My son all be a freshman this fall and is interested in attending a school specializing in Engineering. He has already taken Physical Science and Geometry and Spanish 1. He is interested in an IB degree but I’m not sure if this is the direction he should take. What type of classes should he be taking? He has been identified as gifted in all areas and has not been challenged as of yet in any of his courses.
Your son will be a frosh in HIGH school?/ If so, then he should take the rigorous college-prep courses offered.
Bulk up on the math, and be sure to have him take honors Physics, if offered, and maybe even AP Physics. Good luck, sounds like he will do well!
General college prep curriculum, including rigorous choices (honors, AP, IB HL) as available and appropriate.
The only things specific to preparing to major in engineering would be to get strong math and science. For math, precalculus/trigonometry at the minimum, with calculus or higher being desirable (which he should be able to do if he is taking geometry in 8th grade). For science, physics is typically the most important, then chemistry, so choosing the most rigorous options in those subjects is advisable.
If he is considering an IB program, he may want to consider (a) how being two grade levels ahead in math would affect his progression through the IB math courses (in some cases, the rigid scheduling of IB course work may force him to slow down or skip a year of math), and (b) whether HL (as opposed to SL) is available in math and all of the sciences in the IB program.
Does the engineering school he is interested in offer Project Lead the Way courses? If they do, he should definitely take those. Also if these are offered, have him get involved in Skills USA, First Robotics, Underwater Robotics or any other comparable program they may have.
As far as Project Lead the Way courses go, our school offers it, but our college freshman engineering major did not take them because it would have conflicted with taking the most rigorous other courses (both in science and math and in english and social studies). Since we were aiming at top schools (not necessarily tech-oriented) we went the standard high level academic track. He took AP Calc, AP Physics BC, AP ComSci, AP stats, AP Bio, + your standard APs in the humanities. I think PLtW is fine, but I’m not sure it’s necessarily the best prep for top schools, IF it conflicts with the more standard track.
Strong college prep curriculum. Science and math are particularly important.
And he’s a HS freshman so he could change his mind.
He should take a rigorous course of study and plan to get the very best grades possible.
He should also plan to prep and do well on the ACT and/or SAT.
Ditto the college prep curriculum at his HS. FOUR years of a foreign language to be competitive for all colleges. Fun electives to enjoy HS. Include music, sports, literature and anything else that appeals to him. Most engineers will have gone to colleges that also include many other types of majors. Let him choose his extracurricular activities that most appeal to him, not ones just to look good on his record. Remember that gifted kids often have time to do a lot (mine did) and often have varied interests.
Above all, let him be a kid. Life is meant to be lived, not just be preparing for the future. You will find your child increasing his role in making decisions and you merely signing off on his choices as the years go by. HS is different than earlier grades as the students mature into making their own decisions with parental guidance sometimes utilized. HE chooses courses that interest him within the college bound parameters- what interests him, not you.
If the OP son is choosing to go to an engineering high school, then he should take engineering classes. This is a great opportunity if the student is interested in engineering to see if this is something they might want to pursue. Otherwise he should choose to go to a different college prep high school. Our engineering high school had almost the same college prep. classes as the other high schools, except they did not offer fine art classes (band, art etc.) and tended to have more male students. Two of my sons chose to go to the engineering school. My middle son wanted to be part of band, wanted art classes so he chose to go to the “regular” high school. All three excelled at school (two were NMFs) and received full-tuition college scholarships. There is nothing wrong with pursuing interests as early as high school if a student wants to do this and has the opportunity.