Hello. My S is a rising junior and took “Design and Drawing for Production” freshman year and “Principles of Engineering” this year. His favorite subject is math and he may be interested in studying engineering in college.
I am wondering about the value of continuing with these courses vs. taking other classes over the next two years. Next year he has a choice between “Digital Electronics” or “Computer Integrated Manufacturing,” and I have no idea which is more useful. In order to continue next year he has to drop Spanish, which he hates anyway.
Does anyone know how useful these courses are to a future engineer, or how they are viewed by admissions vs. regular course choices?
@ucbalumnus I could have paid for course credit through RIT but I chose not too feeling it was of questionable value, so no, I am not looking for any advanced standing/credit… My question pertains more to the academic value of the courses.
True, the teacher mentioned that could be the greatest take away from the courses, potentially saving time and money in college preventing a misguided start as an engineering major!
His current schedule for next year is:
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (but is Digital Electronics a better choice?)
APUSH
English (honors)
AP Physics I
Precalc
AP Computer Science
Chorus
PE
In terms of computer integrated manufacturing versus digital electronics, it may depend on what kind of engineering he may be considering. The former may be more of a taste of industrial and mechanical engineering, while the latter may be more of a taste of electrical and computer engineering.
Also, math is essential, since engineering students are expected to be fully ready for calculus 1 when they start college (i.e. precalculus knowledge should be solid; obviously, some start in a more advanced math course after having calculus in high school, but it is fine to start in calculus 1 after completing precalculus in high school).
Which one he takes will likely depend on what type of engineering he wants to be. And there are some colleges that will accept PLTW courses for credits for basic engineering classes. I would spend some time on the PLTW website to get a feel for how the courses can potentially help him.
My son did all four years of PLTW. He got credit at his college, though the grade reported as a C on his transcript. Actually brought down his gpa, but he still got the credits. Check with your chosen college about their PLTW credit. For admissions purposes, they are considered equivalent to AP classes as far as demonstrated rigor. If you’re son intends to pursue engineering, he should stay with the program. Not just for what he will learn, but to show commitment.
By far, the best advantage of PLTW is exposure to engineering. So many kids choose engineering without a clue what’s involved, then decide they don’t like it and change majors. That’s rare for PLTW grads. They know whether it’s right for them even before starting college. With my own son, none of us knew anything about engineering. Our school started PLTW for his freshman year, so he was the first cohort. Four years later, he knew he loved it and chose to major in engineering. Another four years later (today), he’s starting as a Boeing engineer.
Odd that a college would assign grades (other than “passed”) to any transfer credit. A student who needs to maintain a high GPA to renew a scholarship (or enter a competitive admission engineering major) may not appreciate having his/her GPA pre-loaded with a bunch of transfer credit C grades.
@planner03 my kids go to a PLTW school. 2 have finished the program. They were definitely math, science kids, but leaned more towards Chem and Physics before PLTW. They are both majoring in Engineering now. I didn’t understand the whole RIT credit thing until my 2nd student was a senior. By then I realized what a great program it could be, but both of my students went to a college that doesn’t take any transfer credit.
My S who hated language suggested skipping the language for CIM. Skipping the language is really dependent on what schools he’s looking at. If they are known for really needing 4 years of a language to get in, then its obviously not a good idea. If the 2 year minimum is acceptable at his schools, skip it! My S had 3 years of a language and my D had 4 so I can’t comment there. I can tell you that CIM was probably the deal breaker for my D. She LOVED it. She loved the whole design process. In our school, Digital Design is more an art class at our school, and my kids liked building and designing better so they skipped it in favor of CIM.
Feel free to message me. We love our PLTW program. it really helped kids develop into the people that they eventually became.
I was really nervous about him dropping Spanish since the common advice is to take it all 4 years. However S2 is graduating and took his college language placement exam and has to start with SPANISH 101-AFTER 6 YEARS OF SPANISH!! (We start in 7th grade with 7th and 8th grade making up Spanish I) I always knew our language program was horrible, but just wow, seems you would need to be unconscious to not have learned anything in 6 years? That is when I told S3 the heck with it, go ahead and drop it. What a waste. The biggest joke is that Spanish 4 and 5 were both dual enrollement and he has 6 credits! He is attending an out of state private that isn’t going to take the credit, but all of the kids at our school going to a SUNY or regional privates will have the credits transfer, which is kind of pitiful.
My daughter took a PTLW course and we paid the $200 to get credit from RIT I think…she used those transfer credits for college.
For Spanish…is he looking at colleges that require a FL or that make you take one in college?
If he has gotten to Level 4 (that does not mean 4 years if you have started in 7-8th grade) that is all any college requires anyway.
These will help him decide if he likes engineering, and if so, what type. They are also good electives no matter what.
If high school Spanish 5 does not even get past first semester of college Spanish, that really does not say anything good about the Spanish courses at that high school.
I am virtually positive that my son’s participation in PLTW for his four years of high school directly led to his admission to his highly competitive engineering program. It gave him a place to shine, with leadership roles and awards including Nationals for his engineering/TSA club, and showed his sustained interest in the field. Also a close relationship with the lead teacher of the program over all 4 years who really knew his strengths and was happy to write him a recommendation was a bonus as well. If your son is pretty sure he wants to apply to engineering, I think he would benefit by staying in the program.
Slightly different but I went through the Biomedical track for PLTW and it was not recognized as a rigorous course, nowhere in comparison to even an honors, AP, or IB class. In total, it took 4 slots of my schedule which could have went to something that would help me more. Sure, it was interesting and all, but after asking admissions at several schools, most of them didn’t even know what a PLTW class is.
Correct, and that it seems absurd for S3 to continue just to check a box-I guess if his application is discarded because of it, so be it.
Very good point…but it still seems there is some inherent worth vs. the Spanish.
He doesn’t feel it is inaccurate…despite having 6 credit hours of college credit. Just so ridiculous.
I wish an opportunity like that was available. Our school only has a robotics club with a strict “no athletes” policy to participate. Too bad because they have been quite successful at nationals the last two years.
What level of Spanish has he completed or will complete by high school graduation? It may be worthless in terms of subject knowledge, given previous kids’ experience (HS Spanish 5 < college first semester Spanish), but it would be inadvisable to limit the college choices too much by not meeting the check boxes of many otherwise suitable ones.
Some colleges give scholarships to kids if they have taken PLTW courses. IIRC, it’s at least two courses. Check the colleges on your sons radar for both foreign language recommendations for admittance and to see if there are merit scholarships available for PLTW courses taken.
My d19 took DDP last year and is also taking CIM this coming year. She is getting the credit, just in case. We feel having the credit won’t hurt and certainly could help. Ultimately though, she will only take whichever tech courses she has interest in and if there is something else she would rather take more, then she won’t worry about it. Our understanding is that it’s mostly helpful for determining engineering interest (and maybe exploring the different fields in engineering) but that it’s much more important to have a strong science and math foundation.
As with most courses, I think the rigor of the program can vary depending on the quality of the teacher. Can you talk to someone in your district who has already taken some PLTW classes?