I graduated from Stony Brook University, it grades on the standard 4 point scale. "Top tier school" can be a subjective term, but it is generally considered to be a reputable university. It's not an Ivy League school, but several faculty members are Nobel winners (no one that taught me, of course, but Nobel winners don't typically teach undergraduate courses at any university, so far as I'm aware). Stony Brook is notable for inventing the MRI and barcode, as well as making advances and experiments in quantum computing. I understand that NR people work much with DOE, so you are probably familiar with Stony Brook, as they manage the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and many of the professors that taught me perform experiments and have projects there. Stony Brook also houses the CN Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics. Undergraduate students won't take courses at the institute, but I took an advanced tutorial course where I was tutored in advanced physics by one of the professors at the institute. Also, 3.61 was my GPA at the University, but I completed my first two years at the junior college before transferring into to the university, taking all of my calculus and calculus based physics there, as is typical. My GPA at the junior college was 3.9 and when you cumulate the grades from all of them together, my GPA ends up being 3.74. My recruiter told me that they do take the cumulative from all of the courses I took, not simply the last university I went to. So that should help. Also, it should be noted that I was on active duty for all but the last semester I was there, so it can be expected that working full time and going to school full time is tough, and it should mitigate my lower than ideal GPA.
