My son is a HS junior who has taken three PLTW courses and CAD at his HS along with AP Physics Trig-Pre-Calc. He has had a strong interest in Engineering since childhood and has expressed a preference for designing things that you can see, as opposed to tiny, hidden circuits, etc. I would like to continue to support his exposure to the field through a camp and wondered if anyone here has attended them and can weigh in. I assume it will help him refine his interests and possibly help him with admission essays.
I am considering week-long camps at U Illinois (Explore your Options), Purdue’s Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects and Michigan State’s HS Engineering Institute. MSOE offers several more specific camps as well with big discounts for having taken PLTW courses. Any feedback on these or other suggestions would be appreciated.
Both our students attended engineering camps summer after their sophomore year in high school to spend some time considering majors in engineering. It was very beneficial in terms of getting them to think about what they are interested in. A good camp will show them things they have not seen or considered before.
Rose-Hulman’s Operation Catapult is pretty reasonably priced for a 3 week hands on engineering experience where he would get some say in what project he works on. It is not publicized, but camp attendees in the past have been offered a streamlined application process to RH for college and a guaranteed $2,000 per year scholarship (and can obviously compete for more scholarships, too).
@intparent: I was aware of Rose Hulman’s camp but the price tag ($2500) is putting me off. Not to mention that my son would not want a three week camp unless it was an adventure camp! I have that school on our visit list for spring break in any event. Thanks for mentioning it.
@SpaceCoastMom: what camps did your students attend?
My D attended Explore Your Options at UIUC. It helped her confirm she really was interested in studying engineering and provided a way to learn a bit about the different branches. It also helped her get the feel of what it would be like to attend a large state university.
Note - Summer camps should be for enrichment and refinement of college priorities, like OP is considering. Sometimes parents consider them for “resume bullet”, and for that it seems only the free/elite camps have worth.
If your son is truly interested in Rose-Hulman, then that break of $2,000 per year makes the camp worth it. Plus, if he doesn’t want to do engineering for 3 weeks, does he really want to do it for a living? I will say that my kid went to the camp and decided she did NOT want to be an engineer, although she enjoyed her project. Glad she decided before picking a school based on that possible major and having to switch later on.
Another vote for RHIT Catapult.
Disclosure: My D1 is at RHIT. She did not attend Catapult, but has loads of friends who did. Feedback on the experience is overwhelmingly positive, and most (all?) that went on to attend Rose received at least the $2000 scholarship mentioned above. They also started Rose with a network already in place. So I’d recommend giving strong consideration to any camps at colleges your son might want attend.
Both kids attended University of Alabama’s SITE (Student Introduction to Engineering), a one week camp offered for three different sessions. It was reasonably priced, especially for the quality of activities that included a plant trip. While there we learned that Georgia Tech has some good summer options, but we don’t have personal experience with those. I have also learned that University of Rochester offers some summer programs that look very good, but the cost was prohibitive for us.
@intparent My son has had two and a half years of daily engineering coursework/hands-on projects in HS and enjoyes the subject matter. He just needs to get some exposure to the different fields so he can apply to the best college for the field he wants to study. At this point he thinks civil/structural engineering but hasn’t had the PLTW course in that area or many others. @MomOf2TeenGirls I would love to get in touch with you after our visit to RH if he likes the school. @SpaceCoastMom My son’s PLTW instructors have arranged field trips (CareerTreks) to manufacturing plants and he has been twice to the Manufacturing Convention which has been very exciting for him.
He has expressed that his desire is to understand what different engineers do on the job everyday. To that end we attended an Open Doors Milwaukee event and the head of the architecture firm gave him a personal tour of his firm, spending extra time at the structural engineers’ department so he had a bit of a look see. Guess he’s luckier than most high schoolers with these experiences. Too bad we have to apply to these camps before we can make the college visit!
Sounds like you aren’t interested in it, but if you do change your mind, the Operation Catapult program includes seminars/presentations on the various types of engineering to help students understand the differences.
@msd228 - Feel free to PM me any time. RH is not for everyone, but most kids have a definite feel one way or the other after they visit. It’s small, in a small town, extremely engineering-oriented, very challenging, and disproportionately male. That said, it’s an incredibly collaborative and supportive environment, and the professors are accessible and focused on the students. Career fairs and job placement are excellent. My D1 absolutely loves it - it’s a perfect fit for her.
My D2 is at a polar opposite, U Michigan, pursuing dual degrees in engineering and music. UM is a very good fit for her, but D1 would hate it.
Between the two of them, we looked at RH, Missouri S&T, RPI, Colorado School of Mines, Northwestern, Case, WUStL, CMU, JHU, and Michigan.
Are the PLTW instructors available via email or at teacher conference night? They would probably have some excellent suggestions, tailored to your son’s interests and strengths.
Purdue has their S.T.E.P program. Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects. It ran just under $800 for a 1 week program two years ago. It confirmed for her that she liked both engineering and the school. She’s now a sophomore Chem E at Purdue. Last summer she was a counselor for the same program. She is doing a 5 term co-op and had to attend last summer so she decided to be a counselor for a program she enjoyed.