I think both Chyno and Msaccountant are right. If you are still a student, you obviously lack experience. Therefore, they look into your GPA in order to consider you. Once you have the interview, whether or not you are hired will be depend on how good you are able to communicate with the human resources personnel and the engineers/economists that will interview you as well as how you answer their questions. Nevertheless, in these hard times, your GPA is not enough in order to stand out. You also need to have some experience as well as some contacts within your industry. When I started applying, I also went to leave my resume and cover letter to some companies around my area in person. And as you guessed it, I didn't have any luck. Last week, a friend of the family told me that her neighbor was the office manager of an engineering company and that she might be able to help me get in. I talked to her and I asked her the name of the company. Guess what, I had already gone to apply to that company but she told me that if you weren't referred by an employee of the company, they wouldn't even consider you, even if you had great qualitifications. So having contacts definitely help!

After you graduate, your GPA will not be enough. You'll need to have some experience and have a great network within your industry as well as great interpersonal skills. For example, I graduated with an overall 3.92 GPA, and my engineering GPA was 4.0. I was very active within the student associations related to my major, and I haven't been able to find a paying job. I'm currently an unpaid engineering intern so that I can get some experience. They only did a background check and asked me for my SSN and driver's license. They never asked me if I was a citizen or if I had a work permit since I am not being paid. In these hard times, new graduates compete with many engineers who have many years of experience and who were laid off. Who do you think they are going to hire, a new fresh graduate who doesn't have an idea of what he/she is doing and whom will cost money to the company in training, or an engineer who knows the ins and outs of the industry?

I have had several discussions with the Director of Public Works about this matter, and I've come to the above conclusion. Anyways, maybe that only applies to civil engineers. What's your major? In addition, I have found several companies that require you to be a citizen in order to have a clearance, or ask you for the PERMANENT right to work in the US, or want to relocate you outside of the US . I don't even bother to apply for those positions.

I apologize if I went off topic. Good luck in your internship search!