Good afternoon Class,
I am 31 years old. I got a D in physics back in my Freshman year, and an overall GPA of 2.9. Class Rank 410 out of 465 from a small liberal arts school with solid engineering program. Pre ChatGBT mind you. I remember my intro to engineering class starting out with almost a hundred students, and gradually more and more people dropping. But I toughed it out.
I am currently a licensed engineer with multiple certifications working out of the NYC area making decent money now. I only needed my transcript to submit to the licensing board to prove I went to a credited college. They don't care about the GPA. I got a lot of B's ,about a dozen C's, with my A's only being in Calc and Gen-ed classes.
No one would question my qualifications now, and I am on the way to becoming an associate at my company. Very little of what I learned in school now applies to my day to day work, since the main focus is building codes. Not thermodynamics.
Not going to lie to you, I had some luck on the way in getting an internship via personal connections. But that goes to show its about who you know, not what you know.
Don't let that one or two bad grades ruin you. Keep at it. Happy to answer any questions
Edit: Just remembered. ALL NIGHTERS ARE NOT WORTH IT in terms of studying for a test. You're not going to magically learn something new in 8 hours on no sleep.