My D25 is a sophomore and wants to pursue engineering. Major undecided . We are hoping for USCD, UCLA, UC Irvine or USC. SDSU is also on the list. Mostly I am curious about what I should focus on in this academic year. Shd I ge a counselor, she I help her with SAT…very muddled up. She is taking 2 APs BIO & CAL AB this year.
Also taking:
Hon Humanities
PE
Choir
Spanish 6
I intentionally keep the load low. She does of 2 hr/week volunteering at her library and gets a lot of praise from the county librarian ! Apparently she is very sincere and does her duties well.
The reason her laid is low is because I want her to be acclimated to the rigors of AP courses. She is also trying to learn coding on her own. Planning to join key club and women in stem club at school. But, for a major in engineering what else she she be doing this year.
Make sure she gets enough sleep each night, and eats healthy food. Encourage her interests.
The rest SHE should be doing…taking a strong courseload, and getting the best grades possible.
If you are only looking at CA public universities, you can put the SAT right out of your head as these colleges no longer use that at all. They are completely test blind.
Are you the mother, or the student? This is confusing. If you are the mother, you are not the one applying to college. Is your daughter interested in engineering, or are you?
Having been around high school students for many years now, it might be a good idea to give your daughter more say in what classes she wants to take and what activities she wants to do after school. When parents try to control everything, it’s not usually a good outcome for anyone involved.
In her school, students take AB freshman year. and AP chem, AP bio & AP calc AB in sophomore year. Even their electives are stem based. When in Rome…etc etc. By those high rigor standards I have limited and forced her to rest. But, being a parent I am posting here to know if I can do help her realize her dream.
I am curious to know how I can help her…not helicopter myself in.
Is her dream to attend a CA public university? That seems very realistic considering the huge variety of CA public universities.
Are you saying she has a dream of being an engineer? If that is the case, she might benefit from shadowing some engineers during school breaks. She can also talk to engineers in different fields of engineering to get an idea of what it’s like.
Sample of one…my DD was an engineering major. Loved the math and science classes, and really thought she knew the field as her dad is an engineer and we have a few others in the family. Long story short, she finished her engineering degree, but knew she never wanted to work as an engineer and pursued a completely different field. So…what I’m saying is…a lot could change between now and when your kid goes to college.
What is her dream? I understand you are her mother, I pretty sure that all of us have children. You should guide her, but she should really have final say. Several (not all) of my kids preferred to have very busy schedules, and they chose their classes. I didn’t always agree with their choices, sometimes I was right, often I wasn’t. It’s okay for them to make mistakes and learn from them. If other students at her school have that much rigor in their schedules, I’d be concerned that she wouldn’t get that most rigorous check mark by guidance (fortunately that wasn’t the case at my kids’ school).
You might look at Cal Poly SLO’s summer EPIC program for high school students. It isn’t anything that she would do to put on a college application. It is meant to expose high school students to a variety of engineering majors and professions. It is a week long program and students live in the dorms at SLO.
sophomore year is a great time for skill building.
Skill- being a good community member (so her volunteering is terrific).
Skill- being a good family member (taking more responsibility for household chores, preparing dinner on a weekend, remembering to call grandma without being asked)
Skill- able to learn new things on your own- whether it’s your local historical society, an aquarium, art museum, war memorial in your neighborhood- but becoming curious and learning things “just because”
Skill- enjoying regular exercise- so playing tennis with a friend once a week? walking a neighbor’s dog?
Skill- reading for pleasure- novels, magazines, newspapers, non-fiction- anything that wasn’t assigned in school. She works in a library so is probably doing this anyway!
She doesn’t need to focus on academics per se- but sophomore year is a great time for these things to come together for her so she can become the best version of herself.
You have a couple other threads where you posed similar questions and received similar advice. Are you looking for validation that she should take a lighter load than her peers? Are you looking for academic advice or extracurricular suggestions?
What area of engineering is she most interested in? For the next couple of years she should look into taking Physics, and Chemistry and a basic course in some programming language along with all other graduation requirement for her high school. Some high schools offer intro to engineering courses, where she will get some hands on experiences in design. There are also some summer courses like the one mentioned above that can help her get a better understanding of the engineering majors. My daughter took one (not at CalPoly) and found it to be underwhelming, so I will not recommend it. Good luck to your daughter! My daughter took one AP sophomore year (AP Chemistry) and found it challenging enough. I know there is an arms race with APs at competitive high schools but I would recommend she only takes the APs that interest her or that help her gain a better understanding of subjects that interest her.
I think you should let her take the lead on courses. If she had great grades in 9th and she wants to take all the honors/APs that the other stem kids take (or if teachers have invited her to), let her. If teachers or counselors have said or ever say a certain level of rigor is likely toomuch for her, encourage her to listen to the advice and don’t push her.
I like the idea of shadowing an engineer or doing a summer program to introduce her to the field. She is advanced in math so she should be ready for physics: preuming great grades, let her take the highest level of physics available to her(in 11th or 12th).
The rest of her time should be on the skills @blossom listed! Best of luck to her.
Interesting, I think the first thing that needs to happen is the student needs to take the reigns. I’ve had 5 kids attend college, I gave advice, but making these choices as students is an important part of the process. And having gone through it a lot, I was pretty good at knowing the best choices, but the decisions were theirs to make. A little benign neglect can be good.
What about English? Don’t most schools require 4 years? And also she needs to meet the social studies/history requirements for the schools she is targeting.
Will she have four years of English and at least two (but preferably three or four) years of history and social studies by the time of high school graduation?
For a student who wants to pursue engineering, continuing to the highest level of math available to the student, plus at least high school chemistry and physics, would be the recommended minimum preparation specific to the major (biology can be helpful for some majors like biomedical, biological / agricultural, or chemical biomolecular engineering), in addition to the usual base high school preparation.
@2Devils, you mention shadowing an engineer for this student to introduce her to the field. Could that be done throughout the year in a limited manner (like her library volunteering, a couple of hours weekly), or would it be more of a summer full-time pursuit? What would job shadowing an engineer entail/look like?
! Apparently she is very sincere and does her duties well.