to the point of being suspended for having too many D's and F's), pulled it together to graduate with a 2.75 or so, worked for a couple years, and then went back to get a master's degree.  Even in the master's degree, they weren't stellar pupils in the classroom, but they certainly were impressive for their research abilities.  Those people had no trouble getting into good programs for the doctorate.

Indian subcontinent still isn't narrow enough.  Some schools are known even here in the US (engineering has a lot of foreign national students) and some of those schools are known for reasons that don't increase the probability of their students coming here to even a middle-of-the-road doctoral program.

Sir,
Thank you so much for the valuable advice and sharing your observations. Actually during my undergrad period, I had also done summer internships at reputed organizations. The first one at a government research institution (electronics related). While second internship was at my university's newly established Computational Cluster Research lab. I'll make sure to get straight As in all MS courses and to get some papers accepted in IEEE/ACM journals and conference proceedings. Actually I'm willing to work 24/7 for the next 2 years, to make sure that I fall nothing short of securing 4/4 CGPA in MS. And I do not belong to India....rather I implied a country in the Indian Subcontinent/South Asia. The school I'll be attending is ranked among the top 5 engineering schools and its MS Computer Engg programme is ranked at no. 1 in the country. So I really hope that I realize my goals.

Once again, thank you so much!

[greywolf]

Where I come from, it's really not considered an advantage for engineers to get the doctorate at all.  Do you want to teach and research engineering, or be an engineer?  I'm a bit confused about this.

Sir, my ultimate goal is become a professor and to get involved in research.

That's madam, to you.

Sorry for the misunderstanding Madam

[greywolf]

Where I come from, it's really not considered an advantage for engineers to get the doctorate at all.  Do you want to teach and research engineering, or be an engineer?  I'm a bit confused about this.

Sir, my ultimate goal is become a professor and to get involved in research.

Point 1:  Frogfactory is a woman, fyi, since the moniker doesn't proclaim her status.

Point 2:  You have that order backwards.  First, one gets involved with research.  Then, one enrolls in a graduate program to get targeted guidance with research.  After one becomes a junior researcher to the satisfaction of a committee, one is awarded a degree.  One may or may not become a professor at that point depending on just how junior a researcher one is , but one definitely takes a job doing more research to advance to a journeyman research status.

Sir, you're undoubtedly right. However, what I meant was that becoming a professor is my ultimate objective. Obviously one has to pass through certain stages before one finally ends up as a professor at some stage.

[frogfactory]

Where I come from, it's really not considered an advantage for engineers to get the doctorate at all.  Do you want to teach and research engineering, or be an engineer?  I'm a bit confused about this.

Sir, my ultimate goal is become a professor and to get involved in research.

Point 1:  Frogfactory is a woman, fyi, since the moniker doesn't proclaim her status.

Point 2:  You have that order backwards.  First, one gets involved with research.  Then, one enrolls in a graduate program to get targeted guidance with research.  After one becomes a junior researcher to the satisfaction of a committee, one is awarded a degree.  One may or may not become a professor at that point depending on just how junior a researcher one is , but one definitely takes a job doing more research to advance to a journeyman research status.

Sir, you're undoubtedly right. However, what I meant was that becoming a professor is my ultimate objective. Obviously one has to pass through certain stages before one finally ends up as a professor at some stage.

Polly is also a Madam.  Uh.  Without the *other* implications of that word, as far as I know.

If you're in the subcontinent but not in India, I'm not sure the fifth ranked university in your country is really ranked at all.  And if you're not in Pakistan, that goes doubly.

[scampster]

Moreover, the MS programme here comprises around 30 Credit Hours. But students are allowed to register undergrad courses also, in order to address any deficiencies. I'm planning to register 5 or 6 more courses in addition to the required ones. This will make up to 45 to 48 Credit hours Will this later positively influence my PhD application later application? I hope it does. 

Don't waste your time taking extra classes. Unless you need them for your research, you will be wasting precious research time. Stop fixating on your undergrad GPA. You can't change it. If you get another BS, almost every school requires you to submit ALL transcripts anyway, so they will see your bad grades no matter what.

If you want to get into a good PhD program in the US, I'll echo what Polly said multiple times: research research research. No one will care if you  take 45 credits instead of 30.

[southerntransplant]

Southern_Transplant gave you good advice, but it was incomplete.

True. My advice was more for an MS admission to a foreign university. Yes, once there, researchresearchresearch...

But it appears the OP is staying in country for the MS.

[learningkat]

My undergraduate degree was in Political Science, and due to a number of factors I graduated with several Fs on my transcript (during my first two years I had a 4.0 gpa).  None of these Fs were "earned" by my course work -- I enrolled for several classes that I never attended and did not withdraw from in a timely manner, due to personal issues I was experiencing with my family.

I too never thought I would be able to attend graduate school.  Several years after graduating I decided to pursue a career that required me to enroll in graduate coursework in order to learn "the basics" and get a job.  I started a degree program as a non-matriculated student, and after receiving all As for three courses, I enrolled and was accepted into the master's program as a "real live student."

I am now a doctoral candidate at an Ivy.

While our programs are different, don't give up hope!  Get in there, take some courses, even if non-matriculated.  Kick a$$ in those courses, kiss a$$ with the key professors who will make the admissions decisions, and you never know what might happen.

[lis_a]

I have no idea about any the system at any other country aside from the US, but I do have some first-hand  knowledge about this subject. (Sorry that it's so long)

My husband is a classic under-achiever.  He is extremely intelligent, but as an engineering UG, he would not pursue a subject or do homework on something if it didn't interest him, if it was just busy-work, or if it was too easy.  I won't go into the messy details of how it happened, but this resulted in him having somewhere around a 2.9 GPA.  (I actually think he only had one F though, as a result of missing too many classes, and a rules change midway through the semester).

After receiving his BSEE, he realized that he was actually suited for academia, and that's what he wanted to do.  He applied to a Master's program at a relatively small university, without a doctorate program.  He also got a near-perfect GRE score.  He was admitted, but put on probation the first semester.  He maintained a 4.0 gpa the whole way through, and then applied and was accepted to a "tier-2" doctorate program.  He received his doctorate in August '09, and is clearly suited for academia, and I can't really imagine him anywhere else.  His low undergrad gpa still feels like a stigma to him, though, but as he is applying for jobs, I don't think any search committees really care about his UG grades.  That's 2 schools and degrees ago.

People who know him now are extremely surprised to hear of his low undergrad GPA.

So, my advice is this:  Yes, it is possible for you to go on and receive your PhD under those conditions.  But, I think that my husband is an exceptional case.  He is one of those people who just "gets" just about every subject he puts his mind to.

If you decide to go this route, you will have to be prepared to work VERY hard, proving yourself to your professors at your Master's institution. 

And, I believe (and this is true of anyone I would talk to who is thinking of a PhD) that you must really, truly, enjoy research.  Don't get a graduate degree because you think being a professor will be "fun".  Go into it because you love thinking about problems, because you love reading a writing about engineering.  It is a long and hard road to be on, if you don't really truly love what you will have to do in the process.  Plus, he is still in the midst of a TT job search, so obviously it's not like getting a PhD in engineering guarantees a job once you're done.

So hopefully that helps a bit, and best of luck in whatever you decide!